If I Had It To Do All Over Again, Would I Still Choose Podiatry As A Profession?

Looking back now over nearly four decades from when I first decided to make podiatry my profession, one might ask the question: would I do it all over again? Would I again choose podiatry as a profession?

My answer to that question is more important than ever today since many young men and women are entering our profession, and need to know whether more experienced podiatrists feel their choice of podiatry as a profession was a good one.

Podiatry was one of the potential careers I was considering during my undergraduate years at the University of California at Davis from 1975 to 1979.  Being a competitive distance runner since my early teenage days, I first encountered podiatry through Runner’s World magazine and the famous runner-cardiologist, George Sheehan, MD, who frequently wrote about how injured runners should first see sports podiatrists for their running injuries. Exercise physiology had also crossed my mind as a potential career but it was my own positive experiences with custom foot orthoses in relieving my frequent running injuries that sparked my interest in podiatry. Being able to become a sports podiatrist, which would allow me to help other runners and athletes heal from their sports injuries, seemed like a great career to me.  

In June 1979, I moved from Davis to San Francisco to work at a part-time job until podiatry school started. A month after I moved to San Francisco, I was very fortunate to meet the woman I have now been married to for nearly 38 years. My wife and I probably would have never met if it hadn’t been for my choice of podiatry as a profession. This fact alone makes me realize how the decisions that I made regarding my podiatric career have very much positively affected the rest of my life.

My freshman year at the California College of Podiatric Medicine (CCPM) began in September 1979 along with 135 other young men and women in my class. Among the members of the CCPM Class of 1983, which our professors aptly named “The Motley Crew,” are now a past president of the American Podiatric Medical Association, podiatric researchers, podiatry school professors, residency directors and many other excellent podiatrists. Honestly, if someone had told me during our podiatry student years that our class, “The Motley Crew,” would eventually have so many leaders within our profession, I wouldn’t have believed him. To this day, the special bonds that were formed with my podiatry school classmates are still one of the highlights of my podiatric career.

After my year of surgical residency and year of biomechanics fellowship, I went into practice with a group of orthopedic surgeons in my hometown of Sacramento in July 1985. Times were difficult for me at first since, at the time my practice was just starting to grow, the formation of “health maintenance organizations” (HMOs) swept across Sacramento. Since I wasn’t on any HMO panels, my new patient referrals suddenly dwindled to less than one-half of their previous amount, just when I needed more patients to pay off my student loans and provide for my growing family. This was an extremely disappointing start to my early career as a podiatrist. However, over time, my practice continued to grow, I finally paid off my student loans and, fortunately, life became more financially comfortable for my family.  

Now, to answer the question, would I choose podiatry again and what would be the main points in making my choice? First of all, podiatry has not only provided me with the opportunity to learn something new every day but has also allowed me to help my patients perform their daily activities with less pain, often on their first visit to my office. There are not many medical specialties that can make this claim and this is one of the reasons why podiatry is such a special health profession.

Secondly, podiatry has provided me with an opportunity to research, invent and teach. Doing research that improves the knowledge of other podiatrists and inventing new techniques that have benefitted other podiatrists and their patients has been very rewarding. However, teaching podiatry students, residents and other podiatrists about the remarkable biomechanics of the human foot and lower extremity has to be one of the aspects of my podiatric career that I enjoy the most.

Therefore, after nearly 40 years of my podiatry experience, would I still choose podiatry? Would I choose to do it all over again? Yes … in a heartbeat.

Dr. Kirby is an Adjunct Associate Professor within the Department of Applied Biomechanics at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, Calif. He is in private practice in Sacramento, Calif.