Pathways Into Wound Care
To listen to the full conversation with Dr. Suzuki, click here for his episode of Podiatry Today Podcasts.
Q: Tell us a little bit about how you got where you are today in podiatry, specifically, the subspecialty of wound care.
A:
Okay, so this goes back to my undergraduate years. I had a biology class with a friend whose father is a podiatrist. I was a soccer player back then, and that sounded like really cool job to treat foot and ankle diseases, so that's how I got interested in podiatry. I went to the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine, graduated, then I went to Cleveland Clinic for residency, which is just across the street at the time, and I remember doing wound care rotations. This was under the Department of Vascular Medicine, and many people told me I probably wouldn't like that rotation, but I loved it. I loved everything about it. I love that visual component of people getting better. People are very appreciative, the people I work with are nice and I was just I kind of got hooked into it so ever since.
I have a private practice I have private one care clinic and I also work in Cedars Sinai Medical Center, which is one of the larger academic medical centers in Los Angeles, so that's where I am now.
Q: What are some of the most exciting and most frustrating aspects that you feel exist in current wound care practice?
A:
An exciting part is still the human connection with our patients, I often end up seeing these patients once a week for months on end, and almost develop a lifetime bond. Another exciting part is technology; there's so many new technologies that's put into this field of medicine in terms of skin substitutes, to devices, to medical devices, to everything I do. I remember when I started practicing medicine, there was no skin substitute graft and the negative pressure machine was just coming out and just getting popularized. That was a brand new thing in our field, and now it's just really, really exciting to me. So technological evolution is always exciting. Incorporating them into my practice just meeting my patients every day, it's just makes my day.
The frustrating part is, I think is that modern medicine has good and bad aspects, meaning, that patients can have many, many issues and live a very long time, but deal with many significant, quality-of-life concerns. But our medicine is so good that we can keep them going. The quality, not just quantity of life warrants consideration. That can be frustrating to us.
Sometimes getting through to patients can also be frustrating. For instance, a patient with a terrible infection needs IV antibiotics and they may refuse to do so, due to fear of needles - so I see this person weekly until forever ... treat with three antibiotics, and he's not getting better, due to this mental barrier.
Q: You talked about some of the evolution of technology and what you've seen happen over the past 20 years in wound care; what do you think the field is going to look like in the future, in five years, 10 years, 20 years from now?
A:
I think we are only going to be busier. I am busier in my clinic year after year, which is a good thing, well, except for during COVID-19. During the height of COVID, my patient volume was down 50 percent, but otherwise, I can only see it growing in numbers. So, in terms of business it's good for us. But I don't know for overall health of the economy, I don't know if it's good or bad, but in a specific field of wound care, I can see our field growing and flourishing only because they are more patients and i'm sure the industry will more investment into it.
So I like to think our field is a good field to encourage young people to get into, practice with us and preserve limbs, doing all sorts of wonderful things I enjoy my practice every day.
Q: You mentioned, that you got your start and started thinking along these lines in your undergraduate years. What advice might you have for those students that might be looking into podiatry as a field or podiatry students that are thinking about wound care as a specialization? Do you have any words of wisdom for them as they look forward onto their future paths?
A:
Well i'll tell you what I tell my residents that I supervise; just follow your heart, basically do what you want to do. Some my residents more surgery-oriented and want to do lots of bony reconstruction. I say go for it; if that's what you love, go for it. Again, I loved wound care, that's all I wanted to do, so, I focus on wound care. Find a good mentor to nurture you into a good practice and a good practitioner. Follow what you want to do follow your heart and everything will fall in place.
