A pedorthist is a health professional that specializes in the use of footwear and supportive devices to treat conditions which affect the feet and lower limbs. Pedorthists work in a number of different setting with a wide range of people. A number of organisations offer pedorthics certification (CPed). To be qualified in pedorthics there must be the study of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics, as well as all the conditions that can affect the foot, especially the footwear and orthotic management of them.
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Podiatrists are always in demand and good staff are always hard to find. There are many places to advertise for podiatry jobs and discuss podiatry employment. The growing demand for podiatry due to the aging of the population possibly means that there will always be a shortage of podiatrists.
The diabetes epidemic that is sweeping the world is being fuelled by many things. There is the obesity epidemic, the lack of traditional exercise, the westernization of traditional diets (I have even heard this called the Coca-Colonisation of traditional societies). It is all adding up to a looming health care crisis. From a podiatry perspective, this means the ‘diabetic foot’. The diabetic foot is that foot that has been placed at increased risk from damage due to the processes of diabetes. In the diabetic foot, the nerve sensation is affected, so this means that any damage that happens is not detected. In the diabetic foot, there is impaired healing due to compromised blood supply and immune responses are slower. In the diabetic foot there are biomechanical changes to the way the foot function that place it at greater risk for tissue damage. The diabetic foot presents many unique challenges to Podiatrists.
I just came across this new site, Podiatry Tradeshow. It’s got a listings of things like all the podiatry suppliers and all the foot orthotic labs from around the world. It’s a good resource.
Podiatry is practiced in many different countries. Just what a podiatrists does in each country is governed by the legislation of that country, the scope of practice in that country and the nature of the training. Podiatry in the USA is a postgraduate degree with a 2-3 year residency after that, but they pretty much have full medical and surgical rights to treat the foot. Podiatry in the UK and Australia is an undergraduate degree and they can get licensed or registered to practice after that. However, the scope of practice is limited to minor surgical procedures. After that they can enrol in a postgraduate surgical training program while working as a podiatrist. In other countries, such as Europe, podiatry is a 2-3 year degree or diploma course and practice is much more limited than in other countries. Podiatry in New Zealand and South Africa are 3 year undergraduate degrees. Podiatry in Canada is mixed, with some provinces allowing the Australia and UK graduate to work, but other requires a DPM degree from the USA.
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A highly amusing post on Podiatry Arena by Robert Issacs on how to succeed in podiatric biomechanics probably sums up the state of the play in the area. He may not have intended this to be a summary and intended it to be more amusing. There are so many clinical biomechanical theories that are used in podiatry to explain how foot orthotics work and how to use foot orthotics in clinical practice. The problem with some often alleged newer is that there is a product or $ attached to them. This is why the post is so funny. It is a shame that the people who its most aimed at, probably will not read it or probably will not now it was them that is being talked about. Talk about lost mojo.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of ranking a site well in the search engines, like Google to get free traffic to your website. If you have a website for your clinic, you have to promote it. It has to be a good domain name that patients can remember; you have to have it in you advertisements and on your stationary including your business card. For the search engines, if someone types in “{Your City} podiatrist“, does your website show up? If it doesn’t then you have got some work to do. See this on how the search engines rank a website. To get a site to rank well, you need to build backlinks by getting other sites to link to your website. Submitting to web directories, such as DMOZ also helps link building. Generally the more links to a site (link juice), the better you will rank in the search engines. If you serious and have a lot of competition, then you should consider engaging an SEO professional (not an SEO Kiddie). Linkvana is a good way to build acklinks.
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Podiatrists often get asked about foot reflexology and if it works. Foot reflexology is based on the principle that each body system or organ can be mapped to a part of the foot, so any problem with one of these body systems occurs, it is reflected in the foot and treatment of that part of the foot can help. This is essentially what reflexology is. Basically, reflexology is absurd and nonsense. The research evidence has clearly shown that it does not work. A soothing foot massage can have positive effects as it makes people relax, which has potential to make people feel better. To claim that they feel better because of the reflexology is nonsensical.
Do you even know what Twitter is? (if not see this on the Twitter basics & Twitter forums). Twitter is a social media site that started out as a bit of fun, but has now become a marketing tool. More and more Podiatrists, podiatry websites and podiatry related companies are on Twitter (Podiatry Arena is). Many Podiatrists are using it to provide updates. See this Twitter search for Podiatry to see what is happening..
Most things that affect our health are regulated. Things like drugs and medicine have to go through a rigourus testing and regulation before they can be used. Even those who use them are also regulated by a registration or licensing system (depending on the country). Foot orthotics also affect our health, in that they are used to treat a wide range of foot and leg problems. They obviously not in the same league as drugs or medicine, but why should they not be? Most health professionals who use foot orthotics are also registered or regulated. But, you do not have to be regulated to prescribe and use foot orthotics as a treatment. The importance of this is that if something goes wrong, then they can be held accountable through professional regulation. The health professional’s responsibility for a duty-of-care can be upheld through the regulation. This was brought to a head in the UK recently with the bankruptcy of the foot orthotic firm, Parish & Bell. Judging by the forum, message board, consumer groups and blog posts, they have left a lot of disgruntled patients. None of the ‘foot orthotic’ staff were licensed or registered as health professionals, so there was no one for them to be accountable to. Podiatrists can not practice without being registered or licensed. Unfortunately the foot orthotic industry is full of ‘cowboys’ so its buyer be aware.
