What is a Podiatrist?

Podiatry as a profession has evolved and changed significantly in the last 50 years. Most podiatrists 50 years ago had very little surgical training and would do some surgical procedures in the office, but these were typically limited to bunion and hammertoe surgery more than anything.

Over the last 50 years, podiatry residencies and fellowships have increased the quality and quantity of surgical training significantly. Podiatry as a profession evolved similar to the dentistry profession outside of traditional medical school.

In our current times, most podiatry schools are now associated with other medical schools and the podiatry education mimics medical school education for the first 2 years.  Then podiatry students do medical rotations the third and fourth year pf school in related medical fields that affect the lower extremity.

All of the podiatrists at Foot and Ankle Institute of Colorado have at least 3 years of surgical residency training after podiatric medical school and now some are even going on for a fourth year of training in fellowship which Dr. Fleck recently completed.

Podiatrists have training in biomechanics which is extremely helpful with surgical reconstruction of the foot and ankle where we are trying to allow the foot and ankle to function in the best possible biomechanical way.

Currently, podiatrists now performed much of the foot and ankle reconstructive surgery in our country. All the podiatrists at Foot and Ankle Institute of Colorado in Colorado Springs have advanced surgical training to help you with all of your families' foot and ankle needs. Call us at 719-488-4664 so we can help you today!

Author
Dr. Matthew Hinderland Board Certified Podiatrist and Foot and Ankle Surgeon

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