APMA News - January/February 2024 - 11

On Saturday, March 16, Lawrence A. Santi, DPM,
will be installed as APMA president by his son, APMA
Member Joseph Santi, DPM, during the annual
House of Delegates meeting in Washington, DC.
Dr. Santi, a native New Yorker with four decades of
experience as a physician and surgeon, educator, and
leader within the profession, comes to the presidency
with a focus on unity. For years, he has campaigned
at the state and national level on the platform,
" Together we can. " Now, he hopes to bring that philosophy
to problems ranging from conflict between
the certifying boards to student recruitment.
Dr. Santi received his bachelor's degree from St.
John's University in Queens, NY, and completed his
DPM degree at the New York College of Podiatric
Medicine (NYCPM). He completed residency training
at Coney Island Hospital (now South Brooklyn Health)
in Brooklyn, NY. He has been in private practice in
Brooklyn since 1980. Dr. Santi is chief of podiatric services
at New York Community Hospital of Brooklyn,
where he also serves as director of the Podiatric
Medicine and Surgery Residency program.
Read on to learn more about incoming President
Santi and his mission to unify the profession.
What inspired you to become a
podiatrist?
I was premed at St. John's, and we took a trip to
a VA hospital and went through the rehab center.
It was 1973, and the Vietnam War was in progress,
and there were a lot of young soldiers there with
loss of limb. I got interested in how to salvage
limbs and prevent amputations.
One of the other premed students mentioned to
me he had just gotten into podiatry school, and I
took a tour of NYCPM. I realized it was pretty interesting.
Podiatrists were dealing with diabetics with
wounds and doing limb salvage. I applied and got
in. From that day forward, I've never regretted my
choice. Years later, my youngest son came to me
and said, " Dad, I think I want to become a podiatrist. "
I asked why, and he said, " You work very hard, but every
night you come home with a smile on your face. "
Tell us about your podiatric education
and residency training.
I was at NYCPM for four years, then I went to
Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. I did a one-year
residency from 1979-80. It was chock-full. We did
medicine, surgery, took call in the ER every third
day, and saw a lot of trauma cases. On my mornings
off, I would go to the hospital and observe
other podiatrists. I got a lot of education in that
one-year residency.
Once you entered practice, how
did you get involved with your state
association?
After I graduated from my residency program, I
worked for another podiatrist for about a year and
a half, then became his partner. When he was
ready to retire, I bought out his practice, and for 10
years I was in solo practice six days a week before
I brought on an associate to work with me; now
I have my son and my other associate in practice
with me.
During my early days of practice, I also started
working at a local level with the Kings Division of
the New York State Podiatric Medical Association
[NYSPMA] in Brooklyn. I attended a meeting and
got involved, then became part of the local board
and then president. From there, I got involved with
the state and eventually was president of NYSPMA
from 2004-2005. During my year, we delivered a
resolution to the APMA House of Delegates that
gave rise to the Thomson-Reuters study [demonstrating
the value of care by a podiatrist for patients
with diabetic ulcers]. We wanted evidence of the
benefits of podiatry in limb salvage.
I went to my first House of Delegates as an
alternate from New York state. We had too many
boards-at the time, we had an orthopedic board,
a medical board, a surgical board, a multispecialty
board, etc., and everyone was arguing about which
board CPME should approve. To complicate the
board question, we also had so many different
residency programs. I suggested we go after one
type of residency program-and in 2011, we developed
the single [Podiatric Medicine and Surgery]
Residency program. Now we have to revisit our
original question about the boards and how we get
to a single board for the profession.
You have been closely involved with
many APMA committees, in particular our
Health Policy and Practice Committees.
Which committees have made the greatest
impact on you, and why?
When I first became involved with APMA, I was recommended
to the Coding Committee, so I joined. I
remember thinking this was a very, very busy committee.
At the time, we were converting from ICD-9 to
ICD-10, and I thought, this is really meaningful-I can
help teach our membership how to use ICD-10. I got
very involved with coding, got involved with Medicare,
private insurances, DME, and I'm still active and very
involved with Health Policy and Practice. I love it.
We depend on insurance companies and
on coding, and I think that's one of my biggest
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APMA News - January/February 2024

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