APMA News - January/February 2024 - A2

Exploring
Podiatric
Public Health
A career in podiatric medicine offers quite a bit of
variety, and many podiatrists choose to incorporate
related fields and specialties into their practice. To
learn more about the intersection of podiatry and
public health, we spoke with Matthew Diamond,
DPM, about his involvement in the American Public
Health Association (APHA) Foot and Ankle Health
(FAH) Section. Dr. Diamond is a third-year resident at
Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh.
Why are you
interested in
public health?
My motivation to
pursue podiatric
medicine was driven
by my desire
to help improve
the lives of people
by keeping them
active and ambulatory.
So far, I've
found the career very rewarding, and I enjoy the one-on-one
clinical and surgical interactions. However, I noticed inefficiencies
in the structure of traditional clinical medicine that
motivated me to become more interested in public health.
Firstly, the one-on-one patient-to-provider structure imposes a
physical limitation on the number of people I'm able to care for
daily. By definition, public health is focused on the health of a
population and/or community as a whole. As such, many of the
tools and skills learned through public health training provide
a means to help people even when you're not personally able to
provide one-on-one clinical care. In my opinion, a public health
mindset/approach allows me to have a broader positive impact
on the community I'm serving.
Additionally, clinical medicine is designed in a manner that
is very reactionary. Nearly all podiatric, allopathic, and osteopathic
medical school curricula are designed to teach clinicians
how to efficiently make a diagnosis and treat a given pathology,
whereas public health is more concerned with preventive care.
Diabetic foot complications provide a great example of this distinction.
Ask yourself how many of your diabetic patients wait
until they develop a (sometimes severe) diabetic foot ulceration
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and/or infection prior to presenting for clinical care. And then
ask how many of these ulcers and/or infections may have been
avoidable if the patients had regularly seen a primary care provider,
received a timely diabetes diagnosis, and received prompt
and comprehensive diabetic education. Personally, I believe it's
a significant amount.
I believe public health provides a different, but complimentary,
skill set to clinical medicine. I still very much enjoy
the clinical and surgical aspects of my career. However, I'm
convinced that by furthering my public health education and
involvement, I'll be able to make a larger positive impact on the
communities I serve by implementing a preventive and population
health-based approach to my career and clinical practice.
How did you get involved with the Foot and Ankle
Health Section?
I learned about the FAH Section after joining the interdisciplinary
public health club while I was a student at Scholl College of
Podiatric Medicine. The club was composed of students from a
variety of different programs, such as podiatric medicine, allopathic
medicine, pharmacy, and physical therapy, and offered
an introduction to many public health topics. Through my participation
in the public health club, I learned APMA offers an
annual scholarship for podiatric medical students that covers
the dues to join APHA, which I fortunately received, and was
thus able to join the FAH Section.
Do you have any advice for young physicians and
students who have an interest in public health?
Get involved with state and national public health organizations!
Join APHA and get involved with the FAH Section. I'd
encourage all students interested in joining the FAH Section to
apply for the annual APMA scholarship that covers the cost of
APHA membership. Several of the podiatry schools have student
public health clubs that are available to join. If your school
doesn't have one, start one! Many states also have public health
associations that you can join. In my experience, podiatry is
underrepresented in state and national public health organizations,
and there are always opportunities to get involved.
For students and residents who are interested in getting further
formal public health education, I recommend researching
the APMA/TDI Public Health Fellowship that covers the cost of
a master of public health (MPH) degree from the Geisel School
of Medicine at Dartmouth.
As a student, you can begin your podiatric public
health journey by applying for an APHA student
membership scholarship through APMA. For more
information, visit www.apma.org/apha.
To learn more about the APMA/TDI Public Health
Fellowship, visit www.apma.org/tdi.
http://www.apma.org/apha http://www.apma.org/tdi
APMA News - January/February 2024

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