College of Podiatric Medicine - About the Program - Doctor of Podiatric Medicine - College of Podiatry

College of Podiatric Medicine

College of Podiatric Medicine - About the Program - Doctor of Podiatric Medicine

The College of Podiatric Medicine (CPM) wishes to be recognized as a leader in advancing podiatric medical education to meet the demands for the 21^st Century in the delivery of quality patient care with an emphasis on patient safety. As part of the Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU), the CPM is expected to offer a fully accredited, four-year professional degree program leading to the degree Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM). The Founding Dean, Lawrence B. Harkless, DPM, joined the College effective July 1, 2007, after serving for over 30 years as the Chairman of the Division of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio Texas.

On September 1, 2007, Lester J. Jones, DPM, MS joined the team for CPM as the Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, after retiring from the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, where he served as Associate Chief of Staff for Quality Assurance and Department Chairman of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery.

The concept of developing competent physicians that engage in the practice of Podiatric Medicine has positioned the WesternU CPM as a leader in assuring the podiatric medical graduates truly become physicians and surgeons as their allopathic and osteopathic colleagues.

WesternU's CPM has engaged several academic teaching hospitals to become affiliated campuses of the college to assure that each matriculating student receives a thorough clinical educational experience sufficient enough to achieve the competencies expected of a graduating Doctor of Podiatric Medicine.

Podiatric Medicine is defined as a health profession specialty of medicine that provides diagnosis and treatment of conditions affecting the lower extremity and in particular, the foot and ankle, and their governing and related structures including local manifestations of systemic conditions, by all appropriate systems and means. This stated definition was developed by the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) in 1991.

In order to accomplish this task and attain a high level of professional competence, the podiatric physician must:

Assimilate a large number of basic and clinical sciences to be used in the diagnosis, assessment, management and treatment of conditions and diseases:
- Employ critical thinking and problem solving
- Correctly interpret appropriate medical literature pertinent to problem(s) at hand
- Communicate with other members of the healthcare team
Develop knowledge and proficiencies in the diagnosis and evaluation of the overall health status of pediatric, adult and geriatric patient as related to pathology in the lower extremity:
- Interpret diagnostic test
- Interpret medical images
Engage in effective communication with patients:
- Speaking
- Listening
- Observation
- Interpret body language
Manage patient care conditions:
- Palliative means
- Surgical means (minor and major forefoot and rear foot/ankle reconstructive)
- Biomechanical means (motion analysis and state of the art foot and lower limb orthoses)
- Use of pharmacy (oral, injectable and topical)
- Observe and utilize principals of universal precautions
- Understand and utilize a team approach to care

Last Updated:05/13/2008

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