Posted to Podiatry On-Line 9/30/00

From: Brian Gale, DPM
Subj: Good for you, Bryan Markinson, DPM!

I applaud your boldness, Bryan. This is the kind of crap that we
must put to an end. By sending your public email you may have
stopped someone else who was about to do the same thing (cut
someone out because they don't have ABPS).

I completed a four year residency and was one of the six who
passed the ankle and reconstructive surgery part of ABPS the first
year it was given. That doesn't mean that I think only DPM's who
have done what I have done are the only competent foot and
ankle surgeons.

I believe in training and protecting the public but statements like
this begin to be self-serving when they are used as poor excuses
to cut out part of the competition.

Eventually the something has to give here. Things in our
profession can't go on like this much longer. I have talked to many
DPM's like the one you have described that are completely
competent to do foot and ankle surgery of varying degrees and
should not be discriminated against.

After I was given surgical privileges to perform ankle fracture
surgery at one of the local hospitals, they changed their hospital
bylaws so that only four year DPM's could apply for ankle fracture
privileges. The orthopods on the other hand who don't have any
foot or ankle documented training are given full privileges.

We have to begin moving on these issues.

Brian Gale, DPM
bgale9@home.com
Bismarck, North Dakota