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Podiatry Talk with Dr. Jerad Booth
Dr. Jerad Booth – DPM, is a Canadian citizen living in Detroit, currently in his second year of a three-year surgical residency program for Foot & Ankle Surgery. He graduated high-school in Canada in 2010, attended two universities culminating in a Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology with a minor in General Chemistry from Walla Walla University in Washington in 2015, and completed his scholastic endeavours by graduating with a podiatry medical degree from the California School of Podiatric Medicine.
Description
Diagnose diseases, deformities and injuries of the human foot and communicate diagnoses to patients. Treat patients using braces, casts, shields, orthotic devices, physical therapy or prescribe medications. Treat patients with manipulative therapy, medications or surgery.
Job Forecast
This occupational group is expected to face labor shortage conditions over the period of 2019-2028 at the national level.
Employment Requirements
A four year doctoral degree program in podiatric medicine available in the United States and in Quebec, normally following a completion of a bachelor’s degree program, is required. A medical residency is required in Alberta and British Columbia. A doctor of podiatric medicine degree is required to practice podiatry in Quebec, Ontario, Albert and British Columbia.
Salary Range
Range: $40,085 – $72,223
$57,946 – Median wage in Canada
(Visit the jobbank.gc.ca Canadian Website For Most Recent Numbers)
Full Length Episode:
Complete Episode Transcript:
Today’s guest is Dr. Jerad Booth.
Here’s our Job Talk with a Podiatrist.
Welcome to the Job Talk Podcast.
Where we talk to people who love their jobs.
Our guests open up about their challenges surprises and secrets to success in their industries.
Through conversation we explore their careers past work experiences and the education that got them to where they are now.
Can you tell me what kind of a high school student were you and when you graduated from Grade 12, did you know exactly what you wanted to do when when you were leaving school?
So the first part of that question, I was somebody that used school for school, so I didn’t really have a lot of homework when I was in high school.
I did all the work in class, but I felt like I think my strength was that I was a good enough reader where I could understand any assignments or lab labs I had to do and be able to socialize while doing the work, which I think was difficult for a lot of my classmates.
So for me, I was kind of like the the social I don’t want to say social butterfly because that’s that’s not completely accurate.
But I got along with everybody and I didn’t really have any enemies like I was the band I was in, like three bands and I played.
I was like the the varsity soccer player I played on all the sports teams I played like I.
I was the singles tennis tennis player.
Like, I don’t know, I just got along with everybody.
And I was never the top of my class.
There were always people that were better than me, but I was like near, I don’t know, 80th percentile, like in that range.
But I was by no means a straight-A student.
OK.
And so what did you do when you when you came out of high school where we’re going to go first?
Right.
I’m so sorry.
I completely forgot the second part of the question.
Sorry, the second part of the question.
Right?
I knew I wanted to do something medical.
I didn’t.
I thought that it would be fantastic to have the lifestyle that I grew up with because I was very fortunate to grow up in the environment that I did, and I wanted to provide that to my future family, whomever that would be.
And I knew that the one of the ways I did that was medicine.
However, I quickly realized that that wasn’t medicine, that I actually found that that was somewhat unique to podiatry, foot and ankle surgery because I did go and shadow.
Other other doctors for like a day or so.
And I realized pretty soon on that no one really got to work with their hands and have the patient care that that podiatrists got to have.
And I thought that was really unique.
So did you?
You started.
Was it Bachelor of Science at a different school or was it a school in Canada to start right?
Yes.
So I like any Canadian kid growing up.
I dreamed of playing in the NHL.
And my problem was that I was good enough to be strung along, but not good enough to actually do anything with it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So I had I was given hope.
That was the problem.
So when I was 17, I graduated high school and I wanted to play junior.
And at that point, in order to continue playing any sort of junior hockey, I would have had to have moved away from home.
And I realized at that point that it was like, I don’t really know if I want to do this anymore because I don’t realistically, I don’t know how long this is going to last.
And so what I did was I snap decision.
Made the decision to go to CUC, which is now called Berman University in Alberta.
So I did, and I literally packed my stuff.
I woke up in the morning, told my parents I was like, I don’t think this hockey thing’s going to work out.
I was like, on the next day, like all over there.
And so I didn’t have any chance to process anything.
So it was just it was it was a I was.
I set myself up for failure that first semester of college because I was not mentally prepared to go.
So I got out there and I spent a semester there, and that was that was it because I was like, This sucks.
I hate this.
So I luckily our family again, from the somewhat privileged background, my family was going to Australia at the end of the semester and you know, they said, Hey, you know, just try this semester if it doesn’t work out, doesn’t work out or whatever.
We’ll go where we’re going to Australia.
So I was like, All right, well, can I come?
And they’re like, All right, well, we’ll make that work.
So I did.
I got some time to clear my head space, and then I made the decision like, All right, I’d like to finish this and pursue.
But I went to a different university and just like a new start, you know, the fresh slate and that was in Walla Walla, Washington, in the States.
OK, so that’s get that that first year, the first experience in Alberta at least gave you a taste of post-secondary, I’m assuming.
Yes.
Which I was not ready for.
Because again, back to your first question, the high school student that I was, I never really had to try really hard to to get good grades.
And that sounds incredibly pretentious.
But if this is going to sound stupid.
But Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book on this, it’s like people that have hardships earlier on actually have a benefit later on in life because they know how to deal with those hardships.
I had never had really the hardships academically in high school that others that my peers did so when I got to university and the workload was just it was just more like I couldn’t just skate by and and just do nothing other than read.
I actually had to study every night I actually had to to learn, and that was a huge smack in the face and I was not mentally prepared for it.
So let’s let’s talk about the process, about being a Canadian student and moving to the U.S.
to go to post-secondary there.
What’s the process?
So for post high school You what I did.
I can speak to what I did.
I think there are.
I’m sure there are several other options.
But as a Canadian citizen, the universities and stuff, they don’t, they want people to go to their schools, right?
It’s more money for them.
So regardless of where you come from, they will.
They’ll work with you.
And when I went and visited, you know, they rolled out the red carpet, as do all universities.
And then, you know, they said, Hey, you’re a Canadian citizen.
We have these options.
The option that works best for us is for students to get what is called an F-1 student visa.
And basically, what that is is the school gives you a once this once you in the school come to an agreement before you go there.
The school then lets the government know on your behalf that, Hey, this student is coming to school.
So the first time you go across the border and you make that declaration, it takes a long time to get across the border.
That first time that that’s what made process who give you all your paperwork.
And then and they’re like, All right, here’s your student visa F-1 student visa and you are cleared to live down here and go to school down here.
So long as you every time you cross, you get, you know, you have your you have all your papers in order that say, I pay this much, I have I have these many classes.
I spend these many hours like, so they really want to make sure like it would be pretty hard to pull the wool over their eyes because they want a lot like, Yeah, yeah.
So that was that’s how that process works.
The school actually should do a lot for you because because again, they want the money, so most of them will help you along with that process process.
You obviously your your high school grades were strong enough to get into was a bachelor of science that you were immediately jumping into there?
I thought going into university that.
In order to be in the medical field at anything I had to major in something that was medical just makes logical sense.
I would never do that again.
Like I would highly recommend that whatever university you go to.
Anyone listening, whatever university they decide to go to college, whatever.
Make sure you major in something that you actually like and then minor in something that will get you the job.
It will make your college experience ten times better.
Because like, I like the human body, I enjoyed studying that.
But to be honest with you, a lot of these colleges, the biology is all encompassing, so you and I have your time learning about plants.
I was like, Oh man, so this is awful.
So, yeah, well, awful for you.
Maybe, maybe somebody discovers they’re interested in plants and you know they do.
Maybe there is that one person that they can go in trying to get into the medical field may come out a botanist or something.
Exactly, exactly.
So you get your bachelor science from Walla Walla.
You completed it there.
Yeah.
And then what was the next step and and how did you make that decision?
So again, by this time, by the time I had started and again, I had shadowed people like during high school.
That’s when I had shadowed.
So I kind of had figured that out.
Early on, I was like, Wow, the lifestyle is really only podiatry.
That’s that’s interesting.
So when I I didn’t have to do spend a lot of time doing that in college, so once I had graduated with my bachelor’s science, I had kind of solidified that position that I wanted to get into.
podiatry school.
Specifically, it’s different than the medical school system for podiatry.
There are there are nine schools that are accredited to train you to become a doctor of podiatric foot and ankle surgery.
And there are only nine and they’re all in the states, which is why I’m here.
Okay.
Canada had tried to get one in Quebec, but I’m not sure where that is right now.
I don’t know what’s going on with that, but that’s why I came down here in the first place.
Excuse me, that’s why I stayed down here after college.
And I remember when I graduated, I still had my F1 LPT for like six months after I graduated from from Walla Walla, so that visa was still good for me to come back and travel.
So again, I made my application.
It was all online.
I did my application, everything for podiatry school and I.
You can find all of this stuff.
If you just search podiatry school, applied podiatry school, it’ll come up.
It’ll be on the internet somewhere and it’s one.
It is just one website.
It’s like American College of Podiatric Medicine or something, and they have everything you’ll need there, like anything you want to to any information and anything you want.
That was there.
So I just went in and I filled out everything they asked.
I filled out my my profile and then I sent my application to the to as many of the nine colleges as I wanted.
I only wanted one because it was the one my dad went to.
So I only sent my application to one and I got in.
And how challenging was the program when you got there and you were going through it again?
It was kind of like a smack in the face again.
Yeah.
When you when you get there because you know, you get college, all figured out and you’re like, Oh, okay, I got I got this and then you got you make the jump to medical school.
But I just go like, Whoa, so I just have to do nothing but this, like all day, this has to be my life.
Yeah.
And the reality is it is I mean, you can have to have a drink or two with your classmates, but the key is just being aware of the time it’s usually having a drink while studying.
So, yeah, it was it was very, very difficult.
But at that time, I’m grateful for college because at that time, college was my hardship.
Like that first semester we talked about, that was my hardship, and I figured out how how to deal with the workload later than everybody else did.
So I was able to handle the onslaught of podiatry school.
How many years of education do you have to put in to get to where you are now?
I graduated high school 2010.
I graduated with my bachelor’s of Science in 2015, and I graduated from Pediatric Medical School in 2020.
That is a long time and you don’t have to do that.
I have a couple of friends from college who went on to be one who knew they were going to go into medicine and they fast tracked.
So what they did was they said, I don’t need to graduate, I don’t need to graduate college.
I don’t.
I just need to get the prerequisites in order to take the MCAT exam in order to be accepted into these into the medicine medicine.
That is the way I would do it.
If you want to go into medicine and you know that’s what you want to do, I would absolutely not do what I did and take the time because you also have to remember to.
It’s money like it’s not cheap, it’s a lot of money.
And so if you can expedite the process you, you could be done.
You could be where I am, which is two years into my residency training, two out of three and you could be here in, let’s see , one to three years for college university getting your prerequisites, then four years of medicine medical school.
So you could be here in as little as nine years.
Took me.
It took me eleven, but you could be here in nine years and going back.
That’s that’s what I probably would have done because I found myself taking a lot of unnecessary classes in college because the recruiters and everybody else.
You gotta remember they want you to stay in college too, because it’s more money for them, right?
So yeah, my advice would be to anybody would be to...no...no...use college for you.
I think somewhere along the way, society decided that everybody needed to go to college.
That’s not the case anymore.
Like, it really isn’t, they?
They they really are just a lot of them are just money, money, money hungry machines.
I’m not saying everyone goes to college is bad or anything like that.
Yeah, I’m just saying that you need to you need to make college work for you and tailor it to your specific needs.
Don’t, don’t let somebody else be like, Oh, you want to major in biology?
Here’s the biology program.
Go do do this and you’ll be fine.
Don’t listen to that.
Like, we’ll do the work.
Figure out what medicine needs and just tell people, I want these classes and this is my schedule that I want.
Sir, you mentioned MCAT exam.
Can you tell me?
Forgive my ignorance on that.
What is that?
The MCAT exam is the gateway to medicine.
If you want to do any sort of medicine, whether it’s podiatry, whether it’s internal medicine, whether it is orthopedics and anything medical, you know, to my knowledge, to my knowledge, I don’t know psychiatry psychiatry as a medical, but I don’t know if they might take a different exam.
I’m not sure.
But anyway, for the majority of things where you would at any point if you’re working with your hands on a patient, you have to take the MCAT.
And the MCAT is a very arduous, very stressful exam that you have to pay quite a lot of money to take.
There are tons of books, courses, online courses.
People pay a lot of money to take this test and to take it well, because when medical schools look at you as an applicant, they look at a couple...
They look at several different things.
But one of the big things they look at is what was your MCAT score?
That is a huge differentiator.
That’s how they that’s how they sift through people.
OK.
So I don’t know how.
I don’t know how that exam is scored.
I honestly forget what I got on it.
I remember I was so stressed and scared, worried about it.
I studied in a trailer for like a month before, and just that was all I did.
And this study for the exam and went and took it.
But can you take it more than once or?
Yes.
Yeah.
But but the problem is it’s only offered at certain times because they want to make sure that nobody is cheating because it’s the same or similar exam is given is given to everybody nationally.
So it’s you can’t just be like, Oh, I’ll just take it Tuesday.
You know what I mean?
You kind of have to have to time it.
OK, so you’re in your second year of a three year surgical residency program.
Could you tell us where you are and can you tell us what your what’s a day to day like for you?
and can you tell us what your what’s a day to day like for you?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Oh, OK.
Yeah.
The reason the reason that question is so hard to answer is because any residency program for for anything surgical in order to graduate, you have to be proficient, at least like baseline proficient in in everything.
Basically, like, for instance, if somebody has a heart attack at a hockey game, I am legally.
I legally have to say I am a doctor like I can help you.
Even though I deal with the foot and the ankle, right?
Yeah.
So it’s a typical day is there is no typical day like it.
It varies month to month because your rotations change.
So I can tell you what my day today was like.
Sure, we’d love to hear it.
All right.
So what was the first part of the question before I forget, though?
Oh, now you’re testing me now, you know, so you’re in your second year of a three year, three year surgical residency?
Correct.
And that is correct.
Then the question was, where are you right now?
I live in Detroit, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, actually Clinton Township, and I work for Ascension Saint John Hospital.
I also do work.
We’re contracted out through the hospital to do surgeries on foot and ankle at surrounding hospitals as well, like the Henry Ford Health System and Beaumont Health System.
So I work for all those groups, but I get paid by Ascension hospital and Ascension has hospitals and systems all over the states.
But I work for the one in Detroit.
OK, OK, so let’s talk about your day today.
What happened today?
All right.
So I’ll I’ll preface this by saying I am on surgery right now.
I am doing pediatric surgery.
Many of the surgeries rotations like for vascular, for internal medicine, all those stuff, you get those more in your first year to kind of get them out of the way, so to speak, so that you can focus on what your your specialty is going to be.
So I’m a little bit farther in.
So now I’m getting more time doing my specialty, which is why I’m on podiatric foot and ankle surgery.
So my day today consisted of waking up at around 5:45AM and, you know, getting ready for the day, showering, eating breakfast.
And then I went to the surgery center where I was going to perform surgery under the supervision of one of my attending physicians.
The night before, I had spent studying looking at X-rays, looking at all of the history of the patients, making sure I wasn’t missing anything.
So I didn’t prescribe them any preoperative antibiotics or something that was going to kill them.
So just doing just doing a little bit of study before I went to bed last night and.
Not a lot.
It sounds like it’s a lot, it’s not you get to the point where you can review a chart pretty quick.
But in the beginning, it took like an hour, but now it’s like, Oh, OK, I know what to look for.
It’s all good.
So go to the surgery center.
You see the patient in the preoperative area.
You talk to them about what is expected post-operatively.
They’ve already, of course, been seen by a by the attending physician in the attending physicians clinic or office.
So they sort of know what to expect, what to do.
Oftentimes, though, they won’t have post-operative pain meds, they won’t have any antibiotics ordered preoperatively.
They won’t have any like crutches or anything like that or to see you have to talk to them, kind of see what their plans are for recovery and just make sure all your ducks that are in a row before you take this person’s surgery.
So I did that placed all the orders that I needed to place.
Then I went and got the O.R.
ready, and that’s just consists of a bunch of a bunch of stuff that that’s not interesting to set up for the purposes of the podcast.
So then I I do the surgery and I do.
I perform the surgery with the attending physician watching my every move scrubbed in with me.
If I if I do something incorrect, they take the blade or they take whatever instrument I’m using and they show me the correct way.
It’s basically a failsafe, like if I do something incorrect, the attending physician is there to make sure everything goes according to what they want.
And oftentimes, if it’s a trickier case, or if the attending physician just doesn’t feel comfortable, they will straight up just do parts of the case.
And you might just only get to suture that case, you know?
But but the goal of of the residency is to train you how to do surgery.
So so everybody tries their best to let the residents do do things.
So the the tradeoff for the attending physician is that when we are done with the case, with the surgical case, I do the paperwork.
So I make sure all of the paperwork is signed and nowadays everything’s online, right?
So for every surge, for it, for a half an hour surgery, I probably end up doing about that long of paperwork.
You know what I mean?
Just because to do the operative know, to make sure all of the orders are in, to make it, it just takes time and that.
So basically, it’s great for the attending physician.
All they have to do is show up to the case teach, teach me or residents like me what to do, and then they just leave.
They’re like, All right, well, I’m going to get paid for doing this surgery, and I don’t have to do any of the headache paperwork stuff I just go in.
So that’s the trade off.
That’s that’s why someone would agree to let residents work with them.
So anyway, so back to my the day I do that first case and then I had a second case immediately after it.
Following in the same O.R..
So I go and to the preoperative area and I repeat the process that I just said, and I only had two cases early this morning, both took about 45 minutes and then I went and grabbed some food from a fast food restaurant that was close by and I took we have a we have students rotate with us, medical students rotate with us and I just they took the medical student with me.
We grabbed some food, came back and got ready for the final case, which was an ankle fracture, actually.
The gentleman had stepped off the curb, the curb wrong and fractured his fibula.
And so I had to take off the cast and the preoperative area that had been placed in the E.R.
and we took him to surgery, fixated the ankle through a screw through the fracture to compress it, put a plate on and sewed it back up.
And then I came home and I was working on my operative notes and I was doing some research on my patients for tomorrow.
I was checking the surgery schedule to make sure all of the other residents have the appropriate surgeries because as a second year, they give you more responsibility as you go.
So of course, there are residents that are younger than me or not younger and just less experienced first year.
So I have to make sure their cases are all ready to go as well, and that that responsibility is shared by by all of us, by all the second year and third years.
And.
Then I grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then you called.
So that was my day to day.
So I have to ask when when you’re making the first incision for the first time, first time ever doing it, you know you nerve is your hand shaking at all?
So you just you just have to find a way to fight through the nerves and just get the job done.
I know, to be quite honest with you, I think acting it would be a huge bonus.
You know, like, I enjoyed acting when I was when I was in college, I was in a couple plays at university and just, you know, I enjoy that because to be honest with you.
Fake it till you make it like you have to trick your brain.
Like you have to literally tell your brain, No, I know what I’m doing.
I’ve got this because if you don’t you’re hosed, you you, you will.
You won’t stop shaking like you just have to get over it because.
And it takes a while for everybody.
Now, some people have at a different time.
Some people get over it in medical school.
it’s it’s just something everyone goes through that at different points.
Will we’ll go to a positive place after this next question?
But what what could you say is, have you been surprised by anything?
What are some of the challenges?
Are there things that still making nervous every day, every day, every day, every day?
I mean, you think about it, you’re cutting into a person, right?
Like that, that person is literally putting their life in your hands.
So, I mean, if you’re not nervous, like my dad’s been doing this for like 33 years and I’ll ask him or I’ll ask other people that profession like, Hey, you know what?
What what do you say?
Like, there will be 65 year old still doing surgery, like why are you still doing this?
And that because it’s such a thrill.
It’s like, Well, why is it a thrill, right?
Like, it’s there’s obviously I don’t know when somebody comes to you and says, fix, fix the thing that that God or whatever you want to something in the sky to fix the thing that I was given.
That’s that’s a big ask.
And so if you’re not nervous going into it, then either you don’t care or you’re overly confident or I don’t know.
There’s a very good balance, I feel to where you should be confident, but you should also.
Yeah, I don’t know if it is.
It is very nerve wracking any time you go into that case every time.
And what what do you love about it?
Well, the the adrenaline, to be honest with you, when you’re in surgery is is is quite a thrill.
I actually very much enjoy the clinic aspect of the job, which is kind of interesting.
Most people don’t like that, especially surgeons.
They just want to cut people and then go.
I actually like talking to people I like.
I like communicating and just just seeing people get better.
If I don’t have to take somebody to the O.R.
that that makes me happy because I can fix them like in the office or just something where it’s like, Hey, this is this is great.
You know, we we fix the problem so that I absolutely that’s probably my favorite part.
The thing that I didn’t know, actually, it’s back to your earlier question.
The amount of paperwork now that exists is unbelievable.
Like for every patient that is seen, you have your notes.
Note-Taking has gotten out of control because the way medicine is in the states now is that people sue doctors all the time, like all, literally all the time.
So you left.
There’s such easy targets that all of the charting now has to be so in-depth and it goes under such scrutiny with billing and and insurances and everything.
It’s just it’s it’s it’s taxing, so people wonder, you know, they’re always like, why are doctors always so late?
Like, what the heck I was here in my time?
The reason the doctors so late is because if you’re a good doctor, you’re trying to help everyone that you can.
And if you’re giving people the attention they need, the amount of notes that you have to write for, one consult is ludicrous.
Like you have to hire... most doctors now.
Actually hire out somebody to literally follow them around and write their note for them as they’re going or some people we were talking about technology.
Some people have like special specs or listening device that they just recorded the whole interaction, or some people have something where it literally just attaches to their glasses and they just the whole experience is documented and then somebody transcribes at room transcribe that.
Yeah, because that’s really the only way you can do it like it’s it’s it’s ridiculous.
That’s that’s probably the thing that I hate most is documentation.
I hate that because that’s not why I got into the profession.
I didn’t get in the profession to write notes like I got in the profession to help people.
Yeah.
And I think that’s a huge problem with the medical field and all in all medical fields is because I think most people get into because they want to help and they’re bogged down.
Yeah, I’ve heard from people in law enforcement that that’s a big issue for them to do the paperwork that they have to do, which I think this is information that’s important for somebody looking into this to know about.
So I think that’s valuable.
What’s next for you?
What do you think?
What happens?
So you got one more year left and then do you have to make a decision or what happens?
Yes.
Yes.
So this area is kind of like a touchy subject for me in particular, just because my situation normally what would happen is at the end of your residency, you know, in the last year of your residency, whatever you’re going into, you apply for a job.
And because you’re so specialized, it’s not like you’re going to Craigslist or something.
Although I have heard of that happening, but normally you’re not supposed to like there are supposed to be enough the job market is is very wanting for physicians right now, like that’s just the way it is.
And so you should be marketing yourselves to wherever in the in the states.
It’s different in Canada because I don’t know how that cross-border thing works.
But for the average American student in America, the average American podiatrist in America, it is.
You send out your resume and everything in your final year and then you would get a job at a baseline salary and with a group or you could start your own practice or you could just kind of work freelance for for a little bit.
So the question in medicine now is, do you want to be your own boss or do you want to be part of a group?
And unfortunately, being your own boss is kind of going by the wayside with the advancements of Medicare, Medicaid and because you have to ensure insurance is basically run medicine now, which I think is awful and it’s horrible, but insurances is in charge of medicine right now.
Yeah.
And if you work with a bigger group, you can basically push out any of the smaller players because you can accept more insurances because you have a bigger group that can take more insurances.
So.
So I don’t I don’t.
I don’t know what people are, my what my upperclassmen are going to do.
But from my standpoint, I being a Canadian, it’s very tricky because I don’t know where I want to live, like I know where I want to live.
It’s back in Canada and I can have a job in Canada.
But the problem with podiatry in particular, is that the Canadian government doesn’t recognize podiatry, foot and ankle as a specialty that is covered by these socialist health care plan.
So it’s not covered by the insurance that every Canadian has for health care, which is absolutely asinine.
It doesn’t make any sense.
Every paper that has come out in in North America, period, even in Europe, every paper that has come out has said that if you have a podiatrist involved in limb salvage wound care, they can mitigate amputations by 50%.
That’s not a number I just came up with.
That’s literally in the literature, almost everywhere.
So I don’t quite understand.
I do understand why.
But it’s is, I guess, for him to like the the political side of junk.
But it is very frustrating that the Canadian government doesn’t recognize them.
So what happens is there are podiatrists in Canada, but what they do...
they work based on a an old model of cash based, so let’s say someone comes in you, you say, Hey, I can, I can take a look at your feet for 25 bucks.
And and they’re like, OK, perfect.
And that’s that’s how it goes.
It’s not that low.
It’s not 25 bucks by the, you know what I was saying?
Like, it’s a very old school model.
And that’s how it used to be down here.
But then insurance, everything changed.
And now it’s all based on, you know, what the what the individual has for their insurance.
And so, yeah, that’s that’s really I just have a lot of stuff to think about.
In summary, there’s a lot of things to consider.
And podiatrists can’t do surgery in hospitals in Canada because again, it’s not covered, so you don’t have hospital privileges.
Is that something new or is that always been the that’s always been the way.
Yeah, OK.
Yeah, it used to be the way in the states, too.
But early pioneers in the profession fought against the orthopedic groups that were trying to keep them out because they’re competition, like if you’re an orthopedic surgeon, you are in competition, sometimes directly with podiatrists because you are theoretically trained for foot and ankle surgery.
But the the thing that frustrates me is that orthopedic surgeons, I have a ton of respect for them and they’re absolutely needed.
They take care of the whole body.
That’s fantastic.
But if I’m an orthopedic surgeon, I’m not going to get upset at somebody who may be a specialist in another area like and it seems like that group.
And this is more of an old school thing because I’ve met orthopedic surgeons coming out of school.
They don’t care like they don’t.
It’s it’s more of an old school fight where the older generation was really trying to stomp podiatry out, and that’s still going on in Canada.
Very much so like that is a very, very real thing in Canada.
But in the states, it’s not.
It is that way in certain states, I won’t say it’s gone, but in the West, like in California and stuff.
No, that’s not a thing anymore.
It is very much everyone’s like, Oh yeah, but I agree.
Everyone knows what that is.
But Canada is just behind by a lot.
Is there is there anything else that may I may have missed, is there anything else that I can ask you?
that may I may have missed, is there anything else that I can ask you?
There’s one thing I would like people to know before they decide anything in medicine do not go into medicine.
If your aspiration is is money and financial security, you will not make it.
I’m not like, period.
You won’t.
Because first of all, there are, especially with the rise in technology.
There are millions of ways to make a lot more money, a lot easier and a much shorter time than being a doctor.
If you want to go and make money, being a doctor is you’ll be financially secure.
Don’t get me wrong, but that is not the way to make money.
If you want money, don’t go into medicine.
That’s not that’s not the right thing to do.
It may have been at one time, but it is no longer that case that that is no longer the case.
That would be my only advice.
Go into it because you want to help people like, I love teaching, I love teaching, and I love sharing my knowledge about the human body.
I love seeing patients.
Oh, OK.
Like, I like seeing people get better.
I like so I love that.
I get a thrill out of doing that.
So that’s why I do it.
But yeah, so you go into it with just the mindset of, well, I want the status of being a doctor and I want the money.
You won’t make it.
You won’t make it through medical school.
It’s not enough.
OK.
I think that is great advice to end on, so I just want to thank you for your time today.
And yeah, I think this has been great.
Thanks.
Thanks for joining us.
No worries.
Thank you.