Podiatry a Good Investment?

[EuroPhysician]

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A private medical school costs an average of $200,000 for four years with many costing 250K easily. Most podiatry schools seem to cost around $120,000 to $150,000 for four years. I was wondering if Podiatry is a solid investment like Medicine and Dentistry. A lot of MDs and DDSs are often recruited by different States to work in rural or inner city areas in exchange for helping them pay off their debt. I have not heard of a similar program for Podiatrists. Almost all the salary surveys say that Podiatrists earn an average of $130,000 a year, is this number real? I was looking on some forums that were dedicated to Podiatry and some people were saying that many earn far less, even several years out of residency. What is the deal? Is Podiatry an investment or a gamble?

 

[krabmas]

A private medical school costs an average of $200,000 for four years with many costing 250K easily. Most podiatry schools seem to cost around $120,000 to $150,000 for four years. I was wondering if Podiatry is a solid investment like Medicine and Dentistry. A lot of MDs and DDSs are often recruited by different States to work in rural or inner city areas in exchange for helping them pay off their debt. I have not heard of a similar program for Podiatrists. Almost all the salary surveys say that Podiatrists earn an average of $130,000 a year, is this number real? I was looking on some forums that were dedicated to Podiatry and some people were saying that many earn far less, even several years out of residency. What is the deal? Is Podiatry an investment or a gamble?

nothing in life is a gauruntee. everything is a gamble. DPM, MBA, PhD, MD, DO, DDS, RN - all a gamble. you can get fired from any job and you can be a failure at anything.

You can also be successful if you chose to be and take responsibility for your life. Many of the people that are not successful in podiatry woul have been failures at anything that they tried. Many of these people blame their failure on the schools and the profession instead of taking responsibility for themselves.

So if you like podiatry then take a gamble. and work hard.

 

[Buspar]

nothing in life is a gauruntee. everything is a gamble. DPM, MBA, PhD, MD, DO, DDS, RN - all a gamble. you can get fired from any job and you can be a failure at anything.

You can also be successful if you chose to be and take responsibility for your life. Many of the people that are not successful in podiatry woul have been failures at anything that they tried. Many of these people blame their failure on the schools and the profession instead of taking responsibility for themselves.

So if you like podiatry then take a gamble. and work hard.

👍

 

[densmore22]

What you don't know about those surveys is that they include a) older podiatrists who may have only done a 2 year residency so won't tap out at their income potential and b) part time practicing podiatrists. We just heard a presenter today that said one of his residents took a job in a multispecialty clinic and he signed for $170k and who knows how much he actually took home, no less than $170k, but probably a lot more. I think this is starting to become the norm now for podiatrists that do a PM&S 36, you can expect a greater starting salary and maybe not go up much from there (like tapping out around 250K/year after 15 years or so). If you don't think you're going to make enough money by being a podiatrist, please do all of us a favor and don't become one. But if you want to help people and be successful as a practioner and a person, then by all means, become a podiatrist.

 

[Feli]

I think krabmas' answer was dead on. Still, as much as I hate to be all doom-and-gloom, it is a valid question and worth thinking about...

For the student who gets out of school with 150k in debt and does a mediocre residency, there aren't a ton of opportunities in some parts of the country. Assuming they're set on working in a certain area, all those young pods can really do is take a job working for other pods. That usually doesn't pay too well, and they also have student debt. Their better trained colleagues who did better residency training will probably outcompete them for the ortho groups, hospital, or multispecialty group job offerings in the area. If the mediocre pods don't have the $ to buy into a practice or start their own, then all they can really do is take a job with a pod group. On the other hand, a hypothetical pod who did the same mediocre residency and has $ or credit to start and advertise their own practice or buy in as a partner in a booming practice will probably do better due to the "spend $ to make $" principle. It's obviously the same easier road to success for someone who will be taking over an established DPM practice from good ol' boy connections, a family member, etc.

I might be way off base since I'm still a student, but it seems to me that you want elite residency training to have plenty of job offers and interest in bringing your skills to an efficient and well-run group practice (which studies repeatedly show are the most lucratice). Alternatively, you'd want credit or independent wealth in order to start your own practice or buy into an existing practice of your choosing. Ideally, you'd want both, but either way, you have more options than the broke guy with $150k in debt and training that gives him no real opportunities except opening up APMA News or PodM and calling around about the junior associate jobs in the back page classifieds. There's probably nothing inherently wrong with that pod group associate route, but I doubt that the "podiatry eats its young" saying came out of nowhere. If you are an associate getting screwed over, you might be really frustrated, esp when you try to break away and find that a no compete clause really limits you. As long as some pods are stuck taking those lowball associate offers, they will continue to be there and salaries will stay low. Just because a couple existing pods who own a practice are making $ and doing well, it doesn't mean that their junior assocaite will see very much of that $, and he/she might also have little or no say in call, business decisions for the practice, cases and HMOs accepted, etc since he/she doesn't own a share like the partners do.

I'm not saying that lack of good job options stuff might not happen to some specialties in MD/DO world, but there are just a ton more hospital jobs for most of their specialties and fewer of those docs in private practice setting, so it probably means that there aren't as many joke $40-60k associate job offers around.

Basically, as I see it, the things you want coming out of residency are:
1) Good training, preferrably at a well known and renowned program
2) Money, either your own or via credit, to buy into or start a practice
3) Connections in the field (doing a good residency certainly doesn't hurt here either... best pod jobs are probably never advertised)

 

[jonwill]

We just heard a presenter today that said one of his residents took a job in a multispecialty clinic and he signed for $170k and who knows how much he actually took home, no less than $170k, but probably a lot more.

I have seen a lot of similar offers to pods coming out of my program.