We have always heard the phrase “podiatry eats it’s young”. The post coronavirus world however has given us a new take on the phrase which should read “podiatry will eat anything and anybody for a buck”.

It is true that like all medical professions, podiatry has had its share of scavenger parasites. Given the near panic that now exists in the podiatry profession, it is interesting to watch the parasitic wing of the profession search for a source of financial maintenance.

Some parasites just don’t give up. It reminds me of the effort it takes to kill a roach. You step on the roach and think you have squashed the life out of it and yet the little legs keep moving and sooner or later the bug starts moving again. 

You only have to look at PM Magazine.

DermFoot still wants your money. You’re offering all kinds of discounts for the rooms. They had better fill both hotel rooms and fill the lecture halls as they have a literal plethora of exhibitors and sponsors that are waiting to see rooms filled with anxious potential customers. There is a lot of money to be made from sponsors and grants and exhibitors to a meeting such as this. They are not about to give up that money and as a result have moved the meeting to a new date. The ad should read “we need your cash”. To be contrite, they have classic “skin in the game”. And you are the game.

The same scenario applies to Presents. Given the fact that at the present time they cannot fill their exhibit halls as there is no exhibit hall to fill, they are now relying on the old “Get your CME credits from us online”. Well if you can’t get it in the front door there’s always the back door. And no one does the back door better than the people at Presents.

Knowing that many people will be reluctant to fill a lecture hall even with a guarantee of sanitizers and social spacing, the majority of meetings have now turned to virtual presentations. The problem is that for organizations such as DermFoot or Presents, The big money comes from the exhibitors and grant givers. You were merely a ploy filling the room to appease the exhibitors. That is why some meetings give away free admission to the meeting and in some cases they give away free rooms to students and residents. What nice people they are. The reality is without filling the room with breathing bodies, the food source to these parasites will disappear rather quickly.

The big fear for those who run seminars is that the concept of virtual education may actually catch on and remain even following the coronavirus scare. If you think about it, you save the hotel fees, you save the travel fees, you save the food and entertainment fees. The education is the same. The big losers are the people who have made their money off of you by manipulating you to their meeting in order to suck money out of advertisers and various corporations. Without you these meetings are essentially playing chess without a queen or Rooks.

The practice management people tell us that this is a time to sit back and rethink office protocols and services. You now have the time to do it as you are certainly not inundated with patients. This might however be a good time to rethink the manner in which CME is provided.

State and regional meetings do not want you to obtain all of your credits online. Why? Because they would lose exhibitor money and they would lose grant money and they would lose corporate money. Even those meetings that are supposedly “included in your state dues” seem to want to cash in on all that exhibitor money. They argue that it costs a good deal of money to run a meeting. But if you have no hotel bills to pay, no audio visual bills to pay, no block of rooms to guarantee the hotel, exactly what are the major bills that need to be paid?

In addition, any honest individual will tell you that the majority of regional meetings and state meetings and local meetings are nothing more than a series of infomercials.  I have a parade of speakers paid for by different corporations who in 1 millisecond show you their “conflict” slide appearing faster than the most effective subliminal advertising available. How this is supposed to satisfy CPME requirements.

Do we really need all these local meetings, state meetings, regional meetings, and national meetings ? On any given weekend in podiatry there are four to eight meetings that you can choose to attend should you wish to do so. It’s just amazing how much education is required to practice podiatry. Funny how the neurosurgeons, cardiac surgeons, thoracic surgeons, general surgeons, plastic surgeons, don’t seem to require as many meetings or CME hours as podiatry does. This must be a more complex specialty than is generally appreciated. Either that or the fact that those admitted to podiatry school are of lesser academic accomplishments and therefore require greater efforts  to educate. You know, maybe podiatrists are the challenged medical providers.

Attendees complain all the time about the poor quality of certain meetings. The Midwest meeting, the Western, the APMA National meeting, the SAM fiasco, are examples of meetings that are just plain junk and serve the purpose of a few, usually those who are friends of the APMA board of directors. The regional meetings, are examples of meetings that attendees constantly complain are of extremely poor quality. Yet like the good victims of any cannibalizing society, you pay your tuition and make no effort to improve the meeting.

Why do we need all the local meetings ?

Why do we need all the state meetings ?

Why do we need all the regional meetings ?

Why do we have such a poor quality national meeting ?

We have not even touched upon the so-called “subspecialty meetings”. There are plenty of these in podiatry ranging from minimal incision surgery to peripheral nerve surgery to pediatrics and everything in between. You can almost justify meetings for special interest groups such as these, if it were not for the fact that these meetings serve as money making efforts by individuals. Just look at the pediatric associate meetings. It is a sales pitch for equinus braces and a sales pitch for make pretend pediatric orthotics which have no studies or literature to support their use. None whatsoever. Why don’t you check out DermFoot as a paragon example. Who owns the meeting? Who gets all the money for the meeting? Where does all the corporate sponsorship money go?  

Look at the AAPPM meetings. These are nothing more than a series of lectures by individuals who have something to sell you. Some type of service, or some type of product you can sell patients, or someway you can up code and charge more than you really deserve for a particular visit or service. Look seriously at the speakers and you’ll see that almost all of them have something to sell you. How the hell does this qualify for CME credit ?  The only people that like these meetings are the grifters, hucksters, shysters, that unfortunately make this meeting a source of energy in the same way that you charge up your cell phone.

You are being cannibalized by a select group of people who are manipulating you and grabbing your money. It’s as simple as that.

Do you believe that The Podiatry Institute is simply a charitable organization simply there to provide you an education? How about the IFAF ? They are about as charitable as the good fellas.

It is time to reevaluate the CME industry in this profession. You have to admire Brad Bakotic. Give him credit. On any given weekend he was able to attend multiple meetings. Forget anything else. The man was able to lecture at multiple meetings on any given weekend. Impressive indeed. But don’t feel too bad for him as he did, rightfully so, build up a multi million dollar business by educating podiatrists on dermatology. It takes a lot of effort, a first round draft choice, to cover all of the podiatry meetings that go on any particular weekend.

The crash and burn of private practice is upon us. There will not be a rebound to the same good times that existed previously. Some will succeed of course just as roaches are said to be likely to inhabit the world following a nuclear holocaust or some asteroid crashing into the earth. However, for many there will be decreased patient volume, decreased coverage services, and decreased income.There will be less disposable income to attend vacation meetings or meetings of poor quality and a little practical use. Check out PM Magazine.  Check out the new online service that provides you with a partial list of seminars available in any given month. Notice by the way who is behind all of this and how even this supposed service is being used for individual commercial benefit. Conversely, legitimate online CME would seem to represent a useful alternative to the nonsensical industry presently called podiatry CME. Do you want to pick a vacation meeting and pretend that you actually attended some lectures, go ahead and do so. But for the majority of people who now have suffered from lost income and likely will have less disposable income in the near future, virtual meetings which seem to represent a useful answer to provide legitimate CME at a legitimate price.

Let the cannibals eat each other. Why don’t you sit back with a nice adult beverage, or your favorite sushi dish, use your own bathroom, hold the dog on your lap, and get your CME online. There are industries that will fight this because of their own self interest. There are societies, local, state, and regional, as well as shall we say special interest groups, that will try to impede your ability to obtain CME online. Watch who they are. If you are more than a casual observer this will be obvious to you.

The scavengers and parasites in podiatry have had their day. They have made enough money off of you. It’s now time for the profession to help you gain useful post graduate education without emptying your wallet.