October 16, 2021

In 2005, APMA established its Vision 2015, a multifaceted plan to achieve physician parity. Over the past 16 years, APMA and the profession have made great strides toward parity—from standardized, three-year residency training to legislative and regulatory wins that have benefited our member physicians. But podiatric physicians continue to face barriers such as disparate scope-of-practice laws, challenges to hospital privileging, and inequitable reimbursement for the same services other physicians perform.

APMA recognizes that there is more than one potential pathway to overcome these barriers and realize our goal. We have heard the concerns of members who question that access to the USMLE is an appropriate or necessary tactic in the pursuit of physician parity.

In order to better assess and understand members' perspectives on achieving physician parity, APMA has hired Lynn Curry, PhD, owner and chief consultant with CurryCorp (https://currycorp.net) to facilitate discussions with the various stakeholders. Dr. Curry is a cognitive psychologist with years of transformative innovation experience in health care. She was instrumental as a facilitator for the Educational Enhancement Project that APMA undertook in the late 1990s, which resulted in innovated podiatric education and training at the time. Dr. Curry is reviewing the process that APMA has followed to date and will engage stakeholders to hear their perspectives.

Dr. Curry will collect the diverse perspectives of our stakeholders in a report before the end of the year. At that point, APMA will formulate a responsive plan to resume pursuit of physician parity. You will receive regular updates about this process over the coming months. Should you have questions at any time, please contact Dr. Curry.

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