Strategic Planning

Jim Rathlesberger, M.P.A.
Executive Officer, California Board of Podiatric Medicine

Sacramento-APMA has Vision 2015. The California Department of Consumer Affairs has a new Strategic Plan, an umbrella for boards and bureaus. The emphasis is on public outreach and liaison with leading professional associations like CPMA.

In step with DCA, BPM will revise its own strategic thinking. Our next Board Meeting is June 6 in Sacramento. Before then, we plan a two-day Focus Group in April led by Franklin Medio, PhD. Dr. Medio is a leading medical education expert, and well known as co-author of the 1993 Medio-Nelson Report. Members of the Medical Board had questioned the quality of podiatric training. The Medio-Nelson Report put those challenges to rest, but resulted in only lukewarm support in organized medicine for more equal access to State supported health science teaching centers.

The April 24-25 Focus Group will first review BPM's determination that, for our entry-level licensing purposes, the national medical and osteopathic exams are equivalent to those of the National Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners. This means that if the USMLE and NBOME allow podiatric students to take their exams, BPM will accept their scores as well as those of the NBPME. This will give DPM applicants more testing options, which always works for new docs eager to get their licensing credentials.

In BPM's view, passing the USMLE or NBOME authorizes MDs and DOs to practice podiatric medicine, so logically they have to work for DPMs as well. State law requires licensing exams to be entry level. Our tests can no longer be specialty board like. That is why BPM was required to switch from its oral exam to the NBPME exam several years ago. The Focus Group of DPM practitioners will further discuss the meaning and implications of this evolution in law and thinking.

On the second day, with key leaders like Western University Dean Larry Harkless attending, we'll revisit the California Liaison Committee (CLC) and UC-Access efforts of the 1990s. Those were outgrowths of Medio-Nelson. With UC planning new med schools at Riverside and Merced, there may be an opportunity to establish UC-sponsored pod med residency programs from the ground floor.