New York College of Podiatric Medicine. 107 Years of Innovation

The 107-year history of the New York College of Podiatric Medicine (NYCPM) has been marked by continuous progress and innovation in the field of podiatric medical education. The institution's first president—physician and educator Maurice J. Lewi, who was named in 1911 to lead the new New York School of Chiropody—set the pace, changing the name of the field from chiropody to (the more appropriate) podiatry and creating curricula and training programs with other educators. The College, now delivering the DPM degree for more than 45 years, also partners with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to enable select students to have access to the Masters in Public Health (MPH) degree simultaneously.

Since its founding and relocation to its current campus in Harlem, the NYCPM has stood in the forefront of podiatric medical education and clinical training. The College continuously resets standards for student admission, curriculum development, clinical training, and student achievement while partnering with local and national leaders of the profession to advance the general and specific interests of students as well as practicing podiatric physicians.

Louis L. Levine, current president and chief executive officer, installed in 1991, has continued to advocate and support these developments. He advocated for expansion of hospital-based externships for third- and fourth-year students, enabled physical renovations to the campus, endowed the now critical Information Technology Department so that it can support faculty and student experiences, and has continued to support the College's freestanding clinic, which offers clinical services from podopediatrics to limb salvage and reconstructive foot and ankle surgery to its clients.

Innovations

In 2006 the College implemented the concept of Standardized Patient (SP) training and assessment into the curriculum in its second-year Physical Assessment course, pioneering the use of SPs in the education of podiatric medical students. Standardized Patients have long been used in allopathic and osteopathic medical education, and the College has been fortunate to have had consultants who have studied SPs and their use in medical education and assessment. Several articles relating to SP use in medical education are available. [1-4]

In 2009 the NYCPM expanded the use of SPs into year 3 of the curriculum by requiring juniors to demonstrate mastery-level expertise in history taking and physical examination, communication skills and note-writing, alongside a summative written examination based on the delivered clinical curriculum. Students are required to successfully navigate all components of this exercise before promotion to year 4 of the curriculum. The College is able to deliver to the student a detailed summary of performance as measured by the SPs as well as highly specific data relating to academic strengths and weaknesses. Because this event precedes external residency- site clerkships, it has proved highly valuable to students as they prepare for and engage in these all-important assignments. It is anticipated that this experience will also prove useful to the year 4 student who encounters the new American Podiatric Medical Licensing Examination Part II component—Clinical Skills Patient Encounter, which intensively assesses the student using SPs. The data generated by Capstone has also proved to be invaluable in enabling evaluation of both classroom and clinical experiences; our ability to self-assess has been significantly improved since these data have been available.

The College was also first in adopting the use of tablets/iPads to enhance the student experience. Now in the sixth year of this initiative, students are provided iPad devices at first-year orientation and are required to use the devices in all written examinations and as a storage, reference, and interactive tool during their preclinical and clinical years at the College. Early data indicate that this has, indeed, facilitated examination taking and has, through the hundreds of available supportive applications, provided abundant secondary and tertiary reference/study material and greatly facilitated student interaction with relevant literature.

In recent years the College has also been able to use grants from various commercial and personal sources to advance the technology and clinical output from the College gait laboratory. Tekscan and Dartfish applications are now standard components of orthopedic evaluations at the College clinics, which further support student education as well as clinical decision making

Research

The NYCPM sponsors a wide range of research. At West Point, the NYCPM and its research partners, which include the Hospital for Special Surgery and Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine, have gathered data on the cadet population (>1,000 individuals annually) to see whether podiatric medical abnormalities in any of the parameters set for the study predict injury, and, if so, what type. In 3 years of static and dynamic gait/posture evaluations, researchers have assembled one of the largest posture/function data sets in existence. These data will form the basis for multiple intervention research proposals in addition to providing unique insight into the “normal and abnormal” for this specific population.

A professor of preclinical sciences, supported by a National Institutes of Health grant, is investigating whether mindfulness and stress reduction have an effect on chronic inflammation and acquired immunodeficiency virus. The same professor is also looking at the podiatric medical complications of human immunodeficiency virus; searching for a way to predict success for DPM students based on performance in preclinical courses; and seeking ways to improve empathy and patient/provider communication among podiatric medical students.

Affiliations

In addition, the NYCPM has established affiliations with more than 150 external clinical sites through which senior students may seek and conduct clinical clerkships. Locally, the College is fortunate to have the resources of the New York Health and Hospitals Corporation, which operates diverse hospital and outpatient centers in New York City, making podiatric and general medical/surgical experiences available to our third- and fourth-year students. These facilities include the Foot Center of New York, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Harlem Hospital Center, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, Metropolitan Hospital Center, Morrisania Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai St. Lukes, and Touro University.

In an effort to raise the standards of podiatric medical education and practice globally, the NYCPM maintains affiliations with major universities in Canada, Ireland, and Spain, hosting their students and providing courses of clinical study that supplement their own curricula and exchanging high-level seminars on academic issues; the College also affiliates with universities in Mexico, Israel, India, France, Australia, and Poland. Videoconferences are held with many of these programs.