Page 27 - WesternU View - Fall/Winter 2014
P. 27
MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
College of
Podiatric Medicine
The new technology that people are wearing -- the Fitbit
for instance – can measure the number of steps you take
in a day. Ten thousand is the optimal goal. But even one
step is hard if you have an amputation secondary to
complications of diabetes.
Our students are young and healthy. Becoming a doctor
of podiatric medicine means they must walk in their
patient’s shoes. What is it like to walk with a prosthetic?
What does it mean to lose a leg? How will they make a
living, keep paying the bills, maintain their personal
relationships? These are questions that a young person
rarely has to answer.
We talk about the WesternU Way, incorporating
humanism into medicine. There is no greater need for
understanding the social determinants of health than in
dealing with the patient with diabetes. Podiatric
Lawrence Harkless, DPM medicine is at the forefront of providing care for those
with this disease. At CPM we have a Tuesday morning
conference, and we will often invite a patient to
participate by presenting his or her condition for the
collective group of physicians -- from multiple specialties
-- to evaluate.
Without exception, the patients have responded with
grace and thanks. The patient becomes the teacher in
those sessions. The young physicians learn at the feet of
the center of the team – the patient – just as others before
us have done for generations.
WesternU View Fall/Winter 2014 25
College of
Podiatric Medicine
The new technology that people are wearing -- the Fitbit
for instance – can measure the number of steps you take
in a day. Ten thousand is the optimal goal. But even one
step is hard if you have an amputation secondary to
complications of diabetes.
Our students are young and healthy. Becoming a doctor
of podiatric medicine means they must walk in their
patient’s shoes. What is it like to walk with a prosthetic?
What does it mean to lose a leg? How will they make a
living, keep paying the bills, maintain their personal
relationships? These are questions that a young person
rarely has to answer.
We talk about the WesternU Way, incorporating
humanism into medicine. There is no greater need for
understanding the social determinants of health than in
dealing with the patient with diabetes. Podiatric
Lawrence Harkless, DPM medicine is at the forefront of providing care for those
with this disease. At CPM we have a Tuesday morning
conference, and we will often invite a patient to
participate by presenting his or her condition for the
collective group of physicians -- from multiple specialties
-- to evaluate.
Without exception, the patients have responded with
grace and thanks. The patient becomes the teacher in
those sessions. The young physicians learn at the feet of
the center of the team – the patient – just as others before
us have done for generations.
WesternU View Fall/Winter 2014 25
