Virginia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Blog

Podiatrists Soon Able to Make Diagnoses! They Couldn't Before?

Podiatry, as currently defined by the Virginia General Assembly, involves the medical, mechanical, and physical treatment of conditions of the foot and ankle. What it has noticeably been lacking for some time is the inclusion of "diagnosis" as part of the practice of podiatry. In other words, under VA Code, Doctors of Podiatric Medicine (DPMs/Podiatrists) officially are unable make conclusions about what has caused a foot problem they are simply able treat it. What that has meant is that a podiatrist can't testify in court that an injury was caused by one thing or another as that would be a diagnosis. The making of diagnoses has been reserved for MDs until now.

"Until now" because the VA General Assembly is finally ready to pass a law that amends the definition of podiatry to include diagnosis, freeing podiatrists to testify to the cause of a foot or ankle injury. I suppose it makes sense that a DPM (a foot and ankle expert) can now officially make a foot/ankle diagnosis.

The law does also limit podiatrists, however. Podiatrists will now be unable to testify against MDs in medical malpractice cases. Basically this means that only MDs can testify against MDs while MDs and DPMs can both testify against podiatrists.

A recent Supreme Court of Virginia case, Hollingsworth v. Norfolk Southern, brings the legal standing of podiatrists and their testimony into question and has brought attention to the General Assembly's pending change.po