Time Machine

Podiatrists

Name: Podiatrists: employment and wages since 1970
Creator: Future History
License: https://futurehistory.earth/terms

Also called DPM, Doctor of podiatric medicine, Foot doctor, Foot and ankle surgeon, Podiatric surgeon

In brief

In May 2025, BLS counted 9,680 US podiatrists, with median pay of $160,300 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the May 2025 count is the highest. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 7,200 from 1970, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for podiatrists: AI wound imaging, 2015 to 2022.

What the sources say

Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035.

BLS Employment Projections 2025-35

AI exposure studies

28.6% of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. Eloundou and others, 2023

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

Last updated 11 October 2026.

Cite this page

APA

Future History. (2026, October 11). Podiatrists: jobs and pay since 1970 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/29-1081

Chicago

Future History. "Podiatrists: jobs and pay since 1970." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/29-1081.

BibTeX

@misc{futurehistory_29_1081, author = {{Future History}}, title = {Podiatrists: jobs and pay since 1970}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/29-1081}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }

The access date is today's date on your device.

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19001925195019752000now

2026

Known then as Chiropodist (first professional society era)

Known then as Chiropodist / Doctor of Surgical Chiropody (National Association of Chiropodists era)

Known then as Podiatrist / Doctor of Podiatry (APA renaming era)

Known then as Podiatrist / Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM, Medicare-recognised era)

Known today as Podiatrist / Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM, Medicare-recognised era)

Projected to still be called Podiatrist / Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM, Medicare-recognised era)

Data from the May 2025 survey

US Employment

10K

Est.

Stated in source: BLS OEWS

Official statistic

Report an error

Median Annual Wage

$160,300

Est.

≈ $156,190 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)

Official statistic

Report an error

Beat · 1895

The Pedic Society of New York is established, becoming the world's first professional organisation of chiropodists. Its founding separates the credentialed foot-care practitioner from the itinerant corn-cutter. The society is the institutional ancestor of the New York State Podiatric Medical Association, which continues to operate today.

Beat · 1911

The New York School of Chiropody opens in 1911 as the first standalone podiatric school in the United States. It is now the New York College of Podiatric Medicine (NYCPM), part of Touro University. Within five years, the National Association of Chiropodists (founded 1912) sponsors the establishment of seven podiatric schools between 1912 and 1916, and a Council on Education is created in 1918 to standardise curricula.

Beat · 1912

The National Association of Chiropodists (NAC) is founded with 225 chiropodist members. It is the direct predecessor of the American Podiatric Medical Association. The founding membership figure of 225 is the first reliable count of organised professional chiropodists in the United States.

Beat · 1957

The National Association of Chiropodists is renamed the American Podiatry Association, reflecting a deliberate shift away from the term "chiropody," which was confusing to the American public and carried associations with a craft trade rather than a medical profession. The renaming follows a 1956 constitutional reorganisation. It is renamed again in 1984 to the American Podiatric Medical Association to emphasise the full physician-level scope of DPM training.

Beat · 1965

The Social Security Amendments of 1965 (Public Law 89-97), signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 30, create Medicare and Medicaid. Section 1861(r) defines "physician" to include a doctor of podiatric medicine, giving DPMs the same legal standing as MDs and DOs for Medicare-reimbursed foot procedures. This recognition is the single most consequential policy event in the history of the profession: it unlocks hospital admitting privileges, enables DPMs to perform foot-and-ankle surgery in accredited operating rooms, and embeds podiatry inside the US healthcare payment infrastructure.

Beat · 2013

As of July 2013, all accredited podiatric residency programmes in the United States are required to be a minimum of three years in length. The transition from one- and two-year residencies to a three-year minimum increases post-DPM training from a range of 1-3 years to a uniform minimum. This change raises the floor of surgical competency at entry level and aligns podiatric training more closely with the expectations of hospital credentialing committees evaluating DPMs for surgical privileges.

How to read this number

OEWS is a point-in-time survey snapshot, not a continuous time series; BLS advises against using it for year-over-year trend comparison.

Each dot is a cited figure over time; the dotted line only links them (values between aren't measured). Hollow dots are estimates.

Official statistic: Copied by a script from a statistics agency table or a published study's table, not retyped by hand. BLS figures and the forecast and exposure tables are also re-checked against that table on every data run. Researched context: Researched from the cited source rather than copied from it by a script, so it is not machine-checked yet. Spot a mistake? Each figure has a “Report an error” link.

How it began · 1895

In 1895 a small group of New York foot-care practitioners founded the Pedic Society of New York, the first professional organisation of chiropodists in the world. The society was a deliberate act of boundary-drawing: it separated the skilled practitioner from the itinerant corn-cutter who had for decades set up a chair in marketplaces and barbershops, charging a few cents to pare calluses without any formal training. Chiropody (from the Greek cheir, hand, and pous, foot) had been practised informally in the United States since the colonial era, and several New York chiropodists had built substantial practices in the decades before the society formed. But without licensing, schools, or any shared standard of competency, the field was wide open to quackery. The society changed that, and its founding is the moment when chiropodists first existed as a distinct, self-governing occupation rather than a craft sideline. Within seventeen years the profession had a national body (the National Association of Chiropodists, 1912, with 225 founding members), seven schools operating between 1912 and 1916, and a Council on Education established in 1918 to oversee training quality. The first standalone podiatric school in the United States opened in New York in 1911. By the start of the Second World War, US practitioners received a Doctor of Surgical Chiropody degree; in the 1960s, the schools transitioned to the Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM), a four-year postgraduate medical programme that placed podiatry firmly inside the health-professions family. The profession was renamed at the national association level in 1957 (American Podiatry Association) and the current formal name, Doctor of Podiatric Medicine, became standard as schools upgraded their curricula through the 1960s.

Cited forecasts · present → 2035

Will AI replace podiatrists? What the research says

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.

What published forecasts say

Forecast change in the number of people doing this work, as published by each named source. Bars share one scale on every role, centred on zero and reaching the end at ±30%. Grey marks a small change, 3% or less either way.

BLS Employment Projections 2025-35

→ 2035

+2%

BLS National Employment Matrix, 2025-35 cycle, line for SOC 29-1081 (Podiatrists): 10.0 thousand jobs in 2025, projected 10.2 thousand in 2035, a change of +0.2 thousand (+2.0%). Matrix employment counts all jobs in the occupation, including self-employed workers (1.9% of this occupation in 2025). The average for all occupations in this cycle is +3.5%.

Official statisticReport an error

How exposed is this work to AI (research measures)

Scores as published by each study. Each row says what it measures. These measure what AI could technically do, not forecasts of jobs lost.

Eloundou et al. (2023), "GPTs are GPTs"

2023 study · Share of tasks exposed to LLMs (β, human-rated)

28.6%

of tasks

What this measures

Published occupation-level exposure from the paper's occ_level.csv for O*NET-SOC 29-1081.00 Podiatrists. Shown: human-rated β = 0.286, the share of the occupation's tasks an LLM could do in at least half the time at equal quality, counting tasks that need LLM-powered software at half weight (β = E1 + 0.5 × E2). Other published measures for this occupation: human-rated α (LLM alone) 0.19 and γ (all LLM-assisted) 0.381; GPT-4-rated β 0.286. This measures how much of the work an LLM could touch, not how many jobs disappear.

Official statisticReport an error

Today, in this role

What's changing day to day for podiatrists

Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.

AI is sitting alongside you hereGenerate post-visit clinical notes and SOAP documentation using an AI ambient scribe that listens to the patient encounter, structures the note, and populates the podiatry EHR, reducing per-visit documentation time from 10-15 minutes to review-and-sign.

Generate post-visit clinical notes and SOAP documentation using an AI ambient scribe that listens to the patient encounter, structures the note, and populates the podiatry EHR, reducing per-visit documentation time from 10-15 minutes to review-and-sign.^[6],[7]

Tools picking this up

Heidi Health ↗Freed AI ↗

Where your edge is

Adopt an AI scribe with podiatry-specific templates (procedure notes, wound debridement, orthotic fitting); review every AI-drafted note before signing: the AI cannot verify physical exam findings it did not observe.

AI is sitting alongside you hereRemotely monitor high-risk diabetic patients for pre-ulcerative inflammation using a daily temperature-sensing mat (SmartMat)

Remotely monitor high-risk diabetic patients for pre-ulcerative inflammation using a daily temperature-sensing mat (SmartMat); review AI-flagged alerts and triage which patients need an urgent in-person visit before visible ulceration develops.^[8],[9]

Tools picking this up

Podimetrics SmartMat ↗

Where your edge is

Integrate SmartMat alert workflows into your practice's care management protocol; develop triage criteria for acting on AI-flagged asymmetric temperature differentials before the ulcer forms.

AI is taking this onReview AI-assisted billing and CPT code recommendations generated from wound debridement and surgical procedure notes, verify accuracy, and submit claims, replacing manual charge capture with AI-suggested codes drawn directly from the clinical note.

Review AI-assisted billing and CPT code recommendations generated from wound debridement and surgical procedure notes, verify accuracy, and submit claims, replacing manual charge capture with AI-suggested codes drawn directly from the clinical note.^[10]

Tools picking this up

Net Health Tissue Analytics ↗

Where your edge is

Validate AI CPT suggestions against procedure documentation; understand coding rules for complex wound care (CPT 97597/97598, wound size thresholds) so you catch upcoding or downcoding errors the AI may introduce.

Where podiatrists go next

Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.

Medical and Health Services Managers
US median pay
$123,860 (May 2025)
BLS outlook 2025-35
+24.2%
Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
US median pay
$109,370 (May 2025)
BLS outlook 2025-35
+7.6%
Orthotists and Prosthetists
US median pay
$81,110 (May 2025)
BLS outlook 2025-35
+12.9%

What each move takes

A direction you could grow

Medical and Health Services Managers

Experienced podiatrists who build and operate multi-site group practices already handle hiring, supply procurement, payer contracting, and EHR selection: the core competencies of health services management. AI-driven wound care documentation and remote monitoring platforms require clinical champions who can evaluate and deploy them at scale.

What you'd add

· Healthcare operations and revenue cycle management
· EHR platform evaluation (Net Health, Swift Medical integration workflows)
· Value-based care contracting and quality-metric reporting
· MBA or MHA coursework in healthcare finance

What it takesSome new skills to pick up

Tools of the era

How has the work of podiatrists changed since 1895?

The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.

Hand instruments + plaster-cast orthotics (early professional era)
The first generation of credentialed chiropodists worked with hand tools that had changed little since the era of itinerant corn-cutters: scalpels, curettes, nail nippers, and probes. What distinguished the professional was not the tool kit but the training to use it safely. X-ray technology, available commercially from the late 1890s, entered podiatric practice slowly; most early chiropodists could not afford or access hospital radiography and relied on manual examination. Foot orthotics were hand-fabricated from leather, felt, cork, or plaster of Paris and fitted in the office. The absence of any powered or mechanised instrument meant that clinical throughput was low and procedures were time-intensive.
Fluoroscopy + podiatric X-ray (weight-bearing radiographs for surgical planning)
Weight-bearing foot radiographs became the standard diagnostic tool for podiatric surgical planning in the post-war era. The introduction of portable and office-based X-ray units put radiographic capability within reach of private podiatric practices for the first time. Weight-bearing views of the foot, which reveal deformities under load that non-weight-bearing films hide, became central to bunion correction, flatfoot reconstruction, and arthritis staging. Fluoroscopy enabled real-time intraoperative guidance for fracture reduction and hardware placement. This era also saw the first power instruments (electric drills and oscillating saws) enter the surgical suite, making bone-cutting faster and more precise than manual osteotomy tools.
Medicare physician recognition + surgical expansion (DPM as licensed physician)
The Social Security Amendments of 1965, which created Medicare, defined "physician" under Section 1861(r) to include a doctor of podiatric medicine. This was a pivotal institutional technology in the sociological sense: it embedded podiatry inside the US healthcare payment infrastructure, unlocked hospital admitting privileges, and enabled the DPM to perform foot-and-ankle surgery in accredited operating rooms rather than office procedure rooms only. The Medicare definition gave podiatrists the same legal standing as MDs and DOs for foot-related procedures, attracting better-qualified applicants to the profession and raising compensation. Surgical volume expanded substantially through the 1970s and 1980s, with bunionectomy, hammertoe correction, and metatarsal procedures becoming office-level or ambulatory-surgery-centre procedures.
CAD/CAM orthotics + computerised gait analysis (first digital pressure mapping)
The 1980s and 1990s brought the first computerised plantar pressure-mapping systems into podiatric practice, replacing the ink-footprint and plaster-cast methods that had dominated orthotic fabrication since the early 20th century. Tekscan (founded 1987) introduced thin-film pressure sensors that could capture dynamic foot-floor forces during walking; F-Scan in-shoe sensors followed. CAD/CAM orthotic fabrication, which allowed a digital scan to drive a CNC milling machine producing a custom device, began replacing the hand-grinding and vacuum-forming lab work that previously required a skilled orthotic technician. The transition shortened custom-device turnaround from two to three weeks to two to three days and reduced the skill barrier to prescribing functional orthotics.
Electronic health records + podiatry-specific EHR modules (Modernizing Medicine, Practice Fusion, Kareo)
The HITECH Act of 2009 and its Meaningful Use incentive programme drove EHR adoption across health professions, including podiatry. Podiatry-specific EHR modules from vendors like Modernizing Medicine (EMA Podiatry), Practice Fusion, and Kareo allowed DPMs to document wound measurements, nail procedures, surgical notes, and orthotics fittings in structured templates rather than free-text narrative. The shift improved billing accuracy (CPT code suggestions from documentation), enabled outcome tracking (wound-size trends, return visit intervals), and created the structured data foundation on which later AI tools such as Net Health Tissue Analytics would build. EHR adoption in small podiatric practices lagged large hospital systems by approximately five years, with most solo and small-group practices fully electronic only by 2015-2018.
Remote temperature monitoring + smart insoles (Podimetrics SmartMat 2014, first-generation wearable sensors)
Podimetrics launched the SmartMat in 2014 as an FDA-cleared remote patient monitoring device that detects plantar temperature differentials predictive of developing diabetic foot ulcers up to five weeks before visible breakdown. Patients with high-risk diabetic neuropathy step on the mat for many seconds daily; the AI-backed system alerts the care team when asymmetric temperatures exceed a clinical threshold. The device shifted podiatric care for diabetic patients from a reactive, clinic-visit-driven model toward a continuous remote surveillance model. By 2022, Podimetrics had raised $45 million in Series C funding and the SmartMat had demonstrated 97 percent sensitivity for predicting plantar foot ulcers in clinical validation studies. The broader effect was a restructuring of the high-risk diabetic-foot appointment: the DPM's time shifted toward interpreting alerts and managing escalations rather than routine surveillance examinations.
Effect on the work
Remote monitoring enables one DPM to manage a significantly larger panel of high-risk diabetic patients, potentially reducing per-patient time while improving outcomes. The efficiency gain supports the case for podiatry's role in diabetic limb-salvage programmes, but does not directly reduce the number of podiatric practitioners needed.
AI wound imaging (Swift Medical wound photography AI, Net Health Tissue Analytics)
Swift Medical launched its smartphone-based AI wound imaging platform in 2017, applying computer vision to standardised wound photographs to automatically segment tissue types, measure wound area and depth to within nearly all manual measurement accuracy, and generate a structured wound assessment report. Net Health Tissue Analytics (founded 2015, FDA Breakthrough Device designation) added CPT billing code automation from wound documentation and EHR integration via API. Together these tools replaced the ruler-and-clock manual wound measurement method that had been standard in diabetic foot care since the 1970s. A systematic review published in Journal of Wound Care (2020) found that AI wound-measurement platforms reduced documentation time by 79 percent per wound visit. The tools also created a longitudinal wound image record, enabling trend analysis that was impractical with manual methods.
AI ambient scribes + AI radiographic measurement (Heidi Health, Freed, IB Lab FROG)
From 2020 onward, two distinct AI tool categories entered podiatric practice in parallel. Ambient AI scribes (Heidi Health, Freed, Nabla) listen to the patient encounter and generate a structured SOAP note with podiatry-specific templates, recovering many clinical days per year per DPM previously lost to post-visit typing. AI radiographic measurement (IB Lab FROG, CE-MDR cleared, launched November 2024) automatically measures several standardised landmarks on weight-bearing foot X-rays, replacing manual goniometry and reducing measurement variability between clinicians. Both categories represent augmentation of the DPM's workflow rather than substitution: the AI handles measurement and documentation, freeing the clinician for diagnosis, patient communication, and procedural work that requires physical presence.

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Podiatrists employment and pay by year

On record since1895

Latest US employment9,680 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error

Latest US median pay$160,300 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error

Outlook+2% by 2035Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35Official statisticReport an error

View all 25 years of cited US data, each linked to its source

Year	US employment	Annual pay (median unless marked)	Source	Report
1970	7,200	$24,000	Est., CDC NCHS Series 14 Researched context	Report
1974	7,500	n/a	Est., CDC NCHS Series 14 Researched context	Report
2003	7,800	$94,060	BLS OEWS May 2003 Official statistic	Report
2004	7,550	$94,400	BLS OEWS May 2004 Official statistic	Report
2005	8,290	$100,550	BLS OEWS May 2005 Official statistic	Report
2006	9,020	$108,220	BLS OEWS May 2006 Official statistic	Report
2007	9,320	$110,510	BLS OEWS May 2007 Official statistic	Report
2008	9,670	$113,560	BLS OEWS May 2008 Official statistic	Report
2009	9,720	$116,250	BLS OEWS May 2009 Official statistic	Report
2010	9,310	$118,030	BLS OEWS May 2010 Official statistic	Report
2011	9,210	$119,250	BLS OEWS May 2011 Official statistic	Report
2012	9,090	$116,440	BLS OEWS May 2012 Official statistic	Report
2013	8,850	$118,210	BLS OEWS May 2013 Official statistic	Report
2014	8,910	$120,700	BLS OEWS May 2014 Official statistic	Report
2015	9,500	$119,340	BLS OEWS May 2015 Official statistic	Report
2016	9,800	$124,830	BLS OEWS May 2016 Official statistic	Report
2017	9,670	$127,740	BLS OEWS May 2017 Official statistic	Report
2018	9,500	$129,550	BLS OEWS May 2018 Official statistic	Report
2019	9,770	$126,240	BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statistic	Report
2020	9,710	$134,300	BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statistic	Report
2021	8,840	$145,840	BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statistic	Report
2022	9,320	$148,720	BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statistic	Report
2023	9,470	$141,650	BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statistic	Report
2024	9,520	$152,800	BLS OEWS May 2024 (employment) Official statisticBLS OEWS May 2024 (pay) Official statistic	Report
2025	9,680	$160,300	BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statistic	Report

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Where podiatrists go next

Medical and Health Services Managers

Hand instruments + plaster-cast orthotics (early professional era)Hand instruments + plaster-cast orthoti…1895–1950

Fluoroscopy + podiatric X-ray (weight-bearing radiographs for surgical planning)Fluoroscopy + podiatric X-ray1950–1980

Medicare physician recognition + surgical expansion (DPM as licensed physician)Medicare physician recognition + surgic…1965–1995

CAD/CAM orthotics + computerised gait analysis (first digital pressure mapping)CAD/CAM orthotics + computerised gait a…1985–2005

Electronic health records + podiatry-specific EHR modules (Modernizing Medicine, Practice Fusion, Kareo)Electronic health records + podiatry-sp…2000–2020

Remote temperature monitoring + smart insoles (Podimetrics SmartMat 2014, first-generation wearable sensors)Remote temperature monitoring + smart i…2014–2022

AI wound imaging (Swift Medical wound photography AI, Net Health Tissue Analytics)AI wound imaging2015–2022

AI ambient scribes + AI radiographic measurement (Heidi Health, Freed, IB Lab FROG)AI ambient scribes + AI radiographic me…2020–present

Podiatrists employment and pay by year

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