Somehow podiatry came up ( I have no background in medicine) and I was wondering why in the world are feet doctors a specialty compared to a general surgeon or someone that might fix a broken arm or hand issues?
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You’ll generally find a pretty developed allied health service for most things where there’s specialised practical skills and quite extensive aids / devices.
Other examples are diabetes educators (lots of troubleshooting around insulin and lots of equipment with monitors and different insulin pens), dietician (specialised knowledge and a lot of food specific assistance), occupational therapy (assistance devices like walkers and rails etc). Dental hygienist for less specialised practical tasks like deep cleaning teeth.
Podiatry fits both of these – footwear and orthotic insoles etc are quite specialised and need to be personalised to the individual, and there’s a heap of small operations or foot care that could be done by a doctor but don’t need to be (nail care, bunion treatment, ingrown nail removal etc).
There is also some nursing overlap in the area of high risk foot clinic – this mainly refers to ulcers and things, integrity problems that largely effect elderly people and people with diabetes – podiatrists are often involved as part of the wound care team in this case.
Feet are a real problem, more than a lot of other areas because they are very heavily used, and suffer problems earlier than other parts of the body when there are problems with blood flow or nerve damage (because its the furthest distance these systems have to cover).
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