Thanks for visiting my initial page.
My whole professional title is Michael A. Zapf, DPM, MPH, FACFAS, FACFAOM
DPM - Doctor of Podiatric Medicine. This is one of the five healing arts with a full and unlimited prescribing privilege (along with MDs, DOs, DVMs and DDSs). Doctors of Podiatric Medicine perform a whole range of medical and surgical services on the foot and ankle and, in some states, the leg as well. (In one state there is a podiatrist who will use external frames to add 4" of length to your height for $40,000.). Most all of us have admitting privileges at local hospitals and medical centers. Currently the training includes 4 years of medical school after college and 3 years in a surgical residency at a teaching hospital If you are keeping score that is 11 years after high school.
MPH - Master of Public Health. After I graduated from California State University at Lone Beach I spent time at UCLA getting a degree in Public Health with a specialty in Infectious and Tropical Diseases. Unfortunately they no longer have that specialization at UCLA any longer but I enjoyed learning about dengue fever and mosquito and tick borne diseased. I parlayed this training into certification as a Public Health Microbiologist. I spent several years working as a microbiologist for the County of Los Angeles. This was followed by three years working for the State of California as a hospital and clinical laboratory inspector. During this time I also enrolled at UCLA for a second master's degree: the MBA. This was before the school developed the Anderson School and it was just known as the Graduate School of Management (GSM). What fun those days were with the famous corporate sponsored "beer busts" on the roof of the GSM every Thursday night. This was a great way to meet possible employers in a social setting. (I wonder if they still have them?) Anyway I left both my state job and my UCLA educational career to make a mid-live course correction and enrolled at the California College of Podiatric Medicine in 1980. I have settled down in my career choices since.
FACFAS - Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. This is the honorary and specialty society that you are allowed to join once you achieve Board Certification. Funny how this works. You can use the initials DABPS which means you are a Diplomate of the American Board of Podiatric Surgery which is the actual organization that does the certification, but no one does. We all use the fluffier certification by the Fellowship to indicate Board Certified status. You have to know that no one can be a Fellow without first becoming Board Certified but no one ever makes the blatant statement Board Certified. It is inferred by the Fellowship status.
FACFAOM - Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Orthopedics and Medicine. Even in our little profession of podiatry we have two different Boards. The first is the surgery board and the second is the American Board of Podiatric Orthopedics and Podiatric Primary Medicine (ABPOPPM) is the everything else board. FACFAOM indicated the fellowship of those of us who are certified in this other board. While the requirements for this board are just as hard as that for the surgery board, fewer hospitals will accept it for surgical privileges. I love this board because it means you are an all around knowledgeable podiatrist but it just has not caught on as did the surgery board.