Our Staff - York Podiatrist - Martin Foot and Ankle

All our professionals at Martin Foot and Ankle maintain the highest levels of accreditation and pursue ongoing education to stay abreast of the latest trends in podiatry.

Podiatric Medical Assitants

A podiatric medical assistant is a person qualified by academic and practical clinical training to provide services to the patient under the direction of a licensed podiatrist.

Podiatry is that profession of the health sciences which deals with the examination, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases, conditions, and malfunctions affecting the human foot and its related or governing structures, by employment of medical, surgical or other means.

Education Training and Qualifications

Although at the present time there are no qualified formal education programs available, continuing education is available for all podiatric medical assistants at local, state, regional and national seminars.

Enjoying contact with people and willingness to help them... the ability to do accurate and precise work... good manual dexterity... along with cooperativeness, good judgment and a pleasant personality are valuable and necessary assets for a successful podiatric medical assistant.

Certification

A podiatric medical assistant can attain the designation of PMAC (Podiatric Medical Assistant Certified). This professional designation is awarded under the auspices of the American Society of Podiatric Medical Assistants.

PA State X-ray certification is a requirement necessary to perform radiologic services. All of our assistants are certified after a training program and exam is successfully submitted.

Scope of Duties

The podiatric medical assistant's duties depend on the podiatrist's type of practice, education and training, volume of patients, and the number of assistants in the practice.

The podiatric medical assistant's duties include: surgical assisting, chair side assisting, and business office procedures.

Some of the specific duties include exposing and developing x-rays, taking and recording patient histories, assisting in biomechanical evaluations and negative casting.

Included in the duties of surgical assisting are sterilization of instruments and equipment providing the patient with postoperative instructions, and application of surgical redressing.

Chair side assistants' duties involve preparing to patients for treatment, padding and strapping, and responding to basic patient needs.

Business office tasks encompass answering the telephone, maintaining an appointment schedule, handling insurance forms, maintaining inventory, receiving payment, processing the billing and other bookkepping procedures.

A podiatric medical assistant may be asked to perform any or all of the above duties.