Michael Litman, Podiatrist and Inventor

>> I'm a semi-retired podiatrist. I work on a part-time basis. I love it. I enjoy it. I don't do surgical procedures anymore. I refer them mostly to the school, of Temple School of Podiatry, but I enjoy the interaction. I have now grandchildren of the grandparents I used to treat and stuff, and it's just wonderful to have that kind of family relationship. I've always taken the patient very seriously because my father, who I respected more than any other man in the world, said treat everybody like you're family, and I try to do that in my every day activities, and I try to convey that to the students. And if you do that, you'll be successful, and you won't have, you know, antagonistic people. I think you'll put them at ease if you treat them as a family member. Prior to March 6, 1989, for, that's when my son was born, and he's my heart, and he'll be here today. He's the actor we were talking about. I would go, prior to 1989, I'd be in the hospital three to four mornings a week as chief of surgery. I'd either perform surgery on my patients or supervise other attendees of my staff. And then I would go to do office hours, and that would be my working career. I've always had a love for animals. Back in the years that I used to perform a lot of podiatry and surgery, I had a horse farm in which my wife and I did time, raised Arabians and thoroughbreds as well as boxer dogs. They've always been a major love of mine. Back in the day when, in the 70's and 80's, we had 11 offices that we were running concurrently. So we would be performing [inaudible] it would be my associates and myself, we would do anywhere from seven to ten surgical procedures a week in the hospital as well as office procedures. So I would say probably the daily, weekly load would be probably 15 to 20 surgeries a week. Now, you have to realize my surgical procedures were 70's and 80's. Today, they do so far more sophisticated procedures, but if I was doing an implant, in other words, replacing a person's joints at the first metatarsal [inaudible] level, you certainly want that done under hospital settings. Any major bone surgery we would do in the hospital. In the office, we would do a nail procedure, wart removal, things along those lines, maybe a [inaudible], a [inaudible]. Minor soft-tissue procedures we can do very well in the office, but when we're dealing with bone, it's the fear of osteomyelitis, even though we try to use the most sterile conditions in the office, you still like to have that patient monitored in a hospital setting and have an anesthesiologist right there, too. But the podiatrist can do anything what we call from palliative care, that's when, if you come in with an ingrown nail or very sore, inflamed corn or callus, to sports medicine. We have pediatric orthopedics where they take care of babies and apply braces, splints, casting, sometimes surgical procedures. So it's really the whole scope up to below the knee, and anything that involves that. As you mentioned, a lot of people as they start get into jogging, they don't do the proper stretching. They do over, we do overcompensation, you get shin splints, and it's a wonderful, wonderful feeling when you can help people and -