A Look Inside the Podiatry Fellowship with Dr. Tyson Strom

Congratulations to Tyson Strom, DPM, CWSP, upcoming graduate of the Michigan Medicine Podiatry Fellowship Training Program!

Dr. Tyson Strom received his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) degree from Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine, completed his residency at University Hospitals Richmond Medical Center, and then joined the Michigan Medicine Podiatry Fellowship Training Program in July 2020. In addition to contributing daily to the podiatry clinic and inpatient consult service, Dr. Strom continues to work on our program’s research and patient education efforts and has several articles in press related to Fusarium, offloading, and his research on the relationship between continuous glucose monitoring and wound healing in foot ulcers. Dr. Strom was also a presenter at the Michigan Podiatric Medical Association (MPMA) Great Lakes Conference in February 2022 and has presented at over 20 internal and external conferences.

Dr. Strom graduates in June 2022 and then will be returning home to Montana where his family lives. Below he shares his experience in the program and what he's learned.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned while doing your fellowship?

The most important thing that I have learned during my fellowship is the true practice of evidence-based medicine. Being able to surround myself in the world of research and academia has given me a greater appreciation for the amount work that goes into medical research. By understanding this process more thoroughly, I believe it helps me be a better physician when treating my patients and being able to give them realistic goals and expectations with regards to the current literature.

What aspects of the fellowship do you enjoy the most?

I really enjoyed seeing patients in our outpatient clinic and inpatient. While podiatry is limited to the foot and ankle, we do not have a lot of “routine” patients. Our patients all present with different problems, most of which are large systemic disease (i.e., Diabetes) with manifestations in the lower extremity. So having the opportunity to work with patients and our faculty to help these patients not only with podiatric problems, but also working with them to manage their co-morbidities, is a very rewarding part of the fellowship.

How do you think the fellowship has prepared you for the future?

The fellowship has prepared me in so many ways for my future career. Most notable, again is the focus on research and academia. I have presented at over 20 conferences over the two years, both institutionally and regionally. I have been involved with many different research projects and had the experience of creating my own research project. This experience has been invaluable to prepare me for a career in academic medicine.

What research projects did you work on, what were the goals, and why were you interested in the topics?

I was involved with a few research projects. My own research project was entitled “Exploring the Relationship between Continuous Glucose Monitoring Metrics and Wound Healing in Foot Ulcers Complicating Diabetes - A Pilot Study”. I was interested in starting this project as I have close personal connections to people with type 1 diabetes mellitus who use Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) devices. CGM devices are becoming very popular in the world of endocrinology for their positive effects on glucose management and I was interested if positive effects were also seen in wound healing. I also created a Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Project entitled “No Specimen Left Behind” in which we worked to improve the handling and processing of inpatient bedside culture specimens throughout the hospital. I was also involved in a research project led by Dr. Rebecca Burmeister entitled “Assessing Patient Knowledge about Diabetic Foot Ulcer Offloading”, which was presented by Dr. Burmeister at the ADA Scientific Sessions in 2021. I was also involved with recruitment for many ongoing studies through the Diabetic Foot Consortium.

How do you spend your day when you’re in the clinic?

The fellow’s clinic is structured so that the on-call attending for the week will staff the fellow’s clinic. That attending does not have their own clinic on those days, which aides in the timeliness of staffing patients. The fellow’s clinic sees patients with urgent issues, hospital or surgery follow-ups, or new patients. There is less of a focus on routine podiatric care. The clinic is in the morning as the afternoon hours are dedicated to inpatient service. Our attending providers allow the fellows autonomy with treating patients and performing procedures.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

The accomplishment that I am most proud of is the completion of my own research project from background investigation, IRB approval, data collection, writing a manuscript, and presenting the research. The project takes a lot of time and hard work and there is a feeling of accomplishment, but even greater than the feeling of knowing that you completed the project is knowing that you have done something that is potentially going to help many patients.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job is never knowing what is going to happen that day. Our job as podiatrist is never boring and we are constantly having to adapt to urgent and even emergent situations at times. Podiatry is a rare specialty in that many times patients can have the instant satisfaction of leaving our office feeling better, but also many times we must have difficult life altering discussions with our patients about limb salvage and amputation. There is never a day that I don’t feel as if I haven’t helped someone and that gives me the satisfaction to continue this wonderful career.

Learn More About the Podiatry Fellowship Training Program

The Podiatry Fellowship Training Program in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes is a two-year program that involves all areas of clinical medicine, with an emphasis on research and patient populations at risk for limb loss. Fellows in the program rotate in the Podiatry Clinic, Wound Care Clinic, and other specialty clinics throughout the two years. When they’re not in the clinic, they work on developing their research project and gain exposure to various components of the research process.
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