The UAB Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, a division of the UAB Department of Surgery, is seeking applicants for a new podiatry fellowship program.
The UAB Advanced Podiatric Limb Salvage and Reconstruction Fellowship will focus on limb salvage and the intersection of vascular surgery and podiatry. This is the first fellowship of its kind in the state of Alabama.
This training has not been available in Alabama because state law (which hadn’t been updated since 1973) limited the range of care a podiatrist could provide. That changed in 2023 when Senate Bill 28 was signed into law, increasing podiatrists’ scope to include the ankle.
Clinical Associate Professor Kyle Mauk, DPM, who will direct the new fellowship, says this update to the state law isn’t just good news for doctors who want to get this specialized training in Alabama. It’ll be tremendously beneficial to the large diabetic patient population in Alabama who are at risk of needing lower limb amputations.
“We now have an opportunity to get involved and show the full breadth of what our service line can do,” Dr. Mauk said.
Alabama has one of the highest rates of diabetes at 15 percent, with nearly every county in the state being in a CDC-identified “diabetes belt.”
Every year, an estimated 23,500 adults in Alabama are diagnosed with diabetes. Alabama is one of the seven states in the nation with the highest prevalence of age-standardized diabetes.
Mauk’s UAB podiatry colleagues, Richard Harris, DPM, Brent Haverstock, DPM, and Kenneth Unger, DPM, will all be extensively involved in the fellowship program as well.
In addition to gaining robust clinical experience with podiatric surgeons, the fellow will also be able to learn and train with other experts throughout the UAB Hospital system, including the whole of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy and the Division of Infectious Diseases.
The fellowship is one year in duration and begins in August 2025.
Those interested can apply by sending their CV and three references (with their contact information) to podiatricsurgery@uabmc.edu.