Don Pelto, DPM - Podiatry Practice Mastery

What can you learn from a highly productive podiatrist who prioritizes listening, patient education, and personalized care? In part two of his podiatrist annual self-evaluation series, Dr. Don Pelto reviews his partner's answers and explores how asking better questions, explaining treatment options, and giving patients a clear plan can contribute to patient satisfaction and practice production. Do...

What do you do when a patient has severe foot pain, but the examination doesn't reveal a clear explanation? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Dr. Don Pelto shares the case of a 25-year-old woman who had already seen several doctors, tried different shoes and orthotics, and continued to experience significant foot pain. Drawing on ideas from The Body Keeps the Score and Dr. Sarno's work...

How do you evaluate an associate podiatrist's performance and identify opportunities for improvement without making the review process uncomfortable or overly focused on production? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Dr. Don Pelto walks through the annual podiatrist self-evaluation form he created with ChatGPT and shares his own answers. He examines clinical confidence, treatment planni...

Could an AI medical scribe help you capture revenue you're currently missing in your podiatry practice? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Dr. Don Pelto shares how using an AI scribe during routine nail care appointments has helped him document additional evaluation and management services that he previously overlooked during busy clinic sessions. Through five real patient examples invo...

What should you do when an associate podiatrist wants to reduce their workweek but keep the same salary? And how can a small podiatry practice support doctors taking family or medical leave without creating an unsustainable financial burden? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Dr. Don Pelto discusses real situations involving associate compensation, reduced work schedules, and family lea...

AI is becoming a practical virtual assistant for podiatrists who want to save time, improve staff performance, and grow their practices. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Dr. Don Pelto shares five real-world ways he's using AI in his practice, from creating staff training materials and patient education tools to building website information bots, repurposing content, and developing int...

Creating videos for your podiatry practice doesn't have to require expensive equipment, complicated editing, or hours of your time. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Dr. Don shares his simple video creation tech stack, including how he uses his smartphone, Google Drive, virtual assistants, and automation tools to make recording, editing, and publishing videos easier. You'll learn how t...

What can you learn by breaking down an actual day in a high-production podiatry practice? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don walks through 19 patients from a Monday in his practice, including fractures, shockwave treatments, AFOs, plantar fasciitis, posterior tibial tendon dysfunction, ingrown nails, orthotics, ultrasound, and other common podiatry visits. Along the way, Don shares...

Two podiatrists can see a similar number of patients and generate very different amounts of cash-pay revenue. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don breaks down the actual monthly ancillary production of four doctors in the same practice and looks at what each doctor does differently. The numbers reveal that a few services—especially orthotics and shockwave—generate most of the cash-pay...

Once you’ve made the insurance side of your podiatry practice more profitable, how do you successfully add cash-pay services without buying expensive equipment that ends up sitting unused? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don explains his approach to incorporating cash-pay treatments and products, including shockwave, Swift, laser, orthotics, and other services. Don discusses why you...

Many podiatrists accept insurance and stay busy but still struggle to make their practice as profitable as it should be. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don breaks down why simply seeing more patients isn’t always the answer—and why seeing the right mix of patients and fully utilizing the services insurance reimburses can make a major difference. Don covers evaluating low-paying insu...

Online reviews are important for a podiatry practice, but relying on yourself or your staff to remember to ask every patient can make it difficult to consistently generate them. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don shares how his practice automates Google review requests and a mistake he discovered in the way those requests were being sent. Don explains why he’s working to build revie...

Learn more at https://www.podiatrypracticemastery.com/accounting Most podiatrists understand the clinical side of running a practice far better than the financial side. But decisions about equipment purchases, hiring, expansion, taxes, cash flow, and eventually selling a practice can have a major impact on profitability. In this episode, Don talks with Tomer about a subscription-based approach to...

What happens when multiple doctors in the same podiatry practice have different treatment protocols? In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don shares a real challenge from his own practice: deciding how many shockwave therapy sessions patients should receive when doctors have different approaches. Don explains why he has traditionally used six shockwave sessions, why his colleagues prefer...

Your waiting room shouldn’t just keep patients occupied—it can educate them about the conditions you treat and the services and products available in your practice. In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don shares how he used ChatGPT and Canva to quickly create patient-facing waiting room videos covering everything from shockwave and DME to common foot and ankle conditions. Don walks throu...

In this episode of Podiatry Practice Mastery, Don breaks down his practical approach to choosing shockwave therapy settings, adjusting treatment intensity, and building confidence with both radial and non-radial shockwave devices. He covers pulse counts, frequency, treatment areas, patient tolerance, and why more intensity does not necessarily mean a better treatment. You’ll also hear how Don stru...

Patient education webinars can be a practical way to educate patients, create content, and potentially generate new appointments—but the details matter. In this episode, I break down what happened with my latest heel pain webinar, including how we promoted it, registration and attendance, the tools I used, and what I would change next time. I also share lessons around webinar reminders, tracking w...

Urgent care centers are seeing plenty of foot and ankle problems—but those patients may be better served coming directly to a podiatrist. In this episode, I share how I’m building stronger relationships with urgent care groups through a dedicated urgent care webpage, educational lectures, procedure videos, office visits, and referral outreach. I also break down why I’m willing to teach urgent care...

Have you wondered whether an AI scribe can actually replace a human scribe in a busy podiatry practice? In this episode, Don documents his first week using an AI scribe inside his practice. He shares the day-by-day realities of implementation, including documentation challenges, workflow adjustments, ModMed integration issues, patient communication, and the learning curve involved in changing long...

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Learn more - https://podform3d.com/ Here is video about 3D printing of orthotics. I go over some of my questions. You can reach out to Antonio here - https://podform3d.com/

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