In 2024, during a lecture I was presenting on gait analysis I mused to the attendees I have no idea how AI will change the profession. Fast forward to today and AI has started to have an impact on chiropody/podiatry practice. We have AI scribes that can generate diagnoses and treatment plans after listening to a practitioner-patient interaction. Time saver or threat?
I recently read the JAMA opinion article “AI in Medicine: Promoting Clinical Expertise in the Age of AI. No Struggle, No Mastery.” It makes a strong case that while artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday healthcare, it must be used in a way that strengthens, rather than replaces, clinical reasoning.
This message applies directly to footcare. Chiropody and podiatry programs give you the basic tools for all three pillars of clinical mastery: learning through effort, building experience over time, and developing metacognitive awareness. These foundations only become true expertise through repeated use in real clinical situations. AI can support that process, but it cannot substitute for it.
1. You Only Learn by Working Through the Problem
In footcare, the struggle is where the learning happens. We build expertise by asking:
- Why is the peroneal tendon overloaded?
- What is locking the cuboid?
- Which joint is driving the gait compensation?
- Is this a corn, a wart, or an IPK?
- Is this neuropathy, ischemia, or something systemic?
Chiropody and podiatry school teach the framework: anatomy, pathology, biomechanics, and dermatology. You only master it by applying it repeatedly in clinic. If AI gives the answer too quickly, the clinician loses the opportunity to reason through the case, and that is where mastery is built.
2. Experience Cannot Be Skipped
Our profession is hands-on. You cannot learn biomechanics, dermatology, or manual therapy from a screen.
You learn by:
- Feeling joint play
- Watching gait repeatedly
- Palpating soft-tissue tension
- Troubleshooting orthotics
- Seeing how footwear changes function
- Recognizing subtle differences in skin and nail pathology and other foot and ankle pathologies
- Is your plaster or 3D scanned cast adequate for CFO manufacture
School gives you the foundation. Experience builds the pattern library. AI can support learning, but it cannot replace the tactile and visual experience that defines expert footcare.
3. Knowing What You Know and What You Don’t
Good clinicians develop a sense of when something fits and when it does not.
In footcare, that includes:
- Knowing when heel pain is not plantar fasciitis
- Recognizing when a “fungal nail” is actually trauma
- Spotting early Charcot changes
- Identifying when systemic disease is driving the foot problem
- Knowing when to refer for imaging, vascular testing, or rheumatology
- Why am I having issues with the prescribed CFO
Chiropody and podiatry school teach the red flags and the decision pathways. Metacognition, the ability to trust your judgment and recognize your limits, only develops through real clinical exposure. AI often sounds confident even when it is wrong, and that can distort a new clinician’s sense of certainty.
How Footcare Training Can Use AI Safely
The article’s recommendations translate directly to chiropody and podiatry:
Commit first, then compare
The clinician performs their gait analysis, palpation, and differential diagnosis before checking AI.
AI as a reasoning coach
Instead of giving answers, AI prompts deeper thinking:
- What joint is most likely driving this?
- Which soft-tissue structure is overloaded?
- What systemic condition could mimic this?
AI as a safety net
AI can help flag red flags: infection, ischemia, neuropathy, and missed differentials.
AI-free zones
Essential for developing hands-on skill:
- Gait lab
- Manual therapy sessions
- Orthotic modification
- Dermatology rounds
- Case discussions
Gradual access to AI
Early trainees have limited AI. Advanced trainees have full access with commit-then-compare.
Tracking reasoning accuracy
AI can log the clinician’s initial diagnosis, confidence, and final outcome. This helps them calibrate their judgment over time.
Why This Matters for Chiropodists and Podiatrists
Our profession is uniquely vulnerable to “never skilling” because so much of what we do is hands-on, visual, mechanical, pattern-based, and rooted in systemic awareness.
AI can accelerate learning, but only if it supports reasoning rather than replacing it. School gives you the tools. Experience builds the mastery. AI should enhance that process, not shortcut it.
My next blog will discuss how I developed my mastery of biomechanics.
References:
Keren R, Desai BR, West DC. Promoting Clinical Expertise in the Age of AI: No Struggle, No Mastery. JAMA. Published online May 07, 2026. doi:10.1001/jama.2026.6097