Demographic and geographic characterization of the podiatric specialty through the CMS National Downloadable File.

Abstract

Workforce data analyses of contemporary US podiatric physicians might be relatively lacking in comparison to other specialties. This information is important given concerns for the aging US population and predicted long-term physician shortages. The objective of this investigation was to provide a comprehensive contemporary demographic and geographic descriptive analysis of the podiatric specialty in the US. Epidemiologic descriptive analysis. The National Downloadable File produced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was accessed in July 2025. Demographic and geographic data related to those physicians with a credential of "DPM" was extracted and analyzed. The number of podiatric physicians with an active NPI was 15658. Of these, 70.9% were male. 22.8% graduated from podiatric medical school prior to 1991, while 31.6% graduated after 2011. Podiatric physicians with an active NPI billed within 6678 different zip codes and at 26386 different billing addresses. Although it was most frequent for DPMs with an active NPI to bill from one address (37.8%), the mean±standard deviation (range) of billing addresses per NPI was 1.7±1.5 (1-50). The results of this investigation provide unique information on the demographic and geographic characteristics of podiatric physicians with an active NPI. It is our hope that this primarily descriptive raw data is utilized by state and national organizations for improved work force analyses for the podiatric specialty. IV.