An Innovative Board

The ACCPPS was incorporated in 1987 as a nonprofit corporation in Michigan. The ACCPPS has introduced many beneficial changes in the certification process for podiatrists. The ACCPPS was the first podiatric certification board to establish a "cases after examination" sequence. ACCPPS was the first to establish a mandatory recertification program, one which is substantive and unmatched in the profession. ACCPPS was the first to modify the residency training requirement for those who graduated school at a time when residency training was unavailable to them. ACCPPS was the first to establish an endorsement policy, thereby enabling candidates to obtain ACCPPS credit for their prior successful examinations and case studies undertaken for some other certification boards. The value of these innovations is apparent in that some of them have been adopted by competing boards.

Our senior practitioners are a professional resource of inestimable value. It is the senior practitioners who have brought the science and art of podiatric medicine and surgery to its present state. It is the senior practitioners who establish residency programs to help train others, even though they themselves may have been denied such an opportunity. Senior practitioners are the source of the knowledge taught in the classrooms. They are the clinicians teaching hands-on diagnosis and treatment in the school clinics. It is their experience that guides the resident's hand in the operating room. They are our mentors.

The newer practitioners represent our future. They must take what they can from the seniors and expand it, driving the body of professional knowledge ever upward. They are our future seniors and mentors.

The ACCPPS proudly serves our profession, our mentors, and our mentors in training.