The UAB Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy is honored to welcome the inaugural fellow for the newly launched Advanced Podiatric Limb Salvage and Reconstruction Fellowship: Jonathan Gomez Garcia, DPM, MBA.
Garcia joined the UAB Department of Surgery as the new fellow this August.
He earned his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University. Garcia then moved to Alabama for his clinical residency training at the Central Alabama Veteran’s Administration Healthcare System in Montgomery, where he was the chief resident and had an advanced rearfoot reconstruction and ankle surgery designation. In addition to his medical training, Garcia also has an MBA with a concentration in healthcare management which he earned from the University of Texas at Tyler.
Garcia says his three-year residency at the VA trained him to provide care such as surgery for forefoot pathology, rearfoot reconstructive and ankle surgery, surgery for trauma and fractures, and more. Though fellowship is not a requirement for a podiatrist, after residency Garcia was looking for even more focused training to enrich his knowledge and skill set. Near the end of his residency, he learned about UAB’s new Advanced Podiatric Limb Salvage and Reconstruction Fellowship.
With a focus on limb salvage at the intersection of vascular surgery and podiatry, this fellowship is the first of its kind in the state. Alabama has one of the highest rates of diabetes at 15% of the total population, so the possibility of limb loss due to diabetes is a real concern for those struggling with the disease.
Because of this, and because UAB is the largest tertiary academic medical facility in the state, fellows in this program will be exposed to complex lower extremity pathologies not seen elsewhere, such as Charcot foot and ankle deformities, post traumatic deformities, complex burn patients, and more.
Garcia says this wide breadth of cases allow for him to develop advanced surgical skills and knowledge that would take him years to amass on his own.
“I am only into my second month of the program but already feel like I have progressed years professionally as a podiatrist,” Garcia said. “Every day, every case, I learn new concepts, new techniques, new thought processes and approaches to a patient or case, and get valuable feedback that I can take and apply to my next case."
Program Director Kyle Mauk, DPM, and additional division faculty members Brent Haverstock, DPM, Kenneth Unger, DPM, and Richard Harris, III, DPM, all bring a “breadth and depth of knowledge and surgical skills that makes the program worthwhile,” says Garcia.
“This fellowship offers an unmatched opportunity to learn alongside exceptional vascular surgeons and podiatrists at one of the top academic medical centers in the country,” Garcia said. “UAB will be the first institution ever to produce a fellowship-trained podiatrist in Alabama, and I’m profoundly grateful to be that podiatrist.”
For more information on the fellowship, visit the Advanced Podiatric Limb Salvage and Reconstruction Fellowship webpage.