Podiatry Profile: Professor Ivan Bristow

Ivan Bristow is a Visiting Lecturer at Health Sciences University and lectures on the MSc Podiatry course.

With 34 years of experience in the podiatry and dermatology field, Ivan tells us why it is such an important area and a great career choice. He also reflects on how there are currently not enough skilled podiatry and dermatology professionals in the UK and what can be done about this.

Can you tell us about your career so far?

I’ve been in healthcare for 34 years. I graduated in 1990 as a podiatrist and from there, I’ve spent 11 years working in the National Health Service, where I developed an interest in dermatology.

I established the UK’s first podiatry clinic in the dermatology department at Oxford at the Churchill Hospital, which fuelled my interest and research in foot-related foot and ankle dermatology.

And from there, after 11 years, I went into academia. After a brief spell at the University of Northampton, I moved to the University of Southampton, where I was for 14 years. My job there was education and research, and I developed a research portfolio in dermatology of the lower leg foot and ankle. I completed my PhD there at that time.

Since 2017, I’ve been working as a self-employed podiatrist. I also spend a lot of time in education and training for healthcare professionals in dermatology.

One of my main roles is as Director/Trustee of the Primary Care Dermatology Society, a large national organisation that promotes education in dermatology for all healthcare professionals. It has about 9,000 members. I have a strong commitment to educating more healthcare professionals in dermatology because it’s an area where we don’t have enough skilled people, although dermatology skin problems are very common.

Around 25% of all new GP consultations, for example, are skin-related, although training in dermatology nationally is not what it should be. I have a strong ethos to change that, whether you’re a podiatrist, nurse, or GP. I think it’s very, very important.

What’s your link with Health Sciences University?

The podiatry course has been running for two years, so it’s a new venture for HSU. My colleagues, Dr Simon Otter and Dr Michelle Spruce, who I had worked with previously at other institutions, started the programme. As I am based locally in the New Forest, and with the expertise I have, I was asked to go and do some presentations and lectures to the students, which I’ve done on a regular basis since the programme began.

The research that I’m doing is critical and key, and having those links with HSU is exciting to really promote podiatry, as well as facilitating more research and publications through the university.

I also help students navigate into the world of dermatology, which is very important and is a large part of what they do as a podiatrist.

So it’s an exciting venture at HSU and I’m pleased to be part of it.

What is your reflection on the Podiatry profession and why is it so important?

It’s important because we’ve all got feet! I think as a profession there is so much we have to offer. We can make a big difference to general health, particularly when you look at the problems we have in healthcare; circulatory problems, diabetes (which is a big issue), and dermatology skin problems affecting the lower limb and foot.

We don’t have enough podiatrists in the United Kingdom to meet the demand in the NHS, let alone in private practice. So I think from a career point of view, it’s an excellent career, but it’s not one that people will naturally make as a first choice because people aren’t aware of it.

Other professions like medicine, nursing, and physiotherapy are more popular as they have more appeal, but actually podiatry can offer just as much, although it’s probably not something people naturally think about.

You don’t often hear a 16 year old say “when I grow up, I want to be a podiatrist” – it doesn’t happen! Most people who end up as podiatrists do it because they’ve experienced it or had treatment as a child. That’s the way that they come to know the work of podiatrists.

But it’s about promoting the profession because we are in relatively small numbers compared to other allied health professionals.

What would you say are the important topics in the podiatry profession at the moment?

In terms of patient-facing, the main ones are based on the increase in diabetes and diabetes care, prevention, and treatment of the complications of diabetes, which can affect the foot and lower limb. Also all aspects of foot health generally.

Many of the things that we see are skin problems; we have a rise in skin cancers, for example. That’s where dermatology comes in quite heavily into podiatry, where the two paths cross. Vascular disease can affect the lower limbs and the circulation there. So a lot of the medical issues that are facing us nationally are also reflected in the foot and ankle, and so much of what a podiatrist does is part of that team, and managing and caring for those patients.

With my passion for education, I developed a free educational resource for people interested in lower limb and foot dermatology: www.foot.expert. It receives many thousands of visitors every week. It is something I continue to do as a free resource to promote the course, promote Podiatry and dermatology.

You can listen to Dr Ivan Bristow talk on the BBC Inside Health show about verrucas here.

You can find out more about the MSc Podiatry course or by requesting a copy of our latest Prospectus.