Colorado § 12-290-102 - Definitions.

§ 12-290-102. Definitions.

As used in this article 290, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Board" means the Colorado podiatry board established pursuant to section 12-290-105.

(2) "Podiatric physician" or "podiatrist" means any person who practices podiatry.

(3) (a) "Practice of podiatry" or "podiatric medicine" means:

(I) Holding out one's self to the public as being able to treat, prescribe for, palliate, correct, or prevent any disease, ailment, pain, injury, deformity, or physical condition of the human toe, foot, ankle, tendons that insert into the foot, and soft tissue below the mid-calf, by the use of any medical, surgical, mechanical, manipulative, or electrical treatment, including complications thereof consistent with the scope of practice;

(II) Suggesting, recommending, prescribing, or administering any podiatric form of treatment, operation, or healing for the intended palliation, relief, or cure of any disease, ailment, injury, condition, or defect of the human toe, foot, ankle, tendons that insert into the foot, and soft tissue wounds below the mid-calf, including complications thereof consistent with the scope of practice; and

(III) Maintaining an office or other place for the purpose of examining and treating persons afflicted with disease, injury, or defect of the human toe, foot, ankle, tendons that insert into the foot, and soft tissue wounds below the mid-calf, including the complications thereof consistent with the scope of practice.

(b) The "practice of podiatry" does not include the amputation of the foot or the administration of an anesthetic other than a local anesthetic.

(c) A podiatrist may only treat a soft tissue wound below the mid-calf if the patient is being treated by a physician for his or her underlying medical condition or if the podiatrist refers the patient to a physician for further treatment of the underlying medical condition.

(4) "Soft tissue wound" means a lesion to the musculoskeletal junction that include dermal and sub-dermal tissue that do not involve bone removal or repair or muscle transfer.

Source: L. 2019: Entire title R&RE with relocations, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 1544, § 1, effective October 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-32-101 as it existed prior to 2019.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For note, "Acts of Diagnosis by Nurses and the Colorado Professional Nursing Practice Act", see 45 Den. L.J. 467 (1968).

In defining the "practice of podiatry", it was the intent of the general assembly to narrowly limit such definition to practice upon the human foot, toe, ankle, and tendons inserting into the foot and to require podiatrists to confine their practice strictly to the scope of their licenses. Thus, surgical and nonsurgical procedures performed by a podiatrist above the level of the ankle were outside the scope of podiatry. Snyder v. Colo. Podiatry Bd., 100 P.3d 496 (Colo. App. 2004) (decided under law in effect in 2003).