APMA News - September/October 2019 - 74

10 Questions
Featuring S. Jeffrey Ali, DPM, of Cleveland
In this feature, APMA News asks one member 10 questions and gets all the answers about his or her passions, ambitions, and priorities. Would you like to answer our questions?
Contact Aimee Condayan at arcondayan@apma.org.

When you were a kid, what
did you want to be when
you grew up?
A pilot, a race car driver,
or a pro football player.

What do you do for fun
during your time off?

If you could meet any famous person, who would it
be, and why?
Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, the second man
to walk on the moon. Fifty years later,
[the moon landing] remains one of humankind's greatest accomplishments.

Who would you most like to swap places
with for a day?
Tom Brady.

Who's the most memorable professor
you've ever had, and why?
There are too many to pick just one. Darol Kaufmann,
PhD, in undergrad parasitology at the University
of Wisconsin-Superior, and Larry Osher, DPM, in
radiology rotations at the Ohio College of Podiatric
Medicine [now Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine] were thorough and inspired my commitment.

74 APMA News September/October 2019

Where would you go if you could visit anywhere in the
world?
Yellowstone National Park, Hawaii, India, Germany,
Ireland, the parts of Australia I haven't seen, Japan,
and much of the American South.
What's the last book you read?
I have to listen to audiobooks in my car, due to time
constraints. The most recent one I fi nished was a
biography: John Marshall: The
Man Who Made the Supreme
Court. Marshall had so much
influence on the Supreme Court.
Current is Becoming, the autobiography of Michelle Obama.
It is a pretty good story so far,
and illustrates the importance
of family influences and support, and dedication.

What is the biggest change
you've seen in podiatric
medicine since you started practicing?
The slow death of solo private practice. Sadly,
that was one thing I wanted to be part of when
I first enrolled in podiatry school.

10.

Tell us about a patient who changed your
life or your approach to medicine.

A diabetic, neuropathic veteran who came to me
with ankle pain but denied trauma. He stated he
had bent over in the shower and his ankle just
started to hurt. As we don't have X-rays in our facility (the nearest available option is 15 miles away,
which is not accessible to some of our patients), I
didn't immediately send him for radiographs. It turned
out he had a serious ankle fracture. By the time I got
X-rays, he needed an ankle fusion. I am now much
more aggressive about insisting on timely, appropriate
care, and don't listen to "cost controllers" in such cases.

Buzz Aldrin by Shutterstock/s_bukley; Yellowstone National Park by Shutterstock/Kris Wiktor; Tom Brady by Shutterstock/Debby Wong.

I play ice hockey a couple
times a week, tennis when
I can, and I love to explore new places-local
and otherwise. I also love
biking, both on my bicycle and my Harley Davidson, neither of which I get
to enjoy enough. My poor
piano is collecting dust.

What's the best meal you've ever had?
Probably homemade lasagna. And no, I didn't make
it myself.

APMA News - September/October 2019

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