Podiatric Care in Latin America: Workforce, Training and Professional Regulation

Podiatric care in Latin America operates within a context of high and rising diabetes-related foot disease, yet the professionals who provide that care remain poorly characterized. This narrative review synthesizes the published evidence on the podiatric workforce, training pathways and professional regulation in Latin America. Scopus, OpenAlex, Crossref and PubMed were searched from 2015 to 2024 without language restriction, complemented by institutional sources, and the synthesis was organized into four thematic axes. The available evidence is fragmented and largely descriptive. Workforce data are indirect; foot care is frequently delegated to nurses, physicians and physiotherapists in the absence of podiatrists, whereas countries with established professions rely on censuses and population models that do not exist in the region. Training is best documented in Cuba, where technical and technologist programs follow an explicit competency model, and coexists in Mexico with technical and bachelor degree routes. Professional regulation is heterogeneous: consolidated in Chile and Uruguay since the mid twentieth century, still pending legislative approval in Brazil and fragmented in Argentina and Mexico. Intrusion and contested scope boundaries are recurring concerns. The main gaps are the absence of workforce statistics, the weak link between disease burden and service delivery, and limited evaluation of training outcomes. Standardized workforce registries, competency frameworks and comparative regulatory research are needed across the region.