Why Choose Seal Beach Podiatry Group, Inc.

At Alamitos-Seal Beach Podiatry Group, our practice philosophy centers around providing the most up-to-date and highest quality treatment to our patients. Our approach is to emphasize conservative treatment whenever possible. In prescribing treatment, medication, or surgery, we make every effort to offer the patient alternatives and necessary information so that a proper choice of treatment can be mutually agreed upon. Our practice offers the full scope of podiatric services, from routine foot care to complex foot and ankle surgery. Our sub-specialty services include treatment of sports injuries of the entire lower extremity, as well as treatment of foot and leg problems in infants and children. We are proud to be one of the rare practices in the nation to offer all three of the latest technologies in treating injuries of the foot and ankle, including EPAT® Shock Wave Therapy (Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Technology), and Radiofrequency Nerve Ablation. Our offices are fully equipped with X-ray facilities, an out-patient surgical suite, whirlpool and physical therapy services, a video treadmill lab, and a computerized gait analyzer.

Practice History

Alamitos-Seal Beach Podiatry Group was founded by Dr. Douglas Richie at the current Seal Beach location in 1981. In 1991, Dr. Richie purchased the practice of Dr. Charles Brantingham located in Los Alamitos, California. Hence, the two-office location of Alamitos-Seal Beach Podiatry Group was established and remains today.

Several associate doctors have worked with Dr. Richie over the past 35 years on a part time basis. In 2014, two full-time associate doctors joined Alamitos-Seal Beach Podiatry group and have now become partners in the practice. To achieve this position, each doctor demonstrated superb personal traits and clinical skills which matched and exceeded the standards set by this practice over the past 35 years.

At the end of 2018, Dr. Richie retired. We are deeply grateful for everything Dr. Richie has done for this practice and all his patients.

Our New Partners

Dr. Jeremy Cook has a unique background having started his career as an Athletic Trainer (ATC) at the University of Maine. During that time, he was mentored by the university team podiatrist who inspired Dr. Cook to seek a career as a podiatric physician. Dr. Cook completed a 3 year surgical residency at Massachusetts General and in New York City. Continuing his interest in sports medicine, Dr. Cook completed a Fellowship under the direction of Dr. Richie in 2014. During this time, he worked side-by-side with Doctor Richie on all patient evaluations and assisted in all surgical procedures. Dr. Cook’s skill, knowledge and caring attitude stood out among many doctors who have trained under Dr. Richie who stated “I finally found a young doctor who not only loves sports medicine as much as I do but can actually teach me along the way.” Dr. Cook became the first full-time associate of Dr. Richie in 2013.

Dr. Faye Izadi was one of many Residents at Los Alamitos Medical Center who worked with Dr. Richie over the past 20 years. Her warm, caring personality and outstanding achievement in academic excellence immediately stood out when she began training with Dr. Richie in 2011. During her three-year residency, Dr. Izadi assisted Dr. Richie on hundreds of surgical procedures and observed treatments in our offices for countless hours. When Dr. Izadi completed her three-year surgical residency in 2014, she was offered a full-time position with Alamitos-Seal Beach Podiatry Group. Dr. Richie has said “Dr. Faye Izadi was without question the finest surgical resident I have ever had the privilege to work with in my 35 year career and I am thrilled to have her as an associate doctor in our practice.”

Our Core Values

Individualized and Caring Approach to our Patients

In our practice, all recommendations and treatment decisions are made with a primary commitment to the best interest and the best outcome for each individual patient. Whether treating a young athlete with an ankle sprain or an elderly patient with severe foot deformity, our focus is to pick the best treatment options which will meet the unique needs of that particular patient. We do what is best for the patient while always remembering to “do no harm”.

Evidence-Based Treatments

With all of our treatment recommendations we try to follow sound, evidence-based medicine (EBM) protocols. We adhere to well established standards for our specialty using treatments which are high-quality and cost effective. We do not use experimental, unproven or self-discovered treatments. Instead, we rely on knowledge that is validated by published research in respected medical journals. This requires us to constantly update our knowledge base to stay abreast of new insights into which treatments are best for our patients.

Collaboration with Medical Colleagues

Our 35 year practice has established strong and valuable relationships with many health care professionals in our community. We recognize the value of making specialty referral whenever a patient will benefit from knowledge or treatment which exceeds our own scope of practice or knowledge base. We are reassured to know that within our own practice and with the resource of many outside specialty colleagues, our patients will always get expert opinions for selection of the very best treatment options available.

Research

We not only believe in evidence-based medicine, we contribute to it! Our doctors have collectively authored over 25 research papers which have been published in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals (see our biographies). We have developed protocols for two research studies which will carried out at the Motion Analysis Research Center at Samuel Merritt University. Dr. Richie’s own research has resulted in 5 United States Patents for inventions in the area of footwear and ankle brace design.

Teaching

Our doctors actively participate in the training of post-graduate podiatric surgical residents. Dr. Richie has faculty appointments at both colleges of podiatric medicine in California who send students to our offices to seek further training from our doctors. Family medicine residents from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center spend 2-week rotations at our offices and practicing podiatrists from around the world visit our offices throughout the year. Teaching other doctors allows a two-way interchange of knowledge and information which is beneficial to all.

Continuous Education and Improvement

For our doctors and staff, we have a strong ongoing commitment to continuous improvement in patient care through education and lifetime learning. We attend seminars, continuing medical education symposia and read every publication relevant to our specialty on a regular basis. We share new knowledge with each other and make changes in our practice when opportunity for improvement is available. As a result, we take pride in knowing that we are providing the best quality care, utilizing the most up-to-date and proven treatments for the benefit of our patients.