November 1, 2010 Dermatology Residency Application Deadline for UTMB

ERAS dermatology residency applications for the 2011 NRMP are due on November 1, 2010. Between 24-30 outside applicants who are not UTMB medical students, UTMB housestaff or visiting medical students who have taken UTMB dermatology electives this year will be invited for interviews in Galveston on either February 10th or 11th, 2011 for three advanced PGY2 positions being offered in the NRMP. It is anticipated that invitations to interview will be sent out electronically before January 2011.

Congratulations to Dr. Leslie Scroggins!

Dr. Leslie Scroggins, UTMB PGY-2 Dermatology resident, received third place in the Resident Podium competition at the 2010 Fall Texas Dermatological Society Meeting, held October 22nd-24th in Lubbock, Texas! Dr. Scroggins' presentation, entitled, "A Dermal Piercing Complicated by Mycobacterium Fortuitum," was co-authored by Dr. Brent Kelly and Sara Moghaddam, MSIV at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Ashley Group, MD In Press for Contact Dermatitis Research

Congratulations to UTMB PGY-3 dermatology resident, Dr. Ashley Group. She has recently been notified that her review article, "Contact Dermatitis with a Highlight on Silver: A Review,” has been accepted for publication in the December 2010 issue of WOUNDS, a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary medical journal that focuses on wound care and research. We are all looking forward to reading this article when it comes out!

Lights Out?

A crane accident near the causeway temporarily disrupted campus activities requiring electricity at UTMB this morning. Please see the Galveston Daily News story for additional details: http://galvestondailynews.com/story/186502

Class of 2010 UTMB Dermatology Residents Achieve 97th Percentile on Certification Examination

Congratulations to Drs. Cameron Coury, Julie Fridlington, and Ryan Matherne. Together they achieved the 97th Percentile on the recent certification examination given by the American Board of Dermatology. This academic excellence is especially notable because all three had their dermatology residency training temporarily disrupted following Hurricane Ike’s damage to UTMB in September 2008.

Period 13 Film Class Fully Enrolled

The UTMB registrar’s office has reported that the Period 13 film class (BSHS Selective DERU-4051 and elective DERU-4007) is currently completely enrolled with 15 students in each section. There are currently 18 students on the wait list for DERU-4007 and 6 students on the wait list for DERU-4051. Period 13 has historically been the most popular Period for both courses. Last year Dr. Wagner increased student enrollment from 10 students in each class to 15 for each Period of the current academic year.

UTMB Dermatology Residency Application Update

There are already 304 ERAS applications to the UTMB dermatology residency program. 97 of these applicants are AOA and have at least a 230 on Step 1. The application deadline is Monday, November 1st this year.

Dermatology Program Preference for Home and Visiting Medical Students Explained

It has been previously noted that dermatology applicants are more likely to match at their home program or a program where they have rotated. At the October 2010 meeting of the Association of Professors of Dermatology in Chicago, one speaker discussed the interview process. Some dermatology programs attempt to select applicants with the attitudes, motivations and talents that will help attain program goals. Data was presented that indicated there is a greater chance for success in attaining program goals when selecting home and visiting students who have demonstrated these three qualities during previous interactions compared to outside candidates, as long as the internal candidates also meet all of the predetermined academic selection criteria.

What explains the relatively few interview offers for dermatology residency applicants?

Data presented by Dr. Alexa Kimball (Harvard Medical School) at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Association of Professors of Dermatology meeting this month indicated that dermatology residency programs only need to interview between 3 and 4 applicants for each position they offer through the NRMP in order to fill their program. This statistic has trended upward since 2006, when 3 ranked applicants were needed to fill each position. In the 2010 dermatology match, 3.8 applicants were needed to fill each residency position.

Dermatology's Preference for a Strong Academic Preliminary PGY-1 Year

Recent comments from the Association of Dermatology Professors Annual Meeting in Chicago last weekend make it clear that many dermatology chairs, program directors and faculty have low regard for transitional PGY-1 training. They voiced concern that a transitional year is poor academic preparation for a dermatology residency. They strongly stated preference for a preliminary PGY-1 year at a strong academic university program. Some even thought that dermatology programs should stop offering advanced PGY-2 positions and start incorporating their internal medicine department into categorical programs, an approach that would ensure strong PGY-1 internal medicine training.

Dr. Douglas Heiner Co-authors Publication

Former DIG member Doug Heiner (UTMB SOM Class of 2010), who will be starting dermatology residency at Roger Williams Medical Center (Providence, Rhode Island) in 2011 has coauthored a recently published, peer-reviewed research paper (Houghtaling PM, Foster T, Heiner J, Uchida T, Wagner RF Jr. Eyelid protection from ultraviolet radiation injury at the beach. HPC Supplement Focus on Sun Care, 3:12-14, 2010). The study was conducted at local Galveston beaches in 2009, located close to our medical school! The first author of this publication and Principle Investigator for this study, Dr. Paul Houghtaling, is also a UTMB 2010 SOM graduate who is now a Captain in the US Army, doing his ophthalmology residency at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. The authors of this research recommended a “triple UVR protection” to protect eyelid skin from UVR (ultraviolet radiation) damage through the combined use of sunscreen/makeup, hats and eyewear. Men are especially in need for eyelid UVR protection since they continue to have more eyelid nonmelanoma skin cancers than women.

UTMB PGY-2 Dermatology Resident First Author on Dermatologic Surgery Article!

Congratulations to Dr. Julie Martin for her first authorship on her October 2010 research article published in Dermatologic Surgery (Martin JE, Speyer L, Schmults CD. Heightened infection-control practices are associated with significantly lower infection rates in office-based Mohs surgery. Dermatol Surg 2010:36:1529-1536). Her two co-authors were from the Department of Dermatology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, where Dr. Martin was the 2008-2009 cutaneous oncology fellow.

Does it matter where I go to medical school if I want to become a dermatologist?

A study published in the September 2010 issue of Journal of Graduate Medical Education (Patel MS, Katz JT, Volpp KG. Match rates into higher-income, controllable lifestyle specialties for students from highly ranked, research-based medical schools compared with other applicants. J Grad Med Educ 2:360-356, 2010) indicates that where applicants attended medical school played a quantitative role in the dermatology selection process. Medical students graduating from 9 of the top 12 US medical schools (2007 US News & World Report rankings) that provided match data on their students were compared to the remaining US medical school graduates. These 9 medical schools accounted for 3% (n=1225) of dermatology matches compared to 1.4% (n=15037) for MS4s from other US medical schools.

Secret Secondary Dermatology Applications

It is understandable why some dermatology residency programs are concerned about applicants who know very little about their specific program. Certainly, applying to almost every available dermatology program is easy for applicants through ERAS, although expensive. In recent weeks it has come to our attention that several programs have contacted applicants this year seeking additional information about why the applicant is interested in their specific program.

A few programs requiring additional secondary information from applicants do not seem to be contacting applicants and asking them directly for the information. Instead, they make the request indirectly on their website, and wait for aware applicants to send the requested information to them. It pays to carefully read all of the websites for programs that you decide to apply to, and send the additional information they request back to them in a timely manner!

Should I consider applying to non-ERAS dermatology residency programs?

Yes, you probably should. Typically non-ERAS programs receive far fewer applications than programs available on ERAS.

Meet the PGY-2 Dermatology Residents!

Mara Dacso, M.D.
PGY-2

Hometown: Houston, TX
Medical School: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
Internship: Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

During medical school, Mara spent a year in Spain, where she explored her interests in infectious disease and public health and completed a Masters degree in International Health and Tropical Medicine. Her thesis centered on the topic of leprosy and inspired her to pursue a career in dermatology. Mara was awarded Magna Cum Laude graduation honors at UTMB for her Dermatology Honors Research entitled, “Multi-Drug Therapy for Leprosy in the U.S.A. Using Daily Rifampin.” She was Vice President of the UTMB DIG for 2008-2009.

Special Interests in Dermatology: public health in dermatology and cutaneous infectious diseases
Hobbies: Spending time with family and friends, wine tasting, traveling, theater, singing


Julie Martin, M.D.
PGY-2

Hometown: Metairie, LA
Medical School: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, LA
Internship: General Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

After 3 years as a resident in the General Surgery program at UTMB, Julie decided to change directions and applied for a Dermatology residency position. Before beginning her dermatology residency at UTMB, she completed a Cutaneous Oncology Fellowship at Harvard’s Brigham And Women’s Hospital.

Special Interests in Dermatology: Melanoma
Hobbies: Spending time with family, friends and her 2 dogs, LSU and Saints football, traveling


Leslie Scroggins, M.D.
PGY-2

Hometown: Tyler, TX
Medical School: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
Internship: Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

Leslie knew that she wanted to be a dermatologist upon entering medical school. She pursued her interest by taking the many dermatology electives offered at UTMB and was awarded Magna Cum Laude graduation honors at UTMB for her Dermatology Honors Research entitled, "The imbalanced expression of matrix metalloproteinases in nephrogenic systemic fibrosis,” which was later published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology ("JAAD"). Leslie was President of the UTMB DIG for 2008-2009.

Special Interests in Dermatology: skin cancer, laser therapies
Hobbies: cooking, traveling, movies

Thank you to the PGY-2 Dermatology Residents!

The UTMB DIG would like to thank Drs. Mara Dacso, Julie Martin and Leslie Scroggins for being our guests at the October 7th meeting! They shared stories of how they arrived at their decisions to pursue a career in dermatology, offered advice on topics such as exploring dermatology in medical school, the residency application process and selection of a residency program that fits with you, and spoke of their experiences thus far as dermatology residents.

Tips for Dermatology Re-applicants

At the fall 2010 Dermatology Exchange Group (DTEG) annual meeting in Chicago, Dr. Erik Stratman (Marshfield Clinic) presented his abstract entitled, “Factors associated with successful matching by re-applicants.” According to Dr. Stratman, factors that were “…strongly associated with matching…” were “…USMLE Step 3 score, submission of letters written by dermatologists from institutions that train dermatology residents, completing preliminary medicine internships rather than transitional or other internship types, listing research experience, publishing medical manuscripts, and completing non-ACGME dermatology fellowships.” He also noted that successful re-applicants tended to limit their personal statements to one page and did not mention their previous match failure. Surprisingly, he found that having a PhD, first authorship, or quality of publication was not predictive of a successful re-application.

More Analysis on the 2010 NRMP Dermatology Match

Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH from Harvard Medical School, presented data about the 2010 Dermatology NRMP Match to the Association of Professors of Dermatology at their 50th Annual Meeting held in Chicago over the past weekend. In 2010, there were 578 applicants who submitted rank lists for 360 positions. 23% of these applicants also ranked another specialty in addition to dermatology. Of the applicants who only ranked dermatology, 75% of US seniors matched, and 44% of “other” (re-applicants, those applying for the first time who had already completed a PGY-1 year, international medical graduates) applicants matched.

UTMB Medical Student, Dermatology Resident and Dermatopathology Fellows Contribute to Presentations and Posters at American Society for Dermatopathology (ASDP) Meeting

UTMB MS3, Erica Snook, coauthored a poster presentation at the recent 47th Annual ASDP meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia. Erica coauthored Poster 322, “A case report of a cutaneous solitary fibrous tumor of the skin histologically mimicking a schwannoma” with Drs. Brent Kelly and first author, Palak Parekh, who is also a former UTMB dermatopathology fellow.

Current dermatopathology fellow, Dr. John Cangelosi, was the first author of Poster 315, “Dual S-100-AE1/3 Immunohistochemistry to detect perineural invasion in non-melanoma skin cancers.” His co-authors were UTMB faculty Drs. A. Berlingeri-ramos, R. Wagner and B. Kelly.

Dr. Ryan Matherne, a current UTMB dermatopathology fellow, presented Poster 242, “Herpes syringitis—A report of herpes simplex infection in a burn victim.” His coauthors were Drs.Cangelosi, Brent Kelly and Ramon Sanchez. Dr. Matherne was also the first author on Poster 296, “Familial Diffuse Sebaceous Gland Hyperplasia.” His coauthors on this poster were Drs. Cangelosi, B. Kelly and R. Sanchez.

Drs. Cangelosi and Ryan Matherne gave Poster 328, “Idiopathic calcinosis cutis of the penis,” along with UTMB faculty Dr. Brent Kelly.

Dr. Matthew Petitt participated in the resident dermatopathology abstract competition with his presentation of, “Intravascular large B cell lymphoma mimicking cutaneous scleroderma.” His coauthors on this research were Drs. Brent Kelly and Berlingeri-ramos.

Dr. Anthony Perri on Second Magazine Cover this Year

The latest issue of Dock Line (Lake Conroe Edition) features a photo of Dr. Perri, a UTMB Dermatology Alum, with his dermatology staff and an article on pages 8-11 of the October 2010 issue.

18th Annual John M. Knox Lecture

The Houston Dermatological Society is holding its 18th Annual John M. Knox Lecture on Saturday, November 13, 2010 at UTMB in the 5th Floor UHC Building at 8 am (registration). Patient viewing will be from 8:30-9:30 am and patient discussion will follow at 10 am in the Clinical Science Auditorium. The featured speaker this year is Dr. Bruce Thiers, the Chair of Dermatology at the University of South Carolina and the Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD). Dr. Thiers is scheduled to give a lecture entitled, “Best of JAAD” at 11:15 until noon.

Why won’t dermatology program directors write back, return my phone calls and seem to be avoiding me after my interview?

A recent article (October 2010) in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD) from the University of Florida and Stanford (Sbicca JA, Gorell ES, Kanzler MH, Lane AT. The integrity of the dermatology National Resident Matching Program: Results of a national study. J Am Acad Dermatol 2010;63:594-601) advised that no post interview contact by “…program directors or other program personnel…” take place because it is considered “…undue pressure…” on applicants. The authors also advise that second visits to dermatology programs by applicants should not be allowed, because “…second visits would require post-interview contact by program directors or other program personnel…” These rules could prove to be a major challenge for students who have applied to their home program. What if your program director is also your faculty advisor? The JAAD may be interested in hearing timely responses and concerns from readers and other stakeholders in the NRMP about the value and practicality of these recent recommendations.

G-Town in the News

Sadly, there have been two negative reports recently about Galveston.

Earlier this year, Galveston found itself on the list of 10 dying cities the U.S: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110479/americas-10-dying-cities-from-detroit-to-new-orleans. Hurricane Ike (2008) resulted in Galveston’s decreased population, but much of Galveston has already been rebuilt and is recovering. Summer tourism has recovered nicely.

Today the Galveston Daily News reported that in 2008 one neighborhood in Galveston was among the top 25 dangerous areas nationally: http://galvestondailynews.com/story/181342. However, following Hurricane Ike, crime in Galveston is down.

And according to one website, Galveston is haunted as well: http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/toptenhaunted/toptenhauntedcities/

Don’t believe everything you read!

10 Years in a Row!

Congratulations to Drs. Cameron Coury, Julie Fridlington and Ryan Matherne for passing the certification examination given by the American Board of Dermatology on their first attempt! Their success marks ten years of all of UTMB’s completing dermatology residents passing their boards the first time they took them! Dr. Coury is now in private dermatology practice (Richardson, Texas) as is Dr. Fridlington (Austin, Texas). Dr. Matherne is one of the current UTMB dermatopathology fellows and also on the UTMB dermatology faculty.

This Thursday - Meet the PGY-2 Dermatology Residents!

We are very excited to have Drs. Mara Dacso, Leslie Scroggins, and Julie Martin as our special guests this Thursday, October 7th,  at 6:00 PM in the Dermatology Conference Room (McCullough 4.112)! Come find out a little bit about who they are and how they got to where they currently are. Everyone is welcome to attend!