National Concern About Dermatopathology Workforce Impacts UTMB Dermatopathology Fellowship

There is growing national concern that too many dermatopathologists are being trained for the current job market (Suwattee P, et al. Dermatopathology workforce in the United States: A survey. J Am Acad Dermatol 2011;65:1180). UTMB Dermatopathology has recently announced that it will decrease the number of dermatopathology fellows it trains from two to one, beginning in the 2013-2014 academic year.

Reminder: DIG Meeting Tonight!

The next UTMB DIG meeting is tonight (Monday, January 30th) at 5:30 PM in the Dermatology Conference Room (4.112 McCullough).

We look forward to seeing you there!

Next DIG Meeting: Monday, January 30th

Join us for the next UTMB Dermatology Interest Group meeting! We will talk about upcoming events and make plans for the semester.

When: Monday, January 30th at 5:30 PM
Where: 4.112 McCullough, Dermatology Conference Room

We look forward to seeing you there!

American Board of Dermatology Certification Pass Rates in 2011

The January 2012 issue of the American Board of Dermatology News contains information about the pass rates for two recent certification tests that they administer (page 3). 419 candidates took the dermatology examination in 2011, and the pass rate was 89.7%. 34 dermatologists took the dermatopathology certification exam, and all of them passed it in 2011. However, for the 57 pathologists taking the dermatopathology exam, 84.2% passed.

Former UTMB Dermatology Resident Featured on Cover of Texas Medicine

Dr. Dan McCoy, a former UTMB dermatology resident who completed our program in 1997, is on the cover of the January 2012 (Volume 108, Number 1) issue of Texas Medicine. He is also featured in an article, “Social media connects physicians and patients,” by Crystal Conde (pages 14-20). He practices dermatology in Dallas, and publishes a blog, DocDano.com, for patients.

What is the Job Market for Dermatologists?

There has been recent concern, especially in view of recent health reforms, about the future job market for dermatologists. The January 2012 (Volume 33, Number 1) issue of Dermatology Times investigated this issue in their front page article, Supply & Demand: ‘Chronic’ Shortage of Derms Leaves Some Areas Underserved (pages 1, 16, and 20). In 2009, the average starting salary for dermatology was $325,000 (Medical Group Management Association). Practice location tends to be the first consideration for dermatologists who have recently completed residency, and because of strong market demand for dermatology services in most areas, there is little economic incentive for dermatologists to locate in underserved areas.

Misrepresentation on Dermatology Residency Applications

Dermatology Online Journal’s lead article in the January 2012 issue presents research from the University of California Davis (Sacramento) indicating that dermatology applicants who list greater numbers of “in preparation” or “submitted” manuscripts on their ERAS dermatology applications gain a significant advantage in the match, even though only 16.3% of these articles are ever published. Surprisingly, these authors found that applicants with published articles were not more likely to match. (Maverakis E, Li C, Alikhan A, Lin T, Idriss N, Armstrong AW. The affect of academic “Misrepresentation” on residency match outcomes. Dermatology Online Journal 18 (1):1; http://dermatology.cdlib.org/1801/1_org/01_11-00285/article.html).

These authors also researched applicants who specifically identified the prestigious Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD) as the recipient of 17 articles reported as submitted on applications. JAAD could only verify that 6 of these articles had been submitted to them.

These findings are certainly disturbing to many in academic dermatology, and this publication has the potential to radically change dermatology match outcomes in 2012 and future years based on previous predictive models. Dermatology residency programs that count numbers of publications and include unpublished manuscripts in the totals may ironically be rejecting applicants who have really published.

UTMB MS4 Rebecca Philips Publishes Case Report

Congratulations to UTMB DIG President, Rebecca Philips (MS4), for her publication in the January 2012 issue of the Dermatology Online Journal (Philips RC, Motaparthi K, Krishnan B, Hsu S. HIV photodermatitis presenting with widespread vitiligo-like depigmentation. Dermatology Online Journal 2012; 18(1):6). Her co-authors for this case report were Dr. Kiran Motaparthi (BCM Dermatology, PGY-4), Dr. Bhuvaneswari Krishnan (BCM Pathology) and Dr. Sylvia Hsu (BCM Dermatology). The entire case report can be read at: http://dermatology.cdlib.org/1801/2_csr/06_11-00267/article.html.

Douglas Heiner, MD Publishes UTMB Dermatology Research Honors Thesis

Congratulations to former UTMB DIG member, Dr. Douglas Heiner for the peer-reviewed publication related to his 2010 Dermatology Honors Research Program at UTMB. His co-authors are MS4 UTMB DIG member Donnie Warren, UTMB faculty Tatsuo Uchida (Office of Biostatistics) and Dr. Richard Wagner (Dermatology). The citation for this study is: Heiner DJ, Warren DB, Uchida T, Wagner RF Jr. Preventing ultraviolet radiation scalp injury in men. Household and Personal Care (HPC) Today 4/2011: 18-20. Dr. Heiner is currently a first year dermatology resident at Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

AAD President Predicts Future Decrease of Dermatologists

According to an article in the January 2012 issue of Dermatology World (“What does the future of our specialty look like?”, page 33), American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) President Dr. Ronald Moy predicts that in the future, there will be fewer dermatologists due to decreased Medicare funding for Graduate Medical Education.

Are Structured Interviews for Residency More Reliable than Unstructured Interviews?

The issue of structured vs unstructured interviews for dermatology residency has received a lot of attention recently. A recent study from Canada that compared the results of these two types of interviews for 30 Emergency Medicine residency applicants has provided some answers (Blouin D, Day AG, Pavlov A. Comparative reliability of structured versus unstructured interviews in the admission process of a residency program. Journal of Graduate Medical Education 2011;3:517-523.) Surprisingly, structured interviews did not have higher overall reliability than unstructured interviews for this small group of applicants.

Dermatology Night at St. Vincent's Clinic

Join UTMB Dermatology faculty and residents for Dermatology/Medicine Night at St. Vincent's Clinic!

When: This Tuesday, January 3rd, 4:30-8PM
Where: St. Vincent's House, 2817 Post Office Street, Galveston, Texas 77550

St. Vincent's House offers a UTMB student-run free health clinic serving Galveston. UTMB Dermatology residents and faculty can be found volunteering at the St. Vincent's Clinic each month, where they aid medical students in providing free skin cancer screenings, biopsies, excisions, and routine dermatologic care.

For more information about St. Vincent's Clinic, please visit their website at: http://www.stvsc.org/.