Dermatology Resident: Ask Me Anything

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As the 'scare' factor of surgery is that in many cases it inhibits one from having a substantial home life/ family.
would you say derm is good for this in comparison?
 
What would you say the pros and cons for Urology were for you? I'm very interested in Urology because its mix of medicine and surgery, and partially because the surgeries/procedures I would want to focus on would be less than 3 hours. I have a similar feeling about being in one place for too long but if it's something like robotic surgery, it can keep my attention pretty well.
 
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How do you differentiate (on exam, not on histology) between a patient with a desmoglein-1 mutation vs. desmoglein-3?
 
Where do Derm expertise/procedures abut other specialities? Where is there overlap (ie possible turf wars in the future)?
Pathology? ID? Geriatrics? primary care? Urology/gyn because of STD symptoms? Plastic surgery for procedures? Onc/Rad onc for cancers? Allergy/Immunology maybe?

Seems like a lot of the problems you'd see are associated with cancer, infection, or aging, in addition to general disorders of the surface of the body.
 
karayaa said:
Where do Derm expertise/procedures abut other specialities? Where is there overlap (ie possible turf wars in the future)?
Pathology? ID? Geriatrics? primary care? Urology/gyn because of STD symptoms? Plastic surgery for procedures? Onc/Rad onc for cancers? Allergy/Immunology maybe?

Seems like a lot of the problems you'd see are associated with cancer, infection, or aging, in addition to general disorders of the surface of the body.
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It's much more an interdisciplinary thing. At academic centers at least, dermatologists work with surgical/medical/radiation oncologists and plastic surgeons in cancer centers.

In private practice, there is potential for butting heads with plastic surgeons over primarily cosmetic stuff. I can go into more detail tomorrow, I'm exhausted right now.
 
Do you think research in derm-path during medical school gives one an advantage in the match process, as compared with say, research in derm-general?
 
Rocky and Vohwinkel said:
245/345/465. I need to work on my bench. I'm into bodybuilding, although I'm a fairly short dude.
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My bench is 305 and squat is 315 only because of these tiny legs I have from club feet.(still played DII Football)..I won't go any higher. It's sad too because I can't wear short without getting laughed at. Which gets me pretty down. Legs just aren't able to grow. But I'm still interested in derm (mother has bad keloids=primary reasons) and not ortho (I can't stand for a full 8 hr shift so surgery would kill me). But thanks for the wonderful thread.
 
Rocky and Vohwinkel said:
245/345/465. I need to work on my bench. I'm into bodybuilding, although I'm a fairly short dude.
Click to expand...

foot2foot said:
My bench is 305 and squat is 315 only because of these tiny legs I have from club feet.(still played DII Football)..I won't go any higher. It's sad too because I can't wear short without getting laughed at. Which gets me pretty down. Legs just aren't able to grow. But I'm still interested in derm (mother has bad keloids=primary reasons) and not ortho (I can't stand for a full 8 hr shift so surgery would kill me). But thanks for the wonderful thread.
Click to expand...

how much do u guys weigh??
 
LostinLift said:
What would you say the pros and cons for Urology were for you? I'm very interested in Urology because its mix of medicine and surgery, and partially because the surgeries/procedures I would want to focus on would be less than 3 hours. I have a similar feeling about being in one place for too long but if it's something like robotic surgery, it can keep my attention pretty well.
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I'd say urology is one of the more palatable surgical subspecialties for me. They do some pretty cool procedures and get to play with some neat toys/robots. Overall their daily grind is probably more tolerable to me than other surgical fields. Of course, this is all personal opinion and the purpose of this thread isn't to bash other fields or dissuade you from pursuing your interests, just to provide some insight into my particular field (and how it compares and contrasts with other fields as I see it) and help broaden everyone's perspectives.

You're right that urology procedures can indeed be shorter on average than, say, vascular surgeons. That's a plus. The clinic days were pretty fun too. One of the things that stuck with me while I was a med student was a conversation I had with several residents and an attending (in a different surgical field, but it's still relevant). They all told me that if I loved surgery, I should consider it, but that if I could see myself being happy doing anything else, I should absolutely do anything else. You really have to have a passion for life in the OR, and I suppose that just wasn't me.

Also, just to throw this out there, as a dermatologist you absolutely are not considered a "surgeon" unless you're actually a Mohs surgeon. The "mix of medicine and surgery" that we experience is much more heavily skewed towards the "medical" aspect of it all.
 
BurberryDoc said:
Do you think research in derm-path during medical school gives one an advantage in the match process, as compared with say, research in derm-general?
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Unlikely in general. It may help garner you an interview invite at places like UT Houston where Dr. Rapini is in charge, but I do not think it's very likely to make a difference whether your research is derm path vs general derm. It's more important that it's something you can be interested in and hopefully produce from.
 
Many thanks again for taking time out to answer questions.

I'm curious about your study habits when you were a medical student. You mentioned that you rewrote all your notes. I preferred to study this way for undergrad but since I haven't been in class for 3 years and most students have commented that this method is way too inefficient, I've been exploring different methods. You are the first one read about on these forums who didn't abandon the long form notes so I'm glad to see someone was successful.

  • If you had been required to attend class, do you think you would have had enough time to still study this way?
  • Did you mostly study alone?
  • Did you feel the need to supplement with flashcards?
  • Did you change your habits to study for step 1?
 
kekes said:
Many thanks again for taking time out to answer questions.

I'm curious about your study habits when you were a medical student. You mentioned that you rewrote all your notes. I preferred to study this way for undergrad but since I haven't been in class for 3 years and most students have commented that this method is way too inefficient, I've been exploring different methods. You are the first one read about on these forums who didn't abandon the long form notes so I'm glad to see someone was successful.

  • If you had been required to attend class, do you think you would have had enough time to still study this way?
  • Did you mostly study alone?
  • Did you feel the need to supplement with flashcards?
  • Did you change your habits to study for step 1?
Click to expand...

1. Likely no, I would not have. My school recorded all our lectures, so I would wake up around 7:30 or 8 and after eating breakfast I'd start studying stuff from the day prior until the lectures were uploaded around 12:30 or 1pm, the start doing those lectures while simultaneously reviewing the notes given to us for those lectures (so, taking notes on the lecture and adding those pieces of info to what I was already writing based on the distributed notes). I will say that having a half day of lectures would've probably made things still doable perhaps, but a full day of mandatory lecture absolutely would not have.

2. Yes

3. Yup, made tons of my own flashcards. Basically, I'd be taking extensive notes on two lectures each day, then on the weekend I'd review all those notes (with no need to refer back to the lecture videos or the distributed class notes since I had everything important in my own writing in one place) and make flashcards for each lecture I was reviewing. Then those cards were used for quick review whenever I had time (before bed at night, when I was tired of other forms of studying, etc). Sometimes I wouldn't even end up studying/reviewing particular sets much at all, but just the act of making them helped, I think.

4. Studying for Step I is (or should be) 100% REVIEW, so the study approach is very different. Search SDN for the "Taus Method", as that's more or less what I used for Step I studying.
 
Thanks for doing this! I have a couple of questions for you...

1. Did you have AOA/ what were your grades in your clinical rotations?

2. You've said it's not absolutely essential to do derm research to match into derm. Is derm research still preferred? And so the only research you did was between M1 and M2?

3. Do you ever get nightmares about some cases you've seen? If so, how do you block it out? I'm sure as a derm resident and future attending you've seen/will see a lot of visually unappealing cases...

4. If there is one thing you could have done differently about your med school career, what would it be?
 
dododo121 said:
Thanks for doing this! I have a couple of questions for you...

1. Did you have AOA/ what were your grades in your clinical rotations?

2. You've said it's not absolutely essential to do derm research to match into derm. Is derm research still preferred? And so the only research you did was between M1 and M2?

3. Do you ever get nightmares about some cases you've seen? If so, how do you block it out? I'm sure as a derm resident and future attending you've seen/will see a lot of visually unappealing cases...

4. If there is one thing you could have done differently about your med school career, what would it be?
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1. Yes. During third year I had two Honors (Medicine and Neurology) and the rest were High Pass.

2. Derm research is still preferred, and that's true for any specialty I'm sure. The only PRODUCTIVE research I did was between M1/M2. I did a little derm research that didn't result in much (although I did write a derm case report actually) at the end of M3.

3. No nightmares at all. Then again, very little grosses me out.

4. I'd probably try to take Step 2CK/CS earlier (very beginning of M4) if possible, although with my schedule it just didn't work out.
 
Rocky and Vohwinkel said:
245/345/465. I need to work on my bench. I'm into bodybuilding, although I'm a fairly short dude.
Click to expand...

Strong lifts dude. I have the same problem with my bench lol. Thinking about switching up my chest lifts a little.. More high rep dumbell work + incline/decline bench.

Thanks for this thread by the way, it has gotten me interested in derm!
 
This might be a dumb question, but how exactly does someone develop an interest in a specialty like derm (or other non-core rotation specialties like radiation oncology)? Are there derm specific rotations during med school or is it primarily through shadowing?
 
As a Derm resident or in the future as an attending... do you guys make and read all of your own pathology slides? Do you ever send samples out to a pathologist? Just curious.
 
Have you seen any DO's in derm? And what were your stats as a pre med? MCAT and GPA?
 
Thank you for doing it! Here are my questions:

1. Is research helpful/neccessary in getting a derm residency? (How helpful?)
2. I might take a gap year before med school. Should I do a MS in biology, MPH, or MBA? Which one would be more helpful when I apply to residency (derm)? I heard that MS gives you more research experiences so it will be helpful when I try to do research in med school....
 
These threads are great. Thanks for doing this!
 
YoungGregory said:
Strong lifts dude. I have the same problem with my bench lol. Thinking about switching up my chest lifts a little.. More high rep dumbell work + incline/decline bench.

Thanks for this thread by the way, it has gotten me interested in derm!
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No problem. Keep at it, I know a stagnant routine is something I'm guilty of from time to time.
 
dododo121 said:
This might be a dumb question, but how exactly does someone develop an interest in a specialty like derm (or other non-core rotation specialties like radiation oncology)? Are there derm specific rotations during med school or is it primarily through shadowing?
Click to expand...

Mostly through active investigation via shadowing, interest groups, etc. Fields like derm, rad onc, and ophtho (just to name a few) aren't generally something that medical students routinely experience without actively seeking this out. Some schools will allow an elective in any of these during third year, but if you're interested in dermatology I recommend you save an actual elective rotation for fourth year. Introducing yourself to the department early on (and getting involved with shadowing/research) can help you find out if any of these fields seem right for you.
 
1012526fs said:
As a Derm resident or in the future as an attending... do you guys make and read all of your own pathology slides? Do you ever send samples out to a pathologist? Just curious.
Click to expand...

Dermpath is a big part of residency, but as a routine we don't typically read our own slides (and don't prepare our own slides either). We have three in-house board certified dermatopathologists (who are also dermatology trained clinicians) who do slide reading. As residents, we do weekly path review (sometimes old slides from collections, sometimes newer slides from our own patients), and we usually get a month of dermpath each year (so you're working with the dermpath attendings 5 days a week).

As an attending in private practice, you will likely be sending your slides to an outside dermpath group, unless you're one of the people who attempt to also perform your own dermpath in house.
 
YoungGregory said:
Have you seen any DO's in derm? And what were your stats as a pre med? MCAT and GPA?
Click to expand...

Sure, but they're few and far between. I think Cleveland Clinic has one spot each year "reserved" for DOs. There are a handful of DO derm residencies. Every year you might see one or two DO students match into allopathic derm residencies, but obviously realize that these are extreme outliers in a field that's already made up of a lot of outliers.

I do know that many allopathic derm programs simply do not interview/accept applications from DO students.

As a pre-med, I was ~3.6 overall GPA, with a very strong upward trend (basically two years of crappy GPA followed by two years of awesome GPA). MCAT was a 33R.
 
Halfdolphy said:
Thank you for doing it! Here are my questions:

1. Is research helpful/neccessary in getting a derm residency? (How helpful?)
2. I might take a gap year before med school. Should I do a MS in biology, MPH, or MBA? Which one would be more helpful when I apply to residency (derm)? I heard that MS gives you more research experiences so it will be helpful when I try to do research in med school....
Click to expand...

1. Absolutely helpful, and seemingly all but necessary. It tends to be at the very least a box to check in the grand scheme of things. Different programs will value quality of research differently (some will just want to see that you've engaged in research, some will prefer you to have a PhD or have done significant heavy-hitter research).

2. Hard to say, as each of those helps work towards different goals (an MBA is very different than an MPH, for example). Depends on what you hope to do with one of these degrees. I suppose having an MS in bio could help introduce you to further research methods, but I'm not sure I would say that alone is good enough reason to pursue it. I am sure you have thought out different reasons for each, though. It's difficult to say which would be most beneficial for applying to residency (derm or otherwise).
 
Rocky and Vohwinkel said:
Mostly through active investigation via shadowing, interest groups, etc. Fields like derm, rad onc, and ophtho (just to name a few) aren't generally something that medical students routinely experience without actively seeking this out. Some schools will allow an elective in any of these during third year, but if you're interested in dermatology I recommend you save an actual elective rotation for fourth year. Introducing yourself to the department early on (and getting involved with shadowing/research) can help you find out if any of these fields seem right for you.
Click to expand...

So then, what happens when someone doesn't score as well as they need on their STEP 1 to match into seem even though they've developed an interest in it and have done research in it? Will the med school deans try to change that applicants mind on applying to derm? Or is that where a back up specialty comes into play?
 
I can not express how glad I am I found this thread! You really seem to be helping others and I believe I would benefit as well by asking you some questions, if you don't mind of course.I am currently a junior in high school and have decided I want to pursue the path into becoming a dermatologist. I have recently
enrolled in a phlebotomy program as a sort of "dipping my toe in the water" step to introduce me into the health care field. My highschool offers juniors the opportunity to apply for an internship of sorts during senior year at the local hospital. This "internship" allows students to pick among a variety of rotations which include general surgery, cardiology, nursing phlebotamy, and many of other specialties that interest them. How beneficial do you believe this experience would be? Also, I will be the first member in my family to attend college "full-blown" and have been told a numerous amount of times to consider attending the local university for my first year or two of college before transferring out of state for undergraduate work and such in order to minimize college expenses. This concerns me quite a bit because I am worried by attending just a "general, not very creditable university" my chances of getting into a more competitive college will be jeopardized. Is this probable or am I completely off here? Should I attend the local university for my gen. eds or skip that entirely and completely my gen. eds out of state? I also plan on being a part time college student next year to help me get a little bit of a head start. Is that a step in the right direction? Do you have any suggestions as to what classes I should begin taking in order to prepare me for more invigorating college work? Another interest of mine is majoring in French but am unsure if this will be completely irrelevant when it comes time to begin working on my actual degree? Should I pursue majoring in a second language or focus more on science base classes; etc? Sorry for my questions being all over the place but I feel I just have too much to ask!
 
You said you only did research in medical school.

Was it clinical?
bench work?
How did you find a place to do research? does it really matter what kind research you do? I am interested in healthcare policy in the future potentially and was wondering if doing research in that would make it harder for me to get more competitive specialities?
How did you manage to get a publication only over the summer? What kind of work did you have to put in? Would you say you got lucky in terms of the project you got?

Sorry for the extensive questions but they will be super helpful for me!

Thanks!
 
How do you think you chose your med school? For example, what resources/qualities do you think ppl applying should best focus on if they want to keep all options open in terms of residency. Also I am sure that applicants are often happy with just 1 acceptance, and if someone were to be stuck with that 1 acceptance, how do you believe is the best way of utilizing all 4 years at a generic med school then?
 
A little late to this thread, hope you are still checking it. I really appreciate you doing this, these threads are often the most helpful and I was hoping a derm one would pop up soon. I am an M1 and just started thinking about derm, so I have yet to shadow or talk to the department or anything like that.

  • You said you had 16 residency interviews, how many places did you have to apply? I've read about people submitting 70+ applications for derm, and that process just seems exhausting. On top of that, I will likely be geographically limited (significant other matching the year before I do) when applying, and I know if I have to apply that broadly I can't hope to stick to one part of the country.
  • You mentioned doing a derm elective in 4th year instead of 3rd, could you elaborate on why you would recommend this?
  • What is the "bread and butter" of academic dermatology (I'm guessing this is what you are used to because you mentioned being in a tertiary care center)? I haven't had much exposure to the field, besides having siblings who had bad acne going to private practice dermatologists. I couldn't see myself seeing nothing but acne patients over and over for a living, and am wondering what sort of case mix I could expect in academia or simply in a non-cosmetic focused practice.
Thanks again
 
You are a very refreshing as well as informative individual. Thanks!
 
Rocky and Vohwinkel said:
Mostly through active investigation via shadowing, interest groups, etc. Fields like derm, rad onc, and ophtho (just to name a few) aren't generally something that medical students routinely experience without actively seeking this out. Some schools will allow an elective in any of these during third year, but if you're interested in dermatology I recommend you save an actual elective rotation for fourth year. Introducing yourself to the department early on (and getting involved with shadowing/research) can help you find out if any of these fields seem right for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks! What are your hours like as a resident? And as an attending?
 
Can you match into derm if you have mild/moderate acne? Can acne be a limiting factor on a career in dermatology?Those who have adult acne and dont want to risk going on accutane because the acne isnt that bad but still visible..(serious question)
 
mybubbles627 said:
Thanks for the information! This is super helpful.

You mentioned getting a 262 on Step I which is AMAZING! What scores are expected to have a realistic change at a dermatology residency?
Also, you said they do a lot of procedures. The only procedures I can think of are biopsies. Can you elaborate what else is done?

Thanks again!
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Don't mean to hijack, but...

My program just had an interview day recently. All but one person had step 1 above 240. Most were 250s and 260s. Insane.
 
Does allopecia render a patient to higher risk of infections?
 
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