Dermpath and Surgery exposure during residency

[brightoats]

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Ok, so the trend (or current state) of dermatology is that dermpath slides are read by people who did dermpath fellowships and surgery is done by MOHs fellowship surgeons. Why the heck do people care if you are exposed to "great dermpath" or "hands-on surgery experience" during residency, ESPECIALLY if they are going to go into general medical dermatology? Sure, it's important to have an understanding of what dermpaths and MOHs surgeons do, but why is it emphasized as a criteria for a strong residency program? Any thoughts?

 

[laxman310]

Its probably like any other field of medicine in academia. The more sub-specialists you have, the better it supplements your understanding of that field in general. I.e. if you have fellows in cardiology/GI/pulm its going to make your general medicine program that much better, because residents will gain a better understanding for what goes on when you refer someone.

 

[cancerman51]

I certainly agree that the medical dermatologist or cosmetic dermatologist while NEVER read their own path, and the days of doing MOHS w/o fellowhip are winding down, the biggest reason to have "good" dermpath or surgery exposure during residency is so that you can get into those fellowships. Most programs take their own residents at least 1/2 the time, so if your program doens't have a fellowship you have an uphill climb.

 

[deltamed]

Actually plenty of general dermatologists read their own slides. Mainly middle of the country and west coast; they will usually send out pigmented lesions and get consults on tough stuff but a derm residency should prepare you to read the bread and butter. Mohs by general derms is less prevalant though some older ones still do.

 

[cancerman51]

fortunately, you can learn to read out scc/bcc in about 15 minutes worth of dermpath teaching.

 

[Palintology]

While I agree with you that Mohs exposure is only minimally important if you have little interest in that aspect of derm, I would think that having strong dermpath exposure is invariably essential since there's so much path on the boards.