Finding a Doctor to Shadow

[paging_dr_maybe?]

Hey!

Over the summer of my first year of school, I really wanted to shadow Dermatologists to make sure I really want to pursue dermatologists and see what places I may want to complete away or audition rotations at. I have created a list of all of the places that have Dermatology Residencies and I want to target doctors at those places first, but I do not know any of them and their emails are not provided on the website. Has anyone had experience "cold emailing or calling" doctors to see if they could shadow them? Could you share how you found the doctors and how you contacted them?

Thanks!

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[SpoiledMilk]

If you have never shadowed a doctor before, may I suggest that your way "in" or to open the door to a dermatologist is to first shadow a primary care doctor (pediatrician, family medicine, internal medicine). If you have a doctor your family sees, start there.

The hours accumulated with a PCP kills two birds with one stone.

1st to apply to medical school, admissions committees give more weight to PCP shadowing hours over specialist shadowing hours. 2nd when shadowing these PCPs, you will be able use the network of the PCP to get in contact with dermatologists that the PCP refers patients to. The PCP can be a reference for you and help you convince the dermatologists to let you shadow them if you do well with the PCP.