Dermatology Clinic

Students have the most autonomy in general dermatology clinic where we see the bread and butter: moles, eczema, warts, tinea, psoriasis, urticaria. It's fairly fast paced but we learn quickly the pertinent elements of history and how to describe a lesion effectively. And though I haven't seen enough to be fully comfortable with common skin conditions, at least I'm getting to know the general approach to problems and topical medications.

We also spend some time in other clinics. Pediatrics clinic is quite fun; we see a lot of acne and babies with rashes. In pigmented lesion clinic, we see patients who have a lot of moles, atypical moles, and melanomas. Some patients have hundreds of moles, and the full skin exam is actually quite hard. When looking at 60-100 spots on the back, how do you pick out the ones you want to examine with a dermatoscope (magnifier) or biopsy? Today, I had high risk cancer clinic for solid organ or bone marrow transplant patients. As a result of their transplant immunosuppressive medications, they are at higher risk for skin cancer. Although most of the visits involve just a skin check, I find it interesting because of the medical complexity, regimens of multiple medications, and alterations of the immune system. We had patients with heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplants. Lastly, complex dermatology clinic is with the chief of medical dermatology Dr. Berger, author of Andrews' Diseases of the Skin. The patients in this clinic are referred from other dermatologists as diagnostic mysteries or therapeutic conundrums. It's really quite educational thinking about these patients and watching him work through these rare presentations of common diseases and common presentations of rare diseases.