Part I: Program Spotlight —The UC Davis Department of Dermatology Residency Training Program

March 2011 | Volume 10 | Issue 3 | Original Article | 253 | Copyright © March 2011


Melanie Tuerk MD, Heidi Goodarzi MD, Summer Youker MD

Department of Dermatology, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA

Abstract
Resident Rounds is a new section of the JDD dedicated to highlighting various dermatology departments with residency training programs. This section will feature three programs: (1) a program spotlight, highlighting pertinent information about the department and residency training program; (2) a section presenting study materials used by residents at the program; and (3) a section designed to highlight recent interesting cases seen at the institution. This issue of Resident Rounds features the University of California Davis program. The editor of Resident Rounds is Omar A. Ibrahimi, MD, PhD. Dr. Ibrahimi is a recent graduate of the Harvard Combined Program in Dermatology and currently a fellow in Mohs, Laser and Cosmetic Surgery at the University of California Davis. If you are interested in highlighting your training program in a future issue, please contact Dr. Ibrahimi at omar.ibrahimi@gmail.com
The UC Davis Department of Dermatology is located in Sacramento, California. Our department is made up of 23 clinical faculty members, six research faculty members and 11 volunteer faculty members. Our residency program consists of 10 residents. We accept three residents each year. Residents rotate at the UC Davis Dermatology clinic, Sacramento VA Medical Center/Valley Division (Mather, CA) and UC Davis Medical Center for hospital consults. There is one procedural dermatology fellow each year.
The resident rotation schedule emphasizes general clinical dermatology in the first year with increasing inpatient hospital consult, dermatopathology, and dermatologic and Mohs surgery experience in the second and third years. Our general clinical dermatology rotations are held at UC Davis Dermatology clinic or at Sacramento VA. While the clinical rotations are not grouped into sub-specialty medical dermatology rotations, there are sub-specialty clinics mixed among general dermatology clinics. These sub-specialty clinics include: oral medicine and mucosal vulvar clinic; cosmetics; excision; melanoma; vesiculobullous disease; wound healing and ulcer clinic; and teledermatology. In addition, residents may rotate several times per year in rheumatology and allergy clinics. Finally, each resident participates in Resident Continuity Clinics twice weekly, on average. These clinics are resident-run with attending staffing and encourage resident autonomy and continuity between the residents and their patients. UC Davis has been a pioneer in telemedicine and our Dermatology Department has established an active teledermatology clinic using both live interactions and store-and-forward consultations. In addition to participating in these clinics, residents also take part in an International Teledermatology Grand Rounds quarterly.
One of the many highlights of our program is the quality of the specialty rotations. Specialty rotations include dermatopathol- ogy, dermatologic surgery and hospital consult service. On the surgical rotation, the resident works one on one with a Mohs surgeon. The resident spends approximately 50 percent of his or her time assisting in Mohs surgery with the attending and the procedural fellow and 50 percent of the time as primary surgeon in excision clinics. Included in this rotation are two nail surgery clinics in which the resident is primary surgeon on nail avulsions and chemical matricectomy cases. The surgical resident participates actively in surgery journal club, book review and closure conference. On the dermatopathology rotation, one morning per week is spent reviewing unknown slide sets. Every afternoon is spent in one-on-one sign-out with the dermatopathology attending. The hospital consult service sees, on average, one to three consults per day at UC Davis Medical Center, a large tertiary care hospital in Northern California.
The rotations consist of four week blocks. In the first year of training, each resident will have one block each of surgery, dermatopathology and hospital consult service. Second- and third-year residents typically have two months each of surgery, dermatopathology and consult service. The remaining rota
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