The Department of Dermatology at the University of Minnesota
was founded in 1971. However, dermatology has
been part of the medical school at the University of Minnesota
since February 7, 1913, when the Division of Dermatology
and Genito-Urinary Diseases was created in the Department of
Surgery. Dermatology transferred to the Department of Medicine
in 1914 and from 1914 to 1971, was a division of the Department
of Medicine. We have a rich history of cutting-edge patient care,
innovative research and exceptional training in the field of Dermatology.
Our training program takes place at four affiliated institutions,
the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC), the
Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), Hennepin
County Medical Center (HCMC) and Park Nicollet Medical Center
(PNMC). Each clinical site possesses unique qualities, with different
patient populations and dermatologic disorders of varying
complexity and rarity. Collectively, this diversity provides residents
with an exceptional and well-rounded training experience.
The training programs currently consist of 24 residents, one procedural
dermatology fellow, one post-doctoral research fellow,
17 full-time faculty, 46 adjunct faculty and 30 associate faculty,
all of whom contribute their expertise and knowledge in dermatology
to the education of our residents. The Department’s
educational programs also benefit significantly from having
a committed director of dermatology education research, Ben
Bornsztein, PhD. With his leadership, the program has become
an innovative environment, pioneering not only interdisciplinary
training of primary care residents by peer dermatology residents,
but also studies on internal medicine-dermatology case logs and
human resources assessments of the program with experts from
the Academic Health Center. It is the teamwork of our program
directors and all of our enthusiastic and caring faculty with the
exceptional leadership from our chair, Dr. Maria Hordinsky, that
makes the dermatology departments’ residency and fellowship
programs the exciting ones we have today.
At present, there are two Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical
Education (ACGME)-approved training tracks that comprise our integrated residency program: a 3-year categorical (core)
dermatology program and a 5-year combined internal medicinedermatology
(med-derm) program. In addition, a 4-year “2+2”
investigative dermatology track, to be approved by the American
Board of Dermatology, is being initiated. The core dermatology
program is structured with four three-month blocks throughout
the academic year, in which residents transition between the
four teaching sites. At each teaching site residents are exposed
to numerous specialty clinics in several areas of dermatology
including cutaneous lymphomas, immunobullous disorders, occupational
and contact allergy, connective tissue dermatology,
nail disorders, pigmented lesions, and hair diseases. Dermatopathology,
pediatric dermatology, procedural dermatology, and
medical outpatient and in-patient dermatology training are incorporated
into the blocks at all of the sites.
All residents attend dermatopathology teaching sessions twice a
week at each of the clinical sites. First year residents engage in
a weekly “Dermatopathology over Dinner” session with one of
our most committed dermatopathology faculty members. Second
and third year residents complete two to four week blocks
of dermatopathology during each three-month rotation. During
this time, residents work one-on-one with one of our prominent
dermatopathology faculty members, signing out active dermatopathology
cases and studying “unknowns”. While pediatric
dermatology is incorporated into the curriculum at each site, our
pediatric experience at the UMMC is especially notable. Residents
train in the brand new University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s
Hospital with two outstanding full-time pediatric dermatologists
that are fully committed to resident education and top-notch
clinical care. The pediatric dermatology rotation incorporates specialty
clinics for vascular lesions and dystrophic epidermolysis
bullosa, in which dermatology residents and faculty collaborate
with other medical and surgical specialties’ staff and trainees to
provide multi-disciplinary care to children with these rare conditions.
The procedural dermatology training is another noteworthy
aspect of the residency-training program. The majority of the
surgical dermatology training is done at the VAMC, where three
