Resident Rounds Part I: Program Spotlight: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

February 2014 | Volume 13 | Issue 2 | Features | 197 | Copyright © February 2014


Edith Bowers MD PhD

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Abstract
Resident Rounds is a section of the JDD dedicated to highlighting various dermatology departments with residency training programs. Resident Rounds includes three sections: (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 North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Dermatology Residency Training Program. The editor of Resident Rounds is Omar A. Ibrahimi MD PhD. He is currently the Founding and Medical Director of the Connecticut Skin Institute. Dr. Ibrahimi is also a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dermatology Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. If you are interested in highlighting your training program in a future issue, please contact Dr. Ibrahimi at OIbrahimi@jddonline.com.
The Department of Dermatology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has a long tradition of training leaders in clinical and academic dermatology as well as maintaining excellence in patient care. After beginning as a division of Internal Medicine in 1952, UNC Dermatology became an independent department in 1971.
Over the years, our program has expanded to include fourteen residents and nineteen faculty members, specializing in medical, procedural, pediatric, and cosmetic dermatology, as well as dermatopathology. We currently serve greater than 32,000 patients per year, many of whom travel from neighboring states. In addition, we have a productive basic science department, with laboratories investigating autoimmune bullous disorders, melanoma, and non-melanoma skin cancer, and similarly participate in numerous ongoing clinical trials.
Over three years, residents refine their skills in dermatology by serving a large patient population in a variety of settings. These include outpatient clinics in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Hillsborough, a clinic for the local uninsured population, a clinic for incarcerated patients, as well as a busy adult and pediatric inpatient consult service. Residents rotate in dedicated laser, cosmetic, patch testing, pigmented lesion, high-risk skin cancer, and autoimmune bullous disorder clinics, and hone their procedural skills through a Mohs surgery rotation.
To supplement their clinical education, residents spend two halfdays per week in didactic sessions, which are faculty-led and focus on current advances in dermatology. Dermatopathologists from nearby Greensboro Pathology also generously devote time weekly to resident education.
In their second and third years, residents have several weeks of elective time and are encouraged to rotate through other departments or institutions. Dr. Dedee Murrell is a former UNC dermatology resident who practices in Sydney, Australia and eagerly welcomes rotating residents. UNC also has a long-standing exchange program with the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil where residents study tropical dermatology.
Our faculty creates an educational environment that, while challenging, is also collegial and supportive. Our department chair, Dr. Luis Diaz, as well as our residency director, Dr. Dean Morrell have been instrumental to the success of this program by incorporating faculty and resident feedback. By the time they graduate, our residents are ready to pursue successful careers in clinical or investigative dermatology. We are confident that their hard work, creativity, and passion for patient care will continue to make them leaders in dermatology and eager to tackle new challenges that evolve in our field.
table 1

Disclosures

The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

AUTHOR CORRESPONDENCE

Edith Bowers MD PhDEBowers@unch.unc.edu