The dermatology residency program at The University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has three goals: (1) recruit the best applicants; (2) train excellent clinicians; and (3) produce leaders of our specialty. From the outset, we recruit residents to either the conventional three-year clinical track or a four-year physician-scientist track.
Our clinical resources are the pre-eminent component of the program, providing abundant numbers of patients with rich pathology,
diverse ethnicity and varied reimbursement carriers. These include eight well-integrated institutions that (with one exception) are in close proximity to the medical school, located just west of downtown Dallas. The cluster of geographically-adjacent facilities include Parkland Hospital (owned by Dallas County), Children's Medical Center, two University Hospitals (St. Paul and Zale-Lipshy), the University faculty private-practice clinic and two dermatopathology groups. The geographically outlying institution is the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, located south of the Trinity River. All facilities are supervised by academic and community-based faculty, although clinics at Parkland,
Children's, and the VA hold the distinct reputation of being "owned" (so to speak) by residents because their environments permit a direct hands-on approach to training.
A distinguishing component of the residency program are cutting-
edge achievements in dermatological education,1-3 including the Dermatology Teachers Exchange Group founded by the author for dug-in-the-trenches teachers and the Integrated Basic and Clinical Science Conference Series (Resident Rounds, Part II) that is a teaching tool for acquiring book and journal knowledge.
The Department of Dermatology is led by Kim Yancey, MD, Chair and Ponciano (Chito) Cruz, Jr., MD as Vice Chair, Chief of Dermatology at the VA and Residency Program Director. In ad-
