Resident Rounds. Part I. University of Minnesota Dermatology Residency Training Program

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