Resident Rounds. Program Spotlight: Weill Cornell Medical College

October 2013 | Volume 12 | Issue 10 | Features | 1175 | Copyright © October 2013


Horatio F. Wildman MD and Richard D. Granstein MD

Department of Dermatology, New York Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY

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 Weill Cornell Medical College. 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 goal of residency program at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center is to train physicians to be world-class providers of dermatologic care with the highest ethical standards and to produce leaders in academic and clinical dermatology. The program is comprised of 13 residents, and 1 procedural dermatology fellow. The diversity of clinical experiences is a highlight of the program, with residents rotating in clinics and on the wards of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center (NYP-WCMC), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), and Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center. NYP-WCMC is a tertiary care medical center, which offers over 45,000 dermatology outpatient visits and 800 inpatient consults yearly. Specialty clinics include a patch testing and contact dermatitis service, nail disease clinic, pediatric dermatology, surgical procedural dermatology, and complex medical dermatology unit. MSKCC is the world’s oldest and largest private institution devoted to patient care, education, and research into cancer, and is located across the street from NYP-WCMC. Specialty clinics include a multidisciplinary cutaneous lymphoma service, pigmented lesion clinic, supportive oncodermatology, and approximately 1000 inpatient consults pertaining to oncology patients. HSS is a nationally renowned orthopedic and rheumatology center, and is the site for the rheumatology-dermatology specialty clinic. Lincoln Health Center, located in the Bronx, provides care to the underserved and has a mix of chronic, neglected, and infectious conditions in pediatric and adult patients.
The varied sites of training help to impart a diverse and well-rounded clinical experience for our residents. The faculty to resident ratio of 2:1 allows for ample clinical guidance, robust teaching opportunities, and individualized mentoring. The residency is front-loaded with general dermatology rotations, each containing a weekly pediatric dermatology clinic and resident surgical clinic. The resident surgical experience also consists of 1 month per year devoted to Mohs’ surgery and procedural dermatology. There are ample opportunities for cosmetic dermatology, including toxin and filler based rejuvenation, peels, sclerotherapy, and laser procedures. Residents spend one month per year in dermatopathology, which is divided between NYP-WMC and MSKCC. All residents have a continuity clinic and upper level residents staff the inpatient consult service, two rotations which help to promote physician autonomy. Senior residents have one month of elective time.
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To complement the dynamic clinical experience, didactic session takes place each morning and on Wednesday afternoons, for a total of 10 hours per week. Morning report occurs on Mondays and Fridays, with interesting or difficult important cases presented and visited on rounds. On Tuesday morning, live patients are presented and discussed as part of Grand Rounds, which is followed by an invited lecture. One Tuesday a month, Grand Rounds is replaced with Super Surgical Tuesday, a series of hands-on educational workshops aimed to sharpen resident surgical skills – examples include pig’s feet, nail surgery on cadavers, hair transplantation, and laser resurfacing. Wednesday morning, residents hone their visual recognition and differential diagnosis skills during weekly unknown kodachrome slide sessions. Thursday morning is a structured curriculum of faculty lectures. Four consecutive hours of didactics on Wednesday afternoon start with the weekly resident-run book club, which provides an opportunity for senior residents to focus on teachProgram