Dr. Julie Martin Publishes UTMB Dermatology Residency Scholarly Project

Dr. Julie Martin, currently in private dermatology practice in Austin, recently published her scholarly project entitled, “Dermatology Procedural and Surgical Skills Workshop for Medical and Physician Assistant Students,” in the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications (JCDSA, Volume 3, Number 3A2, 2013). Her coauthors on this educational research were UTMB MS4 DIG President Sheila Jalalat and Dr. Richard Wagner from the UTMB Department of Dermatology. This open access publication is available at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/JCDSA/ ( http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jcdsa.2013.33A2011  ).

Dr. Martin completed three years of general surgery residency at UTMB before taking a one year fellowship in cutaneous oncology at Harvard and then starting dermatology residency at UTMB. She completed her dermatology residency at UTMB in June 2013.

Dermatology Research: Ways to Get Involved

Students interested in dermatology often ask how to get involved with research. Dr. Tyring’s clinical research fellow has given us some recommendations on ways students can find dermatology research opportunities:

1. Many faculty members have research opportunities for medical students but it must be sought out. A better approach may be meeting dermatology faculty at interest meetings, rotations, and inquiring in person or by email.
2. On 3rd/4th year medicine or ICU rotations patients will present with interesting dermatological complaints that can be written up as case reports. Express interest to your attending/resident that you would like to write your patient up.
3. Enroll in research elective during 4th year (details in previous DIG@UTMB blog post)
4. While generally reserved for residents, medical students can present patients at conferences (ie. Texas Dermatological Society meetings) if there is space and time available.
5. Some students applying to dermatology will elect to take a year off for research to make their application more competitive. Before considering this, talk to a mentor who can give you a realistic idea if you will match into dermatology given your current stats or if taking a year to conduct research would be beneficial.
6. Dr. Tyring is happy to have students rotate with him for a month to work in both his private clinic and do research.
1. His email address is styring@ccstexas.com. Just this year they had one UTMB medical student write and publish a paper in a major dermatology journal. It was accepted, too! Another student rotating for a month wrote a paper that was also recently accepted, helped input data for a project that residents were already working on, and presented a poster at the Texas Dermatological Society meeting.
2. Students can also contact Dr. Tyring’s clinical research fellow at cdowning@ccstexas.com to inquire about any projects. 

DIG would like to thank Dr. Tyring’s research clinical fellow for providing all of this helpful information!

UTMB Dermatology to Interview Internal Candidates for Residency Positions

UTMB Dermatology will interview all of its internal applicants for a dermatology residency position on Friday morning, December 6th. Invited to this interview are current UTMB MS4 ERAS applicants as well as ERAS applicants from within UTMB who have already graduated from medical school.

UTMB Dermatology Resident selected to serve as a member of AAD's Residents/Fellows Committee

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Lindsey Hunter-Ellul, UTMB PGY-3 Dermatology Resident, was recently appointed to serve as a member of the American Academy of Dermatology's (AAD) Residents/Fellows Committee from 2014-2016. This committee serves to support the interests of and address issues of concern to residents and fellows in training during post-graduate education.

Lack of Research Interest Among Medical Students Investigated

Researchers at King Edward Medical University in Pakistan conducted a case-controlled study in 2007 at their institution with MS4s about why some medical students were not interested in research. They found that student attitudes of considering research useless (odds ratio 4.570) and lack of internet facilities (odds ratio 0.218) were statistically significant. However, further research is needed to determine why some of their medical students view research as useless. This article, “Factors contributing to lack of interest in research among medical students,” was published in Advances in Medical Education and Practice 2013;4:237-243.

UTMB DIG President Publishes Dermatology Education Article

Congratulations to UTMB MS4 Dermatology Interest Group (DIG) President, Sheila Jalalat on her new publication, “Medical student dermatology interest groups,” that was published in the September-October issue of Clinics in Dermatology (31:656-60. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2013.02.001). Her coauthors on this paper were Drs. Lindsey Hunter-Ellul, a second year dermatology resident at UTMB and Dr. Richard Wagner, UTMB dermatology program director. The abstract for this article is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24079594 and the entire article is currently available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0738081X

DIGA Posts Dermatology Residency Interview Calendar

As in past years, DIGA (Dermatology Interest Group Association) has posted a calendar and additional program information for the current dermatology match. It is available at: http://interviews.derminterest.org/ UTMB participated in the request for interview information, and our interview dates for nonrotating outside applicants (January 30 or January 31) are listed along with other participating programs. This calendar is especially useful for applicants trying to avoid interview conflicts, as it is often difficult to change an interview date once it is set.

Dr. Nate Davis Publishes UTMB Dermatology Residency Scholarly Project

Dr. Nate Davis, currently in private dermatology practice in Corpus Christi, recently published his scholarly project entitled, “Dermatology Resident Generated Textbook Questions as a Resident-centered Educational Strategy,” in the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications (JCDSA), Vol.3 No.3B, 2013). His coauthors on this educational research were Kimberly Cooper, UTMB Dermatology Residency Program Coordinator, and Drs. Erica Kelly, Sharon Raimer, and Richard Wagner from the UTMB Department of Dermatology. This open access article is currently available at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/JCDSA/ Dr. Davis’ UTMB residency group (Drs. Nate Davis, Ashley Group and Neda Nosrati) was the first from our medical school to have everyone in the class publish their scholarly project!

Medical School Graduates Without a Residency Offer an Increasing Concern

Atul Nakhasi, a medical student at Johns Hopkins, published an opinion piece in the October 31, 2013 Wall Street Journal (One Quick Fix to Ease the Coming Doctor Shortage, page A15). He reported that last year, 1761 MDs could not find residency positions. He thinks this situation may become worse as more US medical schools are opening (a 30% increase in the number of first year medical students by 2017) coupled with less federal funding for residency education (proposed $11 billion budget cut over the next 10 years).

Should Standardized Test Scores be Included in CV?

Should residency applicants include their Step scores in job resumes? How about MCAT scores, or going back further, SAT/ACT scores? The December 2013 issue of Kiplinger's published an interesting article by Knight Kiplinger (A College Degree Isn't Enough, page 16). Some applicants are now including their GRE scores to demonstrate that their GPAs are not inflated and that they are intellectually capable of doing the work demanded by employers. This article also mentions that some references provided by applicants are not reliable.