Medical Student clerkship
MEDECK 604 Clinical Dermatology Course Objectives
At the completion of this elective, the student will be able to:
- Use the language of dermatology to effectively and accurately describe skin conditions or lesions.
- Demonstrate focused history-taking, physical examination, and oral and written presentations suitable for the skin.
- Outline a basic approach to the diagnosis and management of common skin conditions including atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and seborrheic dermatitis.
- Apply the basic principles and practice of oral and topical dermatologic therapy including the appropriate use of emollients, topical steroids, antipruritic therapies, and systemic immunosuppressants.
- Correctly identify common skin tumors such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma; outline basic management plans including the method of biopsy, appropriate surgical management, and patient follow up intervals.
- Recognize potentially life-threatening skin diseases such as serious drug eruptions, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and autoimmune blistering disorders.
- Successfully demonstrate essential dermatologic diagnostic procedures including KOH examination, scabies prep, shave biopsy, and punch biopsy of the skin.
MEDECK 616 Advanced Clinical Dermatology Objectives
Prerequisite: must have completed four weeks of Clinical Dermatology prior to start of rotation.
This is an advanced dermatology elective; each student will focus on one or two of four areas, which will be determined prior to starting the rotation in consultation with Dr. Vary: Dermatologic Surgery, Dermatopathology, Pediatric Dermatology, or Advanced Medical Dermatology.
Goals:
Depending upon the clinical interest of the student, the student will achieve one of the following (to be determined prior to starting the rotation):
Dermatologic Surgery:
- To learn the natural history of common skin cancers
- To learn the principles of surgical and non-surgical management of common skin cancers
- To learn basic suturing technique of the dermis and epidermis
Dermatopathology:
- To learn the approach to examining histologic specimens of the skin
- To learn how to build a differential diagnosis for both tumors and inflammatory conditions in skin biopsies
- To learn the importance of the clinicopathologic correlation
Pediatric Dermatology:
- To learn the approach to the diagnosis and management of the most common skin problems encountered in the pediatric population
- To learn the basic and intermediate principles and practice of oral and topical dermatologic therapy in children, with steroids, calcineurin inhibitors, antibiotics, and isotretinoin.
- To learn how to interact with both child and parent to obtain a complete history and effectively communicate a treatment plan
Advanced Medical Dermatology:
- To refine the approach to the diagnosis and management of the most common skin problems encountered in a complex medically ill population.
- To learn basic and intermediate principles and practice of oral and topical dermatologic therapy with wet dressings, steroids, emollients and antipruritic therapy.
- To learn to recognize major life-threatening skin diseases and markers of systemic disease.