Dermatology Medical Education: A Multicenter Survey Study of the Undergraduate Perspective of the Dermatology Clinical Clerkship.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Limited data are available regarding the undergraduate dermatology clinical clerkship curriculum in the United States. Our primaryaim is to assess medical students' perspectives of the dermatology clinical clerkship. METHODS: A multicenter survey study was conducted, which included four California dermatology academic programs. A 17-item questionnaire was designed to investigate medical student perception with regard tothe overall educational value of the various teaching aspects of the dermatology clinical clerkship. RESULTS: A total of 152 medical student surveys were completed. Over half of the medical students felt proficient in diagnosing the most commondermatologic conditions. Eighty-seven percent of medical students were very satisfied with the dermatology clerkship. Ninety-one percent of students felt the length of the clerkship was appropriate. CONCLUSIONS: The vast majority of medical students reported a high level of proficiency in the treatment and diagnosis of common skin disorders. In contrast, our findings suggest that medical students may not begaining sufficient hands-on experience in conducting certain dermatologic procedures following the dermatology clerkship. Overall, medical studentperception of the dermatology clinical clerkship was mostly positive.

GRAPPA Trainees Symposium 2013: a report from the GRAPPA 2013 Annual Meeting.

At the 2013 annual meeting of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 26 dermatology and rheumatology fellows engaged in psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis research were invited to present their work at the Trainees Symposium, which preceded the annual meeting and was also attended by GRAPPA members from around the world. Herein, we provide a brief overview of the 6 oral presentations and 25 posters presented, which reflect the focus and diversity of current basic and clinical research in psoriatic disease.

Psoriasis, electrocardiographic characteristics, and incidence of atrial fibrillation.

Psoriasis patients have an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease. Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with increased morbidity and risk of stroke. In this study, we assessed the association between psoriasis, electrocardiographic characteristics, and incident atrial fibrillation. Two cohorts were studied to address this question. First, the electrocardiograms of 169 subjects with psoriasis and coronary heart disease were reviewed and matched to patients without psoriasis. The Framingham risk score for atrial fibrillation was calculated to predict incident atrial fibrillation. Second, a larger cohort of 2,078 patients with psoriasis was matched to 6,234 patients without psoriasis. In the first group, psoriasis patients had no significantly different electrocardiographic characteristics, but a trend towards a decreased predicted incidence of atrial fibrillation using the Framingham risk score (12.8 vs. 14.6 % over a 10-year period, P = 0.06), suggesting that patients with psoriasis do not have a higher prevalence of risk factors for atrial fibrillation based on established risk scores. In the second group, the 5-year incidence of atrial fibrillation among patients with psoriasis was 2.5, vs. 3.3 % for matched controls (P = 0.4). The rates of atrial fibrillation per 1,000 person-years ranged from 4.8 events/1,000 person-years for mild psoriasis to 5.4 for patients with moderate/severe psoriasis. On multivariable analysis, there remained no association between mild psoriasis (adjusted HR 1.32, 95 % CI 0.91-1.89) or moderate-to-severe psoriasis (adjusted HR 1.27, 95 % CI 0.54-3.03) and incident atrial fibrillation.

Clinical and histologic diagnostic guidelines for psoriasis: a critical review.

Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease that is associated with joint, psychiatric, and cardiovascular comorbidities. Diagnosis of plaque psoriasis is dependent primarily on characteristic physical findings and history. Given the varied clinical presentations of psoriasis and its mimicry to other papulosquamous skin diseases, it may be difficult for nondermatologists to diagnose psoriasis. Currently, no diagnostic criteria for plaque psoriasis have been validated in clinical studies. In this paper, we provide diagnostic guidelines for the nondermatologist to aid them in recognizing psoriasis.