Medical Student Education

Penn Dermatology’s educational programs include a pathophysiology of skin disease course as part of the core curriculum for medical students, as well as a popular four-week clinical rotation in dermatology for third- and fourth-year medical students.

Directors:

• Derm 200: James Treat, MD
• Derm 300: Robert Micheletti, M.D.

The medical student teaching program fully reflects the strengths of the Department. Most of the faculty have some direct or indirect input into our medical students’ education program. The medical students’ interaction with Dermatology occurs predominantly in the following four courses:

Pathophysiology

Clinical Rotation

Research

Dermatopathology

Finally, the department of dermatology arranges clinical exposure for Penn Medical Residents, Penn Primary Care Residents, Penn Emergency Medicine Residents, and Penn Family Practice Residents. These rotations are filled by each respective department, and the rotations are not available to residents outside the University of Pennsylvania Medical System.

Derm 300 Medical Student Rotation Schedule

* While on CHOP or Presby, if you are interested in more inpatient consults, you can ask the attendings there if you can round with the consult team instead of / after clinic. Please understand they may have other rotators and may not be able to accommodate if it is too crowded.

Derm 302 Medical student Rotation Schedule

^ Tues PM at the VA is usually med derm clinic, but one Tuesday of each month is surgery clinic. Bring scrubs in case.
% Fri AM at the VA is usually surgery clinic, but the 1st and 5th Friday of each month is med derm clinic. Wear scrubs (it’s OK to be in scrubs for med derm clinic at the VA).

NOTES

• A senior resident will orient you at 7:30AM on the first Monday of your rotation. He/She will meet you at 2 Maloney, outside the dermatology residents’ room.  Any questions or concerns during the rotation should be directed to the Derm300 resident coordinator (Ashwin Agarwal), course director (Dr. Micheletti), or the department coordinator (Mary Beth Forte).
• If your clinic is cancelled: First, refer to the MS X rotation, which is always a back-up option. If uncertain, call the med student coordinator to find a backup, or go to Dermatopathology in 2 Maloney. Penn medical students may also attend clinic at the VA, but unfortunately visiting students may not (school of medicine policy). You may choose to attend one of these, or take time for reading.
• CHOP’s Dermatology office is at Buerger Center, 6th floor
• On Thursday mornings, there is an outpatient grand rounds (“Duhring conference”) in the clinic from 9-10AM and a discussion from 10-11AM in the STRC Smilow Auditorium. A senior resident will meet you in dermatology clinic at the Perelman Center at 9:35AM on Thursdays to discuss Duhring patients
• Gallops starts at 12:30PM in the 3 Founders, Plaza Room B Conference Room on Friday afternoons. You should leave any clinics to attend this. The medical student on the consult rotation is expected to give a short presentation at Gallops. Med students are called on to give descriptions of the lesions we see during Gallops.
• Required Text: Soutor & Hordinsky: Clinical Dermatology and/or Marks & Miller: Principles of Dermatology. Copies are available for your use during the rotation. You will not receive your grade/credit for the course until the book is returned in acceptable condition.
• Lectures: The resident coordinator will send you a didactics schedule each week. Generally, on the first Tuesday of your rotation, you will join the first year residents in the microscope room at 11:30 AM for path. You will receive two lectures from the resident coordinator and from Dr. Micheletti during the rotation, schedule TBD.
• Learning Modules:
  • Website: med.insightlt.com
  • Username: first letter of your first name followed by your last name without special characters.
    Password: your username followed by “1.”
    • Example: name = John O’Doe, username = jodoe, password = jodoe1
  • These modules are entirely optional, and your performance has absolutely no relevance to your Derm300 evaluation. You may find them effective at teaching you morphology, distribution, and configuration. You will be presented with many photos and will be asked to select the best descriptor for each. Based on your responses, the program will give you photos aimed at addressing the areas you are struggling with. There is a pre-test (takes 3 min), then a learning module (takes 15-20 min), followed by a post-test (takes three min). Please try to complete all portions if you decide to use this learning tool. We would also love your feedback!
• Lectures: This is schedule-dependent; generally, the Medical Student Coordinating resident will give two lectures and Dr. Micheletti will give two lectures. Generally, Dr. Micheletti’s lectures will be 12:30-1:30 on Friday afternoon in 3 Founders. The resident will discuss dates/times with you during the orientation.
• Evaluations: You will be evaluated on your presentations when you primarily see patients, including use of dermatologic descriptors and documentation; this primarily occurs on the consult service. You will also be evaluated based on your “Gallops” presentation, but we are a very kind, warm, welcoming, and supportive group. If you show up on time, are enthusiastic, energetic and interested in learning, you will do very well.

Should you need assistance: