Medical school dermatology curriculum: are we adequately preparing primary care physicians?

BACKGROUND

There is a lack of information regarding the dermatology learning needs of primary care physicians and residents.

OBJECTIVE

To determine dermatologic topics that primary care physicians consider important and to determine primary care residents' ratings of the teaching adequacy of these topics in the undergraduate medical curriculum.

METHODS

Primary care physicians and residents were surveyed regarding the importance and teaching adequacy of 17 dermatologic content areas.

RESULTS

Ninety-two primary care physicians identified 13 dermatologic content areas important for their practices. Two hundred fifty-two primary care residents identified 8 adequately taught topics and 9 inadequately taught topics.

LIMITATIONS

Internal medicine and family medicine physicians and residents from only 10 regions were surveyed.

CONCLUSION

Seventeen content areas can be divided into 3 categories: dermatologic topics that are important and adequately taught, topics that are unimportant, and a group of important, yet inadequately taught content areas. This latter group should be further integrated into dermatology curricula at U.S. medical schools.