National survey of undergraduate dermatologic medical education.

A survey of dermatology department or section chairmen was conducted to investigate the extent of undergraduate dermatologic training in US medical schools. The median number of required hours of dermatologic training was 14, which represents 0.24% of the overall medical school curriculum time. Required dermatologic training time varied greatly among schools, but most such training occurred in the fourth year of school. Students in 53% of the schools that responded to the survey were not involved in either clinical or basic dermatologic investigative activities.