Wax Models in Dermatology: Updated through 2019

Wax models have occupied an unique position in the teaching of dermatology. While watercolor depictions of skin lesions and later photographic illustrations have been used, the wax model offers an unique presentation of the morphology, often not captured by other methods

Why Medical (and Dermatologic) Practice Has Become So Convoluted: The Complexity/Convolutional/Obfuscatory Kleptocracies.

Consider dermatology (or medical) practice from the aspect of those who manage, and seek to glean a profit from, medical management corporations, including but not limited to third party payers. Although much of the complexity burden thrust upon doctors’ offices is borne by the offices and doctors, there is also much that is borne by the companies, and the entire process appears to make no sense whatsoever. How can the business professionals who run these outfits make such blunders? Let us approach this question by examining another industry: fast food franchising

Angular cheilitis: a maligned condition.

Why an essay on angular cheilitis, an easily recognized cutaneous entity? One suggestion rests with the observation that angular cheilitis could be one of the most maligned conditions seen in contemporary practice. The fissuring, redness, and soreness at the angles of the mouth may not be catastrophic, but the embarrassment and soreness are disconcerting. Another that is more disturbing concerns the unnecessary testing and treatment often seen in the community. When a middle aged man presented with angular cheilitis on routine examination, he asked if this was due to a vitamin deficiency. Fig 1 He had been told by a physician and, of course, by Aunt Mabelthat his diet was the problem.1 In addition to having been prescribed multivitamins, a high potency steroid cream, and an antifungal preparation for presumed Candida albicans infection, he was instructed to eliminate several foods from his diet including anything spicy, plus carbonated beverages

Barrier-repair prescription moisturizers: Do we really need them? Facts and controversies.

There is now scientific evidence of genetically driven skin-barrier anomalies in atopic patients. These barrier anomalies facilitate sustained antigen ingress through the defective barrier, which can bring about a Th2-dominant response. It enhances the transepidermal water loss, resulting in dry skin and leading to the release of preformed proinflammatory cytokines and to a cascade of events ending up in inflammation

Controversies in dermatology: Part V.

“It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races” Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) in The Tragedy of Pudd’nead Wilson, Ch. 19, “Pudd’nead Wilson’s Calendar”. Part V of Controversies in Dermatology continues the precedent of earlier issues by providing a platform for discussion of a broad range of contemporary and controversial issues. In this issue of Clinics in Dermatology, we will forego the temptation to expose hidden agendas and witches brews, rather, we shall focus on accepted beliefs, principles, doctrines, and paradigms, which you may find even more astonishing

Bibliography of secondary sources on the history of dermatology III. Books, monographs, and chapters in English supplemented through 2005.

Providing supplements to the history of dermatology bibliographic record has been a continuous project for the past four decades. When the endeavor was initiated, the original authors decided that only contributions in English and those directly related to dermatology, excluding sexually transmitted diseases as such, would be indexed. There is the perennial question of whether such a manually created bibiliographic project has a need. The obvious answer remains yes. While Index Medicus has expanded the number of journals that are indexed, the number of dermatology publications currently included by Index Medicus is just over fifty. Granted, most of the papers of dermatologic interest are included in these journals, some contributions are to be found in non-indexed publications. In addition, many documents of an historical interest or of a biographical nature are not necessarily selected for indexing in Index Medicus. These installments are the first since 1980 for which the late John Thorne Crissey (1924-2009) has not contributed. His knowledge of the history of dermatology and his intellectual support are greatly missed

Dermatology is a specialty; dermatology is not a subspecialty.

Specialization began in American medicine about the time of the War Between the States. Several factors spurred the direction of practitioners away from being the so-called “complete physicians. Most important were the advances in instrumentation made by the 1860’s, which allowed ophthalmology and otolaryngology to develop into distinct divisions of allopathic medicine; sometimes, they even joined together, viz eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist. Dermatology, too, became one of the early specialties for a myriad of reasons ranging from the obvious – visual inspection - to the mundane, viz. default – syphilis was too ugly and complicated for every physician to diagnose and treat. (1) When American medical education began to expand in the early to mid-nineteenth century, the surgeons and even the obstetricians (2) often gave the lectures on skin diseases. After all, to paraphrase an early discourse at Jefferson Medical College by a surgeon – all skin disease can be divided into those treated by sulfur ointment and those not treated by sulfur ointment. (3) Dermatology in the United States can boast of having the first dermatology society in the world and one of the first specialty societies – New York Dermatological Society – founded in 1869. The American Journal of Dermatology and Syphilography (1870-1874) was among the first of the specialty publications, not only in the United States but worldwide. (4