SAN DIEGO – Whether the glut of applications contending for the roughly 420 dermatology residency positions in recent years may be corrupting the process was the topic of discussion at a session on dermatoethics at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.
"I think it is unethical and we need to address it," Jane M. Grant-Kels, MD, said during the session. "What we are doing through the process of physicians getting into dermatology residency programs is telling them to lie to us and to do well on a single examination," the United States Medical Licensing Examination.
"That's not a message I want to give," added Dr. Grant-Kels, professor of dermatology, pathology, and pediatrics at the University of Connecticut, Farmington.
Lionel G. Bercovitch, MD, is among the dermatologists who acknowledge the unarguable fact that application rates are high but don't see it as a crisis of credibility.