Dermatology Residency Curriculum

Each year in the Dermatology Residency at Baylor College of Medicine offers unique training opportunities and responsibilities.

Inpatient consults are built in at the VA, Ben Taub and Texas Children's. Residents also the opportunity for inpatient consults at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center for three to four months during their second year.

Residents have surgery rotations while at the VA, Ben Taub and Jamail.

Small and large group cosmetic workshops with hands-on experience are also built into rotations.

The Dermatologic Surgery Service at Baylor College of Medicine includes two full-time dermatologic surgeons (Dr. Ida Orengo and Dr. Ikue Shimizu) trained in Mohs micrographic surgery as well as multiple cosmetic and reconstructive procedures. Surgical procedures are scheduled for residents at the VA Medical Center and Ben Taub Hospital beginning during the first year of training.

Mohs surgery is scheduled weekly at the VA Medical Center and the residents play an integral part in assisting during these procedures. Additional surgical experience is gained at the department's private office. Baylor residents obtain excellent and comprehensive surgical experience throughout their three years of training.

Recommended standards set forth by the American Board of Dermatology are easily attained. Residents may schedule surgical procedures five days per week at the VA and four days per week at Ben Taub Hospital.

The Pediatric Dermatology Service at Baylor is staffed by six pediatric dermatologists. Clinical activities are based primarily at Texas Children's Hospital, the largest freestanding pediatric hospital in the United States. An outpatient clinic is located at Texas Children's, where approximately 200 patients with Medicaid and private insurance are seen each week 

Inpatient consultations are seen at Texas Children’s, Ben Taub Hospital, and The Pavilion for Women. The Pediatric Dermatology Service is active in the multi-disciplinary Vascular Anomalies Clinic.  

A Candela pulsed dye laser is located in the outpatient surgical suite at Texas Children's, where treatment of vascular malformations is frequently performed. NB-UVB phototherapy and Excimer Laser are also offered in the Pediatric Dermatology clinic. 

A wide selection of techniques and technology gives Baylor dermatologists the flexibility to offer treatment for a variety of skin problems, providing quality care for patients who want to improve their appearance.

Procedures include Botox injections, injectable fillers, excessive sweating treatments, laser treatment of acne, scars, hair removal, blood vessels and tattoo removal, as well as mild chemical peels and sclerotherapy.

Available lasers are the Candela Smoothbeam, Coherent (Lumenis) LightSheer, Candela V-Beam, Hoya Con-Bio Medlite C6, Fraxel laser by Reliant, Laserscope Lyra-i, Weck CO2 laser, and Lumenis One IPL.

Experience in dermatopathology is provided by weekly didactic conferences, formal dermatopathology rotations, and interaction with the staff dermatopathologist concerning patients on the resident's service. The staff dermatopathologist and assigned resident review dermatopathology specimens from the outpatient Baylor laboratory material and from the outpatient clinics at the VA Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital. Material on inpatients is available from Texas Children’s Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital.

Residents take call from home for a week at a time. The on-call resident handles all consults and questions from the VA, Ben Taub, Baylor St. Luke's and Texas Children's. A faculty member backs up the resident on call during the entire week. Faculty members handle all questions related to private, faculty patients.

Each call is one week, Monday - Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday. Pager handoff is at 8 a.m. on Monday.

Average weeks of call per year:

• Year 1: 8-9 weeks
• Year 2: 5-6 weeks
• Year 3: 1-2 weeks

Holidays are split among the residents, with the major holidays assigned to first-year residents. New first-year residents have senior resident back-up during their initial call rotation.

A major interest of the Department of Dermatology is the pursuit of clinical research.

Clinical research is performed in the Jamail Specialty Care Center by the physicians. Baylor Dermatology has an excellent track record of time study completion, consistent follow-up and careful documentation. Funding is provided by both independent grants generated by investigators and pharmaceutical sponsored research.