Dermatology residency match: Is the glut of applications for limited positions corrupting the process?

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.

^{Mitchel Zoler/Frontline Medical News}

Dr. Jane M. Grant-Kels

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.