Women's Dermatologic Society

  By Dr. Julie Karen It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began. It is also hard to overstate the impact of the pandemic on each of us. Prolonged office closures with concomitant reduced productivity, the introduction (and for most, the persistence) of personal protective equipment (PPE), elimination of introductory handshakes with our patients, and for many of us, the tragic loss of colleagues, friends and family due to illness are chief among the ways our practices and lives have been indelibly altered. In this country, there have been more than 47.6 million confirmed infections and more than 770,000 COVID-19-related deaths to date. There have been some interesting intersections between COVID-19 and our field of Dermatology, some of which I will highlight below. Diagnosis Delay and Telemedicine Mandatory lockdowns during the first few months of the pandemic limited patients’ access to urgent dermatologic care. At one academic institut...

Read featured COVID articles from the WDS Resident Fellow and Young Physicians Committee. Avoiding Burnout During the Pandemic Tips for Running Your Practice During COVID-19 Stories from the Frontline Avoiding Burnout During the Pandemic:  Interviews by Dr. Shari Lipner Dr. Neelam Khan, then a 3rd year dermatology resident at SUNY Downstate, volunteered to care for COVID-19 patients during March 2020, and was redeployed to the COVID-19 wards in April 2020. She related that she worked on a pediatric floor that was cleared out and converted to an adult COVID-19 adult ward. Downstate was vastly under sourced, treatment approaches were not working, and patients were dying daily. She worked long hours and found the experience stressful. Participating in WDS virtual networking events and speaking to other WDS members was one important way that she coped with her experiences. She reported that this time on the wards was the most valuable experience of her life. When I asked her ...