Women's Dermatologic Society

By Briana Paiewonsky, BS 1, 2, and Lori Fiessinger, MD 1 1 Department of Dermatology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 2 Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL An editorial published in April 2021 highlighted the growing role of the dermatologist in social media (1). In fact, most of the dermatologists interviewed for the editorial shared the sentiment that social media is here to stay and will continue to develop in coming years (1). As experts on skin, hair, and nails, dermatologists are the most qualified to discuss these topics on social media. However, learning the nuances of social media profiles, posts, and videos is no easy feat. We have compiled some tips and useful tools to aid in creating a successful social media presence by effectively branding yourself, engaging your audience, and creating content. Branding Though branding has previously been used as a marketing tool for physical products, branding has now develope...

By Audrey Jacobsen, MD,  Lori Fiessinger, MD Discussion of physician wellness and strategies to prevent burnout is now more important than ever given the additional stressors of COVID-19. It is probably not surprising to members of the WDS that studies have shown women physicians are more likely to experience burnout than male physicians. Creating a culture of wellness in medicine has to start with making changes for our trainees. To this end, our academic dermatology department has created a Wellness Committee. The committee is a collaborative effort between residents and faculty. I’ll let our resident committee leader tell you more about what we are doing and how we started this important initiative below. We hope our ideas can be adopted broadly in the dermatology community. -  Lori Fiessinger, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota

The WDS Practice Advisory Committee (PAC) shares dermatology photography tips including how to take quality photos and save time, before and after photography, dermoscopy and more. Dermoscopic Photography I find it very helpful to monitor pigmented lesions for changes using dermoscopic photography. In order to do this quickly, I have a phone case that is magnetized to hold my dermatoscope in place. Both my dermatoscope and the case are from DermLite. Using an app for EPIC, my photographs can be directly uploaded into the patient's chart for future use. I find this system to be very quick and efficient.  Taking dermoscopic photographs of things that I biopsy has also improved my own knowledge. I review photographs when dermpath comes back to see if there are any features that I can learn from for a particular diagnosis. For anyone who teaches residents, having a library of dermoscopic images can also improve residency training. - Lori Fiessinger, ...

The WDS Practice Advisory Committee (PAC) shares tips and advice for optimizing consent forms for surgical and cosmetic procedures in dermatology. Include Patient Discussions in Office Notes Don’t forget that a form may not always protect you. It is just as important, if not more, to include the discussion you had with the patient in your office note. The patient can always claim that they didn’t read a form that was put in front of them. - Mark Kaufmann, MD Focus on Patient Dialogue More important than a signed consent form, is a dialogue with the patient to convey the risks, benefits and alternatives of a procedure or intervention, and determining that the patient understands the dialogue as it is pertinent to them. Also, consider having a witness print their name and sign as well as the patient on the consent form. - Monica Li, MD, FRCPC, FAAD Increase Patient Compliance after a New Procedure Give patients a follow up call the day after a new proced...