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How to become Dermatologist in 2024

Dermatologist Diagnose and treat diseases relating to the skin, hair, and nails. May perform both medical and dermatological surgery functions.

Dermatologist is Also Know as

In different settings, Dermatologist is titled as

  • Board Certified Dermatologist
  • Dermatologist MD (Dermatologist Medical Doctor)
  • Dermatologist Physician
  • Dermatopathologist
  • Doctor
  • MD (Medical Doctor)
  • Mohs Micrographic Surgeon
  • Mohs Surgeon
  • Pediatric Dermatologist
  • Practicing Dermatologist

Education and Training of Dermatologist

Dermatologist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Dermatologist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Dermatologist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Dermatologist

Training Required for Dermatologist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Dermatologist in different industries are

What Do Dermatologist do?

  • Refer patients to other specialists, as needed.
  • Record patients' health histories.
  • Provide dermatologic consultation to other health professionals.
  • Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in dermatology.
  • Instruct interns or residents in diagnosis and treatment of dermatological diseases.
  • Evaluate patients to determine eligibility for cosmetic procedures such as liposuction, laser resurfacing, or microdermabrasion.
  • Conduct or order diagnostic tests such as chest radiographs (x-rays), microbiologic tests, or endocrinologic tests.
  • Recommend diagnostic tests based on patients' histories and physical examination findings.
  • Conduct clinical or basic research.
  • Provide therapies such as intralesional steroids, chemical peels, or comodo removal to treat age spots, sun damage, rough skin, discolored skin, or oily skin.
  • Provide dermabrasion or laser abrasion to treat atrophic scars, elevated scars, or other skin conditions.
  • Prescribe hormonal agents or topical treatments such as contraceptives, spironolactone, antiandrogens, oral corticosteroids, retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, or antibiotics.
  • Perform skin surgery to improve appearance, make early diagnoses, or control diseases such as skin cancer.
  • Perform incisional biopsies to diagnose melanoma.
  • Diagnose and treat pigmented lesions such as common acquired nevi, congenital nevi, dysplastic nevi, Spitz nevi, blue nevi, or melanoma.
  • Counsel patients on topics such as the need for annual dermatologic screenings, sun protection, skin cancer awareness, or skin and lymph node self-examinations.
  • Conduct complete skin examinations.
  • Diagnose and treat skin conditions such as acne, dandruff, athlete's foot, moles, psoriasis, or skin cancer.

Qualities of Good Dermatologist

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.

Tools Used by Dermatologist

  • Aspiration guns
  • Automated external defibrillators AED
  • Biopsy containers
  • Biopsy punches
  • Cauterizers
  • Chalazion clamps
  • Cilia forceps
  • Cryo tweezers
  • Cryoguns
  • Cryosurgical units
  • Dermal curettes
  • Dermatological lasers
  • Dermatoscopes
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital medical thermometers
  • Digital still cameras
  • Dressing forceps
  • Electrical suction pumps
  • Electrocardiography EKG machines
  • Electrode pencils
  • Fixation forceps
  • Hair transplant punches
  • Injection syringes
  • Laptop computers
  • Mechanical stethoscopes
  • Medical examination protective gloves
  • Medical magnifiers
  • Medical masks
  • Medical nail nippers
  • Medical scissors
  • Microdermabrasion tools
  • Nebulizers
  • Otoscopes
  • Phototherapy units
  • Protective face shields
  • Pulse oximeters
  • Serrated hemostats
  • simplifyMD Dermatology
  • Skin hooks
  • Sphygmomanometers
  • Splinter forceps
  • Sponge forceps
  • Surgical elevators
  • Surgical needle holders
  • Surgical retractors
  • Surgical scalpels
  • Suture scissors
  • Tablet computers
  • Tissue forceps
  • Vein locaters
  • Wood's lamps

Technology Skills required for Dermatologist

  • Allscripts PM
  • athenahealth athenaCollector
  • Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR
  • Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR
  • Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
  • Calendar software
  • CareCloud Central
  • Cerner PowerWorks Practice Management
  • Cisco Webex
  • doc2MD
  • eClinicalWorks EHR software
  • Email software
  • Encite Dermatology Electronic Health Records EHR Software
  • Epic Practice Management
  • GalacTek ECLIPSE
  • GE Healthcare Centricity Practice Solution
  • Greenway Medical Technologies PrimeSUITE
  • HealthFusion MediTouch
  • IOS Health Systems Medios EHR
  • Kareo Practice Management
  • McKesson Practice Plus
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Word
  • Modernizing Medicine Practice Management
  • NexTech EMR & PM
  • NextGen Healthcare NextGen Practice Management
  • Nuesoft Technologies NueMD
  • simplifyMD
  • Vitera Healthcare Solutions Vitera Intergy
  • WRSHealth EMR
  • Zoom