20 tasks, each one witnessed by the sources that watched the job — and behind every one, a prompt you can use tonight.
Most dermatologists split time between clinic visits and procedures. Mornings often start with patient visits: full skin exams, diagnosing acne, eczema, psoriasis, or reviewing biopsy results. You’ll record health histories in an EHR like eClinicalWorks or Benchmark Clinical and order tests such as microbiologic or endocrinologic labs when needed.
Afternoons often include procedures: skin biopsies, excisions for skin cancer, Mohs surgery or cosmetic treatments. You’ll prescribe meds, apply topical treatments, and document everything in the EHR (Allscripts or athenahealth are common). Time for referrals or phone consults with other specialists usually appears late day.
Expect to use several systems: eClinicalWorks, Benchmark Clinical EHR, Allscripts PM, athenahealth athenaCollector, AdvancedMD EHR, and PrognoCIS EMR are commonly used. You’ll enter visit notes, medication orders, procedure codes, and follow-up plans there.
Also use Microsoft Office and Word for reports and Calendar for scheduling. Billing may touch ADP or athenaCollector. Each system handles the same tasks but with different screens—learning one hospital’s EHR well is the fastest route to competence.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports 11,370 employed dermatologists. The median annual wage is $328,730. The lowest tenth earns about $102,810, and the top tenth earns about $578,560 per year. Those are national figures from the BLS.
Pay varies by setting: private practice, hospital employment, or academic roles. Procedure-heavy dermatology (surgery, cosmetic work) often pushes earnings toward the top tenth; salaried hospital jobs may sit nearer to the median.
You need a medical degree, good USMLE/COMLEX scores, strong dermatology-related clinical rotations, and research or elective experience. Study core subjects: pathology of skin diseases, dermato-pharmacology, and clinical skills for biopsies and skin exams.
Get hands-on experience with skin procedures during electives if possible. Learn to read dermatopathology slides and practice with tools like dermatoscopes. Familiarity with EHRs (eClinicalWorks or Allscripts) and basic office workflows helps you on day one.
Dermatologists are medical doctors who diagnose and treat medical skin disease (melanoma, eczema, psoriasis) and perform medical procedures such as biopsies, excisions, and burn care. They can prescribe systemic medications and order labs or imaging. Estheticians focus on non-medical skin care and cosmetic treatments without prescribing meds.
Plastic surgeons do surgical reconstruction and large-scale cosmetic surgery. Dermatologists perform skin-focused surgery (skin cancer removal, Mohs) and cosmetic procedures like fillers or lasers, but their training centers on skin disease and dermatopathology.
AI can assist with documentation (drafting notes in an EHR) and image triage, but it should not replace your clinical judgment. Use AI to speed tasks: auto-populate visit summaries, suggest differential diagnoses from photos, or pre-fill orders in systems like eClinicalWorks, then review and edit everything.
Protect patient privacy: only use AI tools approved by your institution and that comply with HIPAA. Keep a paper or EHR-logged trail of clinical decisions (diagnoses, biopsy results, prescriptions) and verify AI suggestions against pathology, labs, and your exam.
Procedural skills—accurate skin biopsies, excisions, and Mohs surgery—are hard because they need fine motor control, judgment about margins, and experience. Improve by supervised repetition during residency and getting direct feedback from attendings.
Another tough skill is reading pigmented lesions and dermatopathology. Get better by reviewing large sets of biopsy slides, following cases from clinical photo to pathology report, and using clinic time to compare your impressions with pathology and colleagues.