Monthly Archives: June 2007

Can’t Match Derm? Try Derm Path Instead

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Dermatology is a very competitive specialty and for good reason. You’ll enjoy 9-5 clinic hours, minimal call, a nice residency lifestyle, and great pay. If you’ve lived the good life in medical school and don’t have the Step scores, grades, or AOA status to match Derm, all hope is not lost.

Dermatopathology. Another high throughput subspecialty, a “derm path” can look at up to about 100 slides per day, and charge about $75 each. Thus, revenues can approach $2 million per year per physician. What’s more, a typical overhead rate is about 30% much lower than in general dermatology.

Enter Dermatopathology. Not only do you avoid patient contact, but your salary is extremely competitive and your work hours mirror those of a dermatology clinic.

Matching into pathology is currently much easier than matching into dermatology. I honestly don’t understand it, either. I’d much rather look at slides all day versus removing skin lesions from patients in clinic. If it were me it’d be pathology over dermatology hands down. I do predict that pathology will be getting more competitive in the near future.

Keep in mind that a dermatopathology fellowship is very competitive and is desired by both dermatologists and pathologists alike. If you don’t have the numbers but still want the derm lifestyle, I suggest matching into pathology and working as hard as you can to be a stellar pathology resident and an awesome derm path fellowship candidate.

Here’s just one job posting looking for a California dermatopathologist:

Employed Position

Salary + Incentive= $300k-$500k

Comprehensive Benefit Package

NO CALL

Work Monday through Friday; No Weekends

6 Weeks Vacation

Free Standing Lab

Generous Relocation Package

Not a bad deal.

Step 2 Minimum Passing Scores Increased

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Posted recently at the USMLE website, the Step 2 Committee decided to increase minimum passing scores on both the CK and CS versions of the exam.

Step 2 CK

The Step 2 Committee decided to raise the three-digit score recommended to pass Step 2 CK from 182 to 184. The new minimum passing score will be applied to Step 2 CK examinations for which the first day of testing is on or after July 1, 2007.

Step 2 CS

The Step 2 Committee decided to increase the performance levels required to receive a passing outcome on two of the three Step 2 CS subcomponents: Communication and Interpersonal Skills (CIS) and Spoken English Proficiency (SEP). There will be no change to minimum passing requirements for the Integrated Clinical Encounter (ICE) subcomponent of Step 2 CS. If these increases in the performance levels required to pass were applied to a recent group of first-time examinees, the overall passing rate for examinees from US schools would have decreased less than one percent and the overall passing rate for examinees from international medical schools would have decreased approximately eight percent. The new passing requirements will be applied to Step 2 CS examinations for which the first day of testing is on or after July 15, 2007.

Read the full report here.