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.
From the hours I have spent here–along with the days, weeks and months I have spent on the SDN forums–I have come to think of med school as a gamble: Say, for instance, that there are only a couple of areas that truly interest you (and, of course, by no coincidence, these areas offer great pay, excellent hours, thus an all-around excellent lifestyle), then what happens if you do not match into any of these areas?
Are you screwed?
What do you do then?
If you don’t match into the one or two specialties that will make you happy, then it’s a pretty difficult situation. You could always reapply for the next year or do a transitional year and reapply after that.
You’re right though, it is a gamble.
My sis works 4 days a week and has it made.The medicare patients piss her off the most.
OMG! I danced with delight when I saw this post. After Med school, here i come America lol. That sounds like a nice life with great perks. If only I could find a specialty like this in the UK.
Wow, that’s an impressive salary for a non-clinical role. Heck, isn’t that what orthopedic surgeons make?
Holy mother of lifestyle choices….
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Hey im still in med school and plans to go to dermapathology too. Is it hard to get into such?
Gayle… It’s very hard to get into dermatopath. I’m guessing you’re an IMG? Pretty much impossible to get a derm spot, but you should be able to find a path residency no problem. Even if you’re an AMG, you need stellar scores + research + AOA (there are MANY people with 250+ AOA not matching) just to have a shot at derm.
As for path being the backdoor to dermatopath, I personally know a couple of people doing this, and know there are MANY more in path residencies out there. The issue is that derm candidates are still generally more competitive for the fellowships (which are competitive in general), and often times the derm program runs the fellowship and prefers derm residents. Also, you’re competing with the cream of the crop path residents (particularly in terms of research)… as such if you’re going thru path u should find a top-notch residency program with a big name and big research, as well as an in-house dermpath fellowship (preferably run by the path dept).
Also the path residents can’t mix it up with derm clinic, biopsies, etc. if that’s ur thing….
Dermpath is extremely competitive, you don’t always make that much money, and there is call. You can also work incredibly long hours in academia, don’t know about private practice.
Where do you people get this info? A lot of it is wrong.
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