Residency Didactic Components

All conferences are required

Excused absences include emergency consults, or approved vacation, meeting, or sick leave. Do not schedule elective personal appointments or clinic patients during conference time. A record of attendance is kept through a weekly sign-in sheet, and is documented.

Slide Show Conference

Occurs Thursday at 1:00 PM in the Dermatology Conference Room. Third year residents assign faculty, residents, and staff members to lead the slide show. Faculty members attend as much as possible. Slide show consists of a presentation of 20-30 unknown clinical projected images of cutaneous diseases of all varieties. Residents are asked to describe the image presented, give a differential diagnosis, and discuss appropriate key points regarding the correct diagnosis. Pathophysiology, diagnostic testing, therapeutic options, and dermatopathologic correlation is reviewed.

Case Conference

Occurs Thursday at 2:00 PM. Faculty and residents present classic, interesting, unusual, and unknown cases encountered during clinics. Surgical cases of importance are discussed, as well as any mortality and morbidity that has occurred during the past week is reviewed and documented by residents. The attending faculty on call for the week directs the conference and other faculty members attend as much as possible. Residents presenting cases are required to have the patient's demographics available, although only the patient's initials are used during the presentation to maintain confidentiality. Selected relevant textbook or EBM journal articles about the case are reviewed. The consult resident is responsible for compiling cases for presentation at conference.

Journal Club

Occurs on Friday at 1:00 PM in the Dermatology Conference Room, directed by a faculty member, in conjunction with a chief resident. Each session focuses on a different journal, with an assigned faculty member or an occasional guest dermatologist as facilitator.

• First Friday of the month assignment: Archives of Dermatology facilitated by Dr. Edison.


• Second Friday of the month assignment: Journal Watch and Dermatology Clips facilitated by Drs. Ward and Zurowski.


• Third Friday of the month assignment: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and selected Pediatric journals facilitiated with Dr. Dyer


• Fourth Friday of the month assignment: Coding sessions facilitated by Dr. Ailor; selected Dermatology Surgery journals are scheduled through Dermatologic Surgery faculty

The consult resident posts the journal each week for articles to be assigned, with all residents responsible for reading the entire journal and presenting their assigned articles.

Additionally, residents receive a complimentary subscription to the "Dialogues in Dermatology" series (MP3 recordings of interviews by leading experts on various dermatology topics). The recordings can be downloaded and are reviewed independently.

Dermatopathology conferences

Occur Thursday at 3PM. Review of textbook assignments in a slideshow format will be facilitated by the second and third year residents. This will be followed by review of unknown glass slides. First year residents will be responsible for pulling slides from the previous week's biopsies for review as well. Outside dermatopathologists are invited to lecture on a periodic basis.

Textbook conference

Occurs on Friday at 2pm, and covers a complete clinical dermatology text annually. A reading schedule is prepared by the third year residents at the beginning of the program year and is included in this handbook. Second and third year residents are responsible for directing this conference.

Pharmacology conference

Occurs on Friday, following Journal Club and scheduled guest lectures. The reading schedule is prepared by the third year residents at the beginning of the year. Second and third year residents are responsible for directing this conference.

Guest Lectures

occur throughout the year, usually on Fridays. Speakers are invited to lecture on areas of interest to the residents. Faculty members attend as much as possible.

Dermatopathology Atlas CD

is reviewed by the residents individually. Chapters and slides are selected based on the assigned textbook reading.

Mid Missouri Dermatology Meeting

Occurs on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. Resident attendance is required. At least one faculty member is required to attend, and other faculty members attend as much as possible. Regional private dermatologists, dermatology residents, and dermatology faculty present classic, interesting, unusual, and unknown cases (usually with the patient at the conference, available for group examination) encountered in their clinics or practice. After patients are examined by the group and dismissed, a discussion about each patient is undertaken, with suggestions for further diagnostic or therapeutic options reviewed by the group. First year residents document patient cases, and past cases are reviewed for further information obtained after the initial presentation. Additionally, this meeting offers Class I CME credit for faculty and regional dermatologists.

Internal Medicine Grand Rounds

Occur weekly throughout the program year. Some conferences are required and others are optional. Grand Rounds occur weekly at noon on Thursdays. Faculty members are encouraged to attend.