Dermatology Research

Research in the Department of Dermatology is focused primarily on clinical, biomedical, and health services delivery projects. Our research program dovetails easily with our strong clinical and educational programs.

Faculty Research Interests

Mirna Becevic, PhD, has research interests in telemedicine, ECHO, virtual CME and rural health.

Teledermatology and telemedicine
Distance continuing medical education
Imaging informatics

Kara Braudis, MD, is interested in complex medical dermatology, clinical pathologic correlation in dermatopathology, dermatology education, access to dermatologic care.

Pediatric Moderate-to-Severe Plaque Psoriasis
Adult Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

Jon Dyer, MD is interested in genetic skin diseases, epigenetics, mosaicism and many other pediatric dermatologic processes. Other areas of interest to him are teledermatology for both adults and children, as well as adult and pediatric dermatologic education.

Epigenetic Profiling of Pre-Neoplastic Mosaic Skin Lesions
Epigenetic Changes in Inflammatory Skin Disease
Inflammatory Mosaic Disorders

Karen Edison, MD, is interested in teledermatology, health disparities, health care access and health policy.

A Communication Content Comparison of In-Person and Live-Interactive Teledermatology
Use of Telehealth in Bioterror Preparedness and Emerging Infectious Disease
Skin Cancer Epidemiology
Photodynamic Therapy vs. 5-FU for Treatment of Actinic Keratoses in the Veteran Population
A Three-Way Comparison of Diagnostic and Management Congruence Among Dermatologists: In-Person; Live-Interactive; and Store-and-Forward Health Literacy

Kari Martin, MD, is interested in adult and pediatric allergic contact dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa, infantile hemangiomas and other vascular anomalies and new therapeutics in pediatric dermatology diseases.

Pediatric Epidermolysis Bullosa
Pediatric Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections
Pediatric Moderate-to-Severe Plaque Psoriasis

William V. Stoecker, MD, research interests are medical informatics, image processing , skin cancer and melanomas and spider bite diagnosis. He is also developing skin cancer identification software.

Dana Ward, MD, has academic interests in cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma (CTCL), Women's Health and cutaneous diseases of pregnancy (along with Dr. Holly Edmonds). She is currently a co-investigator on several of the studies listed above.

Susan Zurowski, MD, is interested in skin cancer screening, new treatments for psoriasis, skin disease with systemic disease.

Adult Moderate-to-Severe Chronic Plaque Psoriasis
Pediatric and Adult Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex

Dermatology ECHO

The AAD’s recent Burden of Skin Disease report showed that one out of four Americans access care for skin disease in one year and one out of two over the age of 65 do so. Two-thirds of these patients receive this care from non-dermatologists. For this reason, we felt moved to help primary care providers in rural and underserved areas of our state improve the quality of basic skin disease care they are able to deliver. Every Friday from noon to 1 p.m., we hold a videoconferencing facilitated case conference where PCPs join via video, we give a very short lecture on a derm topic, and then we spend the bulk of the hour discussing the art and science of managing patient cases the participants have sent in ahead of time. On our end, we have several general dermatologists, two pediatric dermatologists, one of our dermatopathologists, a clinical psychologist, and an advance practice nurse who participate. Our participating PCPs come from all corners of Missouri and they have already detected early melanomas they would have missed had they not learned how to screen effectively for them. Learn more at showmeecho.org.