ACGME Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology Fellowship

The surgical portion of the program will occur at the UC Davis Department of Dermatology in Sacramento. We currently have 2 Mohs college-trained faculty on staff: Dan Eisen and Jayne S. Joo. Both were trained in different locations, thus the fellow will see many different approaches to both Mohs surgery and wound closure. The surgical curriculum will include hands-on experience using the Mohs technique, reconstructive methods including, second intention healing, primary closure, grafts, and flaps. The vast majority of the surgery sites are closed by the faculty themselves. However, on occasion we also collaborate with our colleagues in plastic surgery, facial plastic surgery and oculoplastic surgery. When this occurs the fellow will usually have the opportunity to work with these other subspecialists. Our faculty performs well over 1,000 Mohs procedures a year and the fellow will typically perform 600-700 cases as the primary surgeon.

The laser and cosmetic experience occurs at the Laser and Skin Surgery Center of Northern California with Dr. Suzanne Kilmer, which is a short distance away from the UC Davis dermatology facility in Sacramento. Dr. Kilmer has 20 years of experience in the use of lasers in cutaneous medicine and has been the principal investigator for numerous clinical trials including landmark studies using lasers for tattoo, hair, pigment and vessel removal, non-ablative and ablative laser resurfacing, fractional erbium and CO2 lasers, tissue tightening and fat removal devices, and several filler studies. She has at least 25 lasers and light-based devices at her facility and is on nine device medical advisory boards, ensuring that the fellow will be trained with the latest technology. The Laser and Skin Surgery Center of Northern California is an ASDS accredited location for Cosmetic Dermatology Surgery.

The fellow has half a day every week without clinical responsibilities to complete research projects and scholarly work. Previous fellows have completed work leading on average to several peer reviewed publications or book chapters. The faculty will do their best to support any interests the fellow may wish to pursue.

The program is structured so that every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings are spent performing doing Mohs surgery. We usually see five patients per morning. Wednesdays and Thursday afternoons are spent with Dr. Kilmer doing cosmetic and laser procedures. Monday and Tuesday afternoons the fellow has their own autonomous lumps and bumps excision and surgery follow up clinics. Dr. Eisen is available on site during both of these autonomous clinics should any consultation be desired. Our program has an organized dermatologic surgery journal club that meets monthly as well as a book club that reviews a dermatologic surgery text, and a complications and closure conference. These are informal lunch time meetings that occur on Tuesdays.

Since this is a university-based fellowship, there are lots of opportunities to assist with resident teaching in terms of talks and discussions. The department also sponsors the fellow to attend the Greenway Anatomy course in San Diego, as well as the American College of Mohs Surgery. Additional conference time is available for other meetings if the fellow is presenting the results of their research projects there.

Our program is ideally suited to those who would like to learn cosmetic, laser, and Mohs procedures. We want our fellows to be thoroughly versed in as many facets of procedural dermatology as possible. Our fellows spend a day and a half each week doing cosmetic and laser procedures, thus those interested solely in Mohs surgery would be better served in another program. Our ideal candidate is someone with a history of scholarship, strong letters of recommendation and interest in both Mohs and cosmetic procedures.

We are strong believers in the match process and feel every applicant should be free to select programs on their merits without coercion. We do not pressure our applicants in any way and do not make out of match deals with either our own residents or others. Our selection process is blinded. Each of our four primary faculty rank applicants independently and then the lists are averaged by our fellowship coordinator prior to any discussion, so none of us knows how our list will turn out prior to the end of interviews. This ensures an unbiased process.

If you would like to apply we request that you have a license to practice medicine within the U.S. at the time of application.

In order to improve the fellowship experience we have changed our start date to August 1 to allow the fellow to take their Board exam without worrying about moving and adjusting to a new situation. Thus the program will now be August 1 to July 31.

1 Position Available to Start August 1, 2024
Application Deadline: July 28, 2023
Virtual Interview Dates: September - November 2023

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/dermatology/education/fellowship.html

Please contact us for more information.

University of California Davis [Program #: 44168]
Dept of Dermatology
3301 C Street, #1400
Sacramento, CA 95816
Phone: 916-551-2626
Fax: 916-442-5702

E-mail: hs-dermresidency@ucdavis.edu

Daniel Eisen, M.D., Director
Suzanne Kilmer, M.D., Co-Director
Type of Training: Clinical + Research
Years of Training: 1
Approved by: ACGME and ASDS