Lauren Miller, PA-C, Highlights the Value of Collaboration With APPs and More

The first day of the 2023 Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference for PAs and NPs begins with KOL-led “Mentoring for Leadership” sessions. Lauren Miller, PA-C, a board-certified dermatology physician assistant at Southern Skies Dermatology & Surgery in Alabama, is discussing with attendees how to effectively build their cover letter to stand out among other applicants, what PAs and NPs need to know about managing atopic dermatitis with biologics, and office tips for improving efficiency.

Miller also discussed the value of meetings that encourage collaboration between dermatologists, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. “I really enjoy coming to meetings where the dermatologists, the PAs, and the NPs are all together. It allows us to learn from our dermatology physicians who obviously have a wealth of knowledge, but it really allows us also to show that NPs and PAs really do have a valuable role in patient care,” said Miller.

For the full in-depth discussions, Miller will be presenting:

• Building Your CV: How to Become the Needle in the Haystack: June 9th, 3:00pm ET, Sabal Ballroom ABC
• CME Satellite Symposium: The PA and NPs Role in Managing Atopic Dermatitis With Biologics in Clinical Practice: June 10th, 10:05am ET, Citron Ballroom North
• Office Tips – Improving Efficiency of Your Practice: June 10th, 3:45pm ET, Citron Ballroom North

Transcript

Miller: Hi my name is Lauren Miller and I'm a dermatology PA practicing out of Oxford, Alabama with Southern Skies Dermatology and Surgery.

Dermatology Times®: What can attendees expect from your first session, "Building Your CV: How to Become the Needle in the Haystack?"

Miller: I've got a really fun first lecture that I'm doing where we're going to review how to build your CV, which is something that is become super popular as people kind of want to get outside of clinical practice and find extracurricular things to do, kind of what you would call side gigs. But the highlights would be how to build that CV to make you more employable for future jobs but also possibly how to build your CV to become a key opinion leader. So that industry comes to you for possibilities for advising and consulting. And then how to get involved with clinical research, how to become published, and things of that nature. I think the key takeaways there are how to build your brand, developing a passion and sticking with that whatever it may be, I know mine is psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, and finding a mentor and utilizing them, and then really utilizing industry to help with your goals in clinical practice.

Dermatology Times: What are the highlights from your co-presented CME Satellite Symposium, "The PA and NPs Role in Managing Atopic Dermatitis With Biologics in Clinical Practice?"

Miller: So, Dr. Gill Yosipovitch and Chris Bunick and I are going to be speaking on a CME satellite symposium, which is sponsored by LEO, Lilly, and Sanofi Regeneron, and the title of it is the NP and PAs Role in Managing Atopic Dermatitis With Biologics. So, we're going to hit the mechanism of action of the current biologics and the landscape and those that are coming up that we hope that are going to be approved shortly. And how NPs and PAs can utilize those, trying to get PAs and NPs to think outside the box on how we use biologics. Obviously, we want to adhere to FDA guidelines, but kind of thinking outside the box on the types of patients that we're utilizing those, and making sure that we're utilizing them correctly, but that we're not leaving patients who could benefit from them on the table. So that's something exciting that I'm excited to talk about.

Dermatology Times: What key points are you covering in your session, "Office Tips - Improving Efficiency of Your Practice?"

Miller: So, I'm going to be doing a talk on how to improve your clinical practice efficiency, which is something that I think is really important right now, it seems like everybody is eternally short-staffed. And so that can lead to day-to-day burnout. I know personally, the days can get very stressful. So, we're going to give some tips on how to improve efficiency so that you can use one to kind of help prevent burnout, too. Just to help us to be able to treat more patients during the day. That's great for the patients, obviously that are wanting to get in that need to be treated, but also it could help financially, the more patients that we can see if you're on a bonus structure, that can be beneficial as well. And so we're going to hit some key points. There are 3 of us that are going to really share our tips on how to be more efficient.

Dermatology Times: What is the value of a meeting that brings together dermatologists, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners?

Miller: I really enjoy coming to meetings where the dermatologists, the PAs, and the NPs are all together. It allows us to learn from our dermatology physicians who obviously have a wealth of knowledge, but it really allows us also to show that NPs and PAs really do have a valuable role in patient care and it allows us to get together as a group and stress the importance of a collaborative team approach to patient care. And we all have that same end goal which is to improve patient care and patient outcomes.

[Transcript edited for clarity]