Resident tuitions could bolster academic departments

Dermatology residents paying for their own training could offer benefits for academic dermatologists, according to Noah S. Scheinfeld, M.D., St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University.

"I would like to explore whether or not it might be possible that, in the same way people pay for college, they might pay for their training. And if they pay for their training, this might allow us to pay higher salaries for academic dermatologists, to fund more research and to fund more positions in general," he says.

Also, the American Academy of Dermatology and pharmaceutical companies are addressing the absence of dermatologists in the U.S. market by starting grant programs, now in pilot stages.