Medical students, residents and fellows had a chance to learn dermatology diagnosis skills with help from real patients during a recent workshop hosted by Feinberg on January 26.

The workshop was led by Lida Zheng, MD, assistant professor of Dermatology in the Division of Medical Dermatology and of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, and by Toshiko Uchida, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and of Medical Education.

“Every physician, regardless of specialty, is going to be seeing patients’ skin,” Uchida said. “There are a lot of dermatological conditions that folks who are not dermatologists need to recognize. Being comfortable with the basics of skin findings is really important.”

During the workshop, small groups of students, residents and fellows met in the McGaw Medical Center outpatient simulation space with multiple patients who live with dermatological conditions or diseases.

The workshop is part of the Advanced Physical Diagnosis workshop series, designed to connect medical students and residents with experiences that build physical exam skills in a variety of specialties.

“Not only do the residents get to show all parts of the exam, but we get to hear about the patient’s experience through it: what they have noticed and what they feel,” said Zheng. “Learning is so much more effective when you can connect to a person.”

Also leading the workshop were dermatology residents, who shared their knowledge of the conditions with medical students.

“This is a great opportunity for us as dermatology residents to teach med students and other residents, and also for residents to show medical students what we look for on examination,” said Nikki Stefanko, MD, a third-year dermatology resident at Northwestern Medicine. “The medical students also bring a different level of knowledge from their lectures. They’re learning the basic science and they can bring a lot to the table, having rotated on other specialties recently as well. It’s a great way for us to all learn from each other.”

After listening to the patient’s story, students had a chance to examine the dermatologic findings with dermatoscopes and ask questions.

“It’s always a valuable experience when you get to hear from real patients and learn from them in-person,” said Yue Zhang, a third-year medical student at Feinberg interested in dermatology. “Not only that, but we get to meet with residents who are closer to us in level of training and ask questions and get advice.”