What are the different kinds of fellowships one can do after completing dermatology residency?
Mohs micrographic surgery and cutaneous oncology fellowship: During this type of fellowship, fellows focus the majority of their time learning Mohs micrographic surgery. This is a tissue sparing technique used to remove skin cancer (let me know if you want to see an in-depth post about Mohs in the comments below). Not only is skin cancer removed, but the face (where the majority of Mohs is performed) is also reconstructed in the best way to preserve the patient’s facial architecture (in other words, put them back together in the best cosmetic way). That means, you learn flaps and grafts! Fellows also learn some cosmetic procedures, but again this is program dependent. There is a formal match for Mohs fellowship called the San Francisco match.
Length: 1-2 years (program dependent, but majority are 1 year long)
Cosmetic dermatology surgery fellowship: The procedures one learns in cosmetic dermatology fellowship is very program dependent. Some fellowships focus mainly on research, while others focus solely on lasers. There are also programs where you learn fillers, toxins, threads, and even liposuction or hair transplantation. There is a formal match for this fellowship through the San Francisco match.
Length: 1 year
Pediatric dermatology fellowship: Depending on your program, you may or may not see a lot of pediatric dermatology during residency. If you would like to focus a majority of your time after residency seeing pediatric derm patients, then this fellowship is for you! There is no match system for this fellowship.
Length: 1 year
Dermatopathology fellowship: This is a 1 year fellowship after residency where you focus solely on learning dermatopathology. We learn a significant amount of pathology during residency, but dermatopathologists are definitely the experts. Most dermatologists who perform biopsies on patients and work in the clinical setting send their biopsy specimens to a dermatopathology lab to be read. There is no match system for this fellowship.
Length: 1 year
There are a few other less well known fellowships including those in contact dermatitis, cutaneous oncology, immunodermatology, and teledermatology.
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