Murad Alam, MD, MSCI

And the more you do, the better you get.

Dermatologists experienced in treating cancer have developed expertise in surgical reconstruction. Donaldson and Coldiron analyzed data in the Medicare Physician Supplier Procedure Master File for the period 2004 to 2009 to assess the proportion of cutaneous repairs performed by dermatologists.

Collectively, dermatologists performed more reconstructions than any other specialty, accounting for 75.1% of complex repairs, 60.8% of intermediate repairs, 55.5% of local flaps, and 57.5% of full-thickness skin grafts. Dermatologists were second only to plastic surgeons in the frequent performance of split-thickness skin grafts and interpolation flaps. Overall, on the face and neck, 64.5% of repairs were performed by dermatologists, followed by plastic surgeons at 15.9%, and otolaryngologists at 6.8%. During the course of the study period, the proportion of total cutaneous reconstructions in the Medicare population performed by dermatologists grew.

Citation(s):

Donaldson MR and Coldiron BM. Dermatologists perform the majority of cutaneous reconstructions in the Medicare population: Numbers and trends from 2004 to 2009. J Am Acad Dermatol 2013 May; 68:803.