Introduction > How to study dermatology

How to study dermatology

First become an etymologist.

You are learning a new language and the first book that you need to buy is a dermatologic dictionary.   Look up every new disease you hear of and pay special attention to the meaning of the latin or greek roots.  This way you are not memorizing long disease names by rote,  you will know the meaning of the roots and it will aid in remembering what the disease is and in learning a new disease name that you come upon.

ANDREW’S:

This should probably be the first textbook that you buy as a first year resident.  It covers almost every disease and  it is well indexed. When you look up a disease you will be given a brief synopsis, instead of being demoralized with a five page discussion of the molecular biology of the disease.  This way you can look up many diseases at one sitting, because you will see many new things every day.  The advantage of this text over a book like Fitzpatrick is two-fold:  First, most diseases are described succinctly, with emphasis on clinical description, and second the two pages that you are opened to will contain the names of other diseases that are related clinically or pathophysiologically

Second, learn the Reaction Patterns