Alessandra Simmons's Blog (12)

For a little under a year, I battled severely dry, peeling skin on my hands using over-the-counter hydrocortisone creams. For a few weeks, I would think I would have it under control and then patchy spots of red, flaky, itchy dry skins would flare up on my hands.  This skin condition started over the summer when I began gardening full-time for…

Though May is almost over and summer is fast approaching, it’s not too late to spread the word about melanoma, the importance of sun safety, and getting your skin checked regularly.

As dermatologists and experts in skin and sun safety, it’s important for us to be part of the conversation that happens every year as people start to make…

The National Rosacea Society estimates that 16 million people in the United States experience the persistent facial redness associated with rosacea. Yet, there are not many available treatments for facial redness. Current best options include Pulsed Dye laser or Mirvaso (brimonidine) gel.  Because these options are limited, it…

“If it’s not on the internet, it might as well not exist.” This is the underlying thinking of most consumers today, including healthcare consumers. For this reason, it is critical for you and your practice to have a website and blog. Your…

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has just announced new guidelines for resident work hours, which increases the maximum number of hours worked in a row to 24 hours. This is a change from the July 2011 guidelines which called for the limit to be capped at a maximum of 16 hours worked in row. Despite this significant…

The majority of dermatologists practice in a private setting — either in a single speciality or multi-specialty group. However, a small percentage work in an academic setting alongside or within a university or academic institution.

Here are the reasons why academic dermatologists love what they do:

1. They love teaching the…

We have medical assistants and nurses working in our offices to support our work with patients. In order for these assistants to be effective, they need training. MDs need to communicate with their assistants so they can helpful. It is about creating an effective and amicable working relationship with your assistants. Here are some tips to train effective medical…

Dermatology visits are short. They usually only last 10 to 15 minutes — sometimes not even that long. So how do you handle a patient with a handful of tangential concerns?

The first step is to set realistic expectations —

 even before you enter the room. Empower your assistant who is rooming the patient to set the agenda. Work with your assistant to come up with a…

Every dermatologist should know how to answer this question. Not only to advise medical students interested in entering the dermatology field, but to ensure their own pay is in line with salary trends.  Don’t get left behind!  Looking up salary data isn’t considered snooping. It is important to keep tabs on the data to ensure that…

Your practice is expanding and you are hiring a new dermatologist to join your team. Or your current dermatologist is moving to take care of their aging parents or has decided to retire. Whatever…

Fantastic! You landed a job interview for a position as a dermatologist. Now it’s time to prepare for the interview. Preparing for the interview doesn’t just mean practicing answers for common interview questions, it also means preparing to ask good questions. An interview is like a date: both parties are…

If you look back at photographs at Donald Trump across the years, his skin wasn’t always orange. There have been many hypotheses about the causes of his unnaturally orange skin. The two most likely causes of Trump’s orange skin are: spray tanning or indoor…