Studying for boards is straightforward, but clinical competence relies on experience and this guide is designed to accelerate that.

It’s amazing how much one can know, and still not know what to do. This is likely, at least in part, due to the fact that many existing resources are not usually oriented toward the practical aspects of patient care. For instance, a book might say, for traction alopecia, a patient should adopt looser hairstyles, but it might not explain how to counsel a patient on what they need to communicate to their loctician to achieve lower tension. While acing exams and having a strong knowledge fund are necessary, they alone are not sufficient; one could spend all day memorizing the properties and minutiae of sutures, be able to answer every test question about them correctly, and yet still not know what to do when a knot repeatedly slips in a tight area. Boards answers don’t always necessarily hold in real-world contexts either; obtaining a DIF specimen perilesionally for bullous pemphigoid (classic exam answer) wouldn’t be the appropriate site if there were no bullae. The list of examples of conventional information failing to translate to successful clinical practice are endless.

This book provides practical pearls to fill these gaps and emphasizes the areas that are the most crucial for trainees to prioritize early on. It is a compilation of insights from several well-recognized leaders in dermatology and dermatologic surgery. Practical Primer of Dermatology is written in a succinct, conversational style and is a perfect read for residents, medical students, and non-dermatology physicians.