Abstract

Primary care physicians often initially assess skin lesions and determine which patients require specialized dermatologic care. However, there is insufficient training in diagnosing and managing dermatologic conditions in most medical school’s curricula. The cutaneous cadaver laboratory described herein was created for preclinical students to increase familiarity with dermatologic lesion identification. Lesions were identified by preclinical medical students and a dermatopathologist. Students practiced describing lesions, and a list of clinical diagnoses was developed. Dermatology residents supervised students as they biopsied lesions for histological processing. Lesion histology was reviewed to compare clinical and pathologic impressions. From 2014 to 2019, there were 24 discrepancies between clinical and pathologic impressions, yielding 72.4% diagnostic accuracy (63/87). The use of embalmed cadavers appears to be nearly as effective as live patients for teaching purposes. Similar sessions may be adopted at other medical schools to increase student exposure to dermatologic conditions. These sessions represent integrated medical curriculum, where clinical medicine is woven throughout all four years of medical school, which is emphasized by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education as a medical school standard. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether augmenting training, at the preclinical level, leads to improved confidence and competence at skin lesion diagnosis.