News

At first glance, it appears to be a routine office chore. You have a position to fill, so you or one of your employees must interview the applicants and select the most promising individual.

San Francisco - Injected silicone may not be as safe as many physicians believe. Long-term complications are popping up, even in patients who were treated appropriately by trained physicians using good techniques and clean, unadulterated material.

San Francisco -- Topical application of a moisture-based formulation containing Total Soy can significantly reduce the appearance of male beard hair on the face and neck, according to the results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study.

San Francisco - Physicians require proper training in order to inject botulinum toxin appropriately. The treatment can be a safe and relatively straightforward way of treating fine lines, but in the wrong hands, results may be far from satisfactory.

Q. What is the practical difference between a cosmetic and a drug? A. This is a very interesting question. At face value the question seems somewhat simplistic, since all dermatologists know that a drug requires a prescription and a cosmetic does not.

San Francisco - Tissue engineered skin has been a significant advance for wound care and holds future promise for enhancing treatment of other dermatologic problems and even as a drug delivery system, Robert S. Kirsner, M.D., said at the American Academy of Dermatology.

Maui, Hawaii - Topical anesthetics represent the state-of-the-art for minimizing pain and anxiety in procedures ranging from filler injections and chemical peels to those used in pediatric dermatology, Lawrence F. Eichenfield, M.D., said at the annual Hawaii Dermatology Seminar, sponsored by the Skin Disease Education Foundation.

San Francisco - Topical ALA (5-aminolevulinic acid HCl) photodynamic therapy using a nonlaser blue light source is a safe and effective treatment for multiple actinic keratoses when applied to a 25 cm2 area of skin or scalp containing lesions, according to a Phase II multicenter study.

Boston - Combined cytotoxic and antiangiogenic therapies may have synergistic effects in treating advanced Kaposi's sarcoma in patients with AIDS, according to Richard F. Little, M.P.H., M.D., senior clinical investigator, HIV and AIDS malignancy branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute.

San Francisco - Etanercept (Enbrel) produces rapid, significant, and sustained improvement in symptoms in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis, according to the results of a large, multicenter Phase III study presented by Alice Gottlieb, MD, Ph.D.

San Francisco - Thanks to their effectiveness against dermatophytes and their ability to concentrate in the nail plate, itraconazole (Sporanox) and terbinafine (Lamisil) have transformed toenail onychomycosis from a chronic condition to a curable disease.

San Francisco - Based on clinical efficacy data, botulinum toxin A (Botox) should become the treatment of choice for suppressing axillary hyperhidrosis, according to Nicholas J. Lowe, M.D.

San Francisco - Two large phase III studies involving 15 percent azelaic gel (Finacea) for the treatment of rosacea each resulted in more than a 50-percent reduction in the number of lesions.

San Francisco - Uncovering and successfully treating itch may depend on how readily dermatologists accept that some cases may be related to neurological or psychological factors, John Y.M. Koo, M.D., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

San Francisco - A book-in-progress will document the experiences of women dermatologists and articulate issues important to them, Gloria Graham, M.D., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

San Francisco - Daily antiviral therapy can prevent transmission of genital herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) from an infected individual to his or her partner, according to Stephen K. Tyring, M.D., Ph.D.

San Francisco - Octyl-2-cyanoacrylate products can play a useful role in woundcare as tissue adhesives, dressings, and antibacterial sealants, William H. Eaglstein, M.D., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

San Francisco - Medical dermatology in the United States cannot be saved, according to dermatologist Marcus Conant, M.D.

Dermatology resident Steven Q. Wang was relaxing one Sunday last August, reading The New York Times. He never got past an article on the first page about how an AIDS tragedy sweeping through China's rural heartland was creating an "explosion of destitute orphans."

Although August is when the Internal Revenue Service traditionally begins selecting those 2002 tax returns that are to be examined in more depth, many dermatologists found themselves being targeted for examination soon after the April 15 tax deadline. After all, April 15, was also the deadline for participating in the IRS's "Offshore Voluntary Compliance Initiative" (OVCI), a "come back into the fold and you will be forgiven your tax transgressions" program.

Q. I recently attended a seminar on how to protect assets from potential lawsuits that detailed a number of complicated strategies, all of which seemed rather impractical and expensive. From a practical standpoint, which of the various asset-protection techniques are dermatologists successfully utilizing?

Today I gave a four-hour series of talks at the Vancouver Airport Fairmont Hotel for Altus Medical, a laser company.

San Francisco - Laboratory studies show that Olay Daily Facial cloths do not damage the stratum corneum, according to investigators for Procter & Gamble, maker of the products.

San Francisco - Medically necessary blood thinners should be continued in patients undergoing cutaneous surgery, said Clark C. Otley, M.D.

Modena, Italy - Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in transplant patients can arise from donor KS progenitor cells transmitted through the graft, according to Mario Luppi, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of hematology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

San Francisco - A one-week course of oral valacyclovir (Valtrex) appears to be a safe, effective, and economical alternative to inpatient or outpatient intravenous (IV) acyclovir (Zovirax) for treatment of immunocompromised patients with uncomplicated, acute herpes zoster virus infections, Mathijs H. Brentjens, M.D., said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Dr. Trial has been hired as an expert witness to defend a dermatologist in a medical malpractice case. He rendered his expert opinion stating that he would have performed a dermatologic surgical procedure in a certain manner, even though such an approach was not routinely performed by the dermatologic community. The defendant dermatologist lost the case. His attorney is convinced that the case was lost because Dr. Trial did not perform well on cross-examination. Should Dr. Trial be concerned that he will now be sued?

Darker skin patients show impressive results

Increased paperwork is at least partly to blame for many of the management difficulties faced by dermatologists, according to Thomas G. Olsen M.D.

Q. Can you summarize what impact the recently proposed tax law will have on retirement plans?