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Erik J Stratman

Publications and source records attributed to Erik J Stratman.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Assessment of residents' loss of interest in academic careers and identification of correctable factors.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify interest in an academic career at the dermatology resident and residency applicant level. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. PARTICIPANTS: Dermatology residents attending a basic science course and residency applicants applying to a single residency program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported level of interest in an academic dermatology career, reasons for losing interest in academics, and area of desired primary academic contribution. RESULTS: One hundred nine of 230 dermatology applicants and 130 of 190 dermatology residents completed the survey. Seventy-nine applicants (72.5%) and 48 residents (36.9%) were interested in an academic career. Thirty-three of 47 residents (70.2%) and 63 of 79 applicants (79.8%) interested in an academic career hoped to make their primary academic contribution as teacher-clinicians, while only 7 residents (14.9%) and 15 applicants (19.0%) planned to primarily contribute through basic or clinical research. Thirty-eight resident respondents (29.2%) reported losing interest in academics for the following primary reasons: bureaucracy, 24 (63.2%); salary differential/financial issues, 20 (52.6%); lack of effective mentorship, role model, or professional guidance, 19 (50.0%); and location or practice environment, 10 (26.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Many residents report losing interest in pursuing a career in academic dermatology. Many reasons for this are not easy to correct. However, half of those residents primarily lose interest because of a lack of mentors, role models, and career guidance. Methods to improve this perception and experience should be sought. Strategies should also be developed to cultivate future teacher-clinicians, where most of the interest lies.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2006

Monkeypox: an epidemiologic and clinical comparison of African and US disease.

Monkeypox is a double-stranded DNA virus and a member of the genus Orthopoxvirus. Human monkeypox was first identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) in 1970. The first outbreak in the western hemisphere occurred in the spring of 2003. Important epidemiologic and clinical differences exist between human monkeypox in the United States and in Africa, including sex distribution, case fatality, morphology of skin lesions, and associated lymphadenopathy. These divergent clinical presentations could be caused by mode of transmission (skin inoculation vs ingestion), the skin color of affected patients, the training backgrounds of those who saw and documented disease outbreaks, the virulence of monkeypox strains involved, nutritional status, access to advanced medical care, and the prevalence of prior smallpox vaccinations.

Africa↗
PubMed2006

Core competencies in dermatopathology.

Medical education has traditionally focused on imparting medical knowledge, delivering quality patient care, and teaching research methodology. Various measures of success, including standardized testing, have been developed to assess the achievement of those goals. These measures then served as documentation of the effectiveness of individual training programs. However, in 1999, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) changed the way we measure the success of medical education. They developed six core competencies for medical education and assigned the task of enforcing them to the individual Residency Review Committees. By July 2006, all accredited programs, including dermatopathology fellowships, must use measurable, competency-based objectives, and assess achievement of those objectives. Programs should also be documenting ways they are improving the evaluation process. They must be in full compliance with implementation, measurement, and assessment of the six core competencies for accreditation. The next phase required by the ACGME involves developing curriculum based on competencies as well as using resident, fellow, or graduate competency performance to assess success in preparing trainees for the practice of medicine. This manuscript discusses measurable objectives to address the core competencies for dermatopathology fellowship training as well as dermatopathology rotations in dermatology and pathology residency training.

Competency-Based Education↗
PubMed2004

The detection of monkeypox in humans in the Western Hemisphere.

BACKGROUND: During May and June 2003, an outbreak of febrile illness with vesiculopustular eruptions occurred among persons in the midwestern United States who had had contact with ill pet prairie dogs obtained through a common distributor. Zoonotic transmission of a bacterial or viral pathogen was suspected. METHODS: We reviewed medical records, conducted interviews and examinations, and collected blood and tissue samples for analysis from 11 patients and one prairie dog. Histopathological and electron-microscopical examinations, microbiologic cultures, and molecular assays were performed to identify the etiologic agent. RESULTS: The initial Wisconsin cases evaluated in this outbreak occurred in five males and six females ranging in age from 3 to 43 years. All patients reported having direct contact with ill prairie dogs before experiencing a febrile illness with skin eruptions. We found immunohistochemical or ultrastructural evidence of poxvirus infection in skin-lesion tissue from four patients. Monkeypox virus was recovered in cell cultures of seven samples from patients and from the prairie dog. The virus was identified by detection of monkeypox-specific DNA sequences in tissues or isolates from six patients and the prairie dog. Epidemiologic investigation suggested that the prairie dogs had been exposed to at least one species of rodent recently imported into the United States from West Africa. CONCLUSIONS: Our investigation documents the isolation and identification of monkeypox virus from humans in the Western Hemisphere. Infection of humans was associated with direct contact with ill prairie dogs that were being kept or sold as pets.

Adolescent↗