A new year, new era in dermatology, new magazine

The word of the moment is "new!" We have a new year, a new president, we are looking at the possibility of another new organizational structure in medicine, and we are working on a new look here at Dermatology Times. Your editorial board has been working very hard to deliver the information dermatologists need, exactly when they need it, and in a form that is concise and easy to utilize. We have drawn on our own experiences and shared our very best with the editorial team who is working to deliver our vision.

What is our vision? Let me share with you a few of the exciting and useful ideas that will unfold over 2017.

First, we have a new tag line: Clinical insights that expand expertise and advance practice. This statement encompasses all of the goals we hope to accomplish as we implement our new look.

Second, we want to help you become more precise in your ICD-10 coding so that optimal reimbursement can be achieved. To assist with this, all of our clinical stories will now have the ICD-10 codes pertinent to the material discussed.

Third, we will be adding a tear-away table of the month to save you time by organizing useful information you can post, share, or give to your office staff. The tables we will be developing include: 10 common coding errors, lists of websites with good patient content, best self-help groups for individual dermatologic diseases, 20 common dermatologic CPT codes, important yearly date reminders, etc. 

We know organization and efficiency are key to success for today’s physicians, and Dermatology Times will aim to provide you with the very best information. However, we know that success in dermatology is not just about diagnosis and treatment, dermatologists today must also be knowledgeable on practice management issues. We will be your indispensable tool for navigating through new regulations, planning finances effectively, negotiating contracts, managing no-show patients, balancing workloads, hiring quality employees, onboarding new staff, tackling human resources challenges, etc. 

This information will be pertinent whether you are a solo practitioner, part of a larger group of dermatologists, functioning within a multispecialty group, or in an academic practice. Consultants will write the practice management section allowing you to receive national quality expertise on a monthly basis without charge by reading Dermatology Times.

Dermatology is also about dermatologists as people and the relationships we form with our peers. Relationships are an important part of medical practice, and I believe they are becoming more important as medicine becomes more institutionalized and less personal.  Dermatology Times wants to be this social conduit telling stories and keeping dermatologists connected with more in-depth discussions than possible through other social media outlets. We are going to personalize our advisory board page to help you get to know our contributors as people.

When you read Dermatology Times, you should feel part of a larger social network creating an emotion and providing a reading experience different from all others. Reading Dermatology Times should be a relaxing, yet time-efficient, activity appealing to the human side of physicians while keeping us connected with one another through the physical medium of paper. There is something wonderful about the sound of rustling paper, the feel of smooth newsprint, and the ability to see the entire page or pages at one time! It is a nice diversion from the computer based reading devices that dominate our work day.

I hope you will share my enthusiasm as you read the new Dermatology Times over the coming year.  The magazine will combine the best of the old and the best of the new. It is cutting edge, pertinent, enjoyable, worthwhile, and something to look forward to in your office mail every month.  Dermatology Times is an incomparable reading experience you simply cannot miss.