Dr. Wu discusses the criteria and weighted ranking algorithm used to determine the top US dermatology programs. He notes that the 5 criteria deemed most reflective of academic achievement included amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, number of faculty lectures given at 5 society meetings, number of faculty publications, amount of Dermatology Foundation (DF) funding, and number of faculty on the editorial boards of 6 dermatology journals. Dr. Wu explains that these rankings are based solely on scholarly activity and not necessarily how well these programs train residents. Prospective dermatology residents and program directors can use these rankings as a relative scale to see which programs are best for future academic practice.
