Training Sites

In order to offer the broadest training, we utilize several different training sites, and offer multiple areas of subspecialty expertise.  Essentially all of our facilities are located in Sacramento, within a 20-minute drive from our main clinic.

C St

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Our main clinic is located at 3301 C street, in East Sacramento, about a 15-minute drive from the main hospital.  This is also the site of our academic offices and teaching conferences.  Clinical activities include

  • General Dermatologic Clinics
  • Subspecialty Clinics
  • Mohs Surgery
  • Dermatopathology
    • Dermatopathology and DermPath Lab are onsite with the clinics
  • Phototherapy
    • Includes one of the regions only UVA-1 treatment unit

Cadillac

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Our offices on Cadillac Drive are the site of additional general dermatology clinics, as well as our cosmetic clinics and contact dermatitis/patch test subspecialty service

Kaiser

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This is a large staff-model HMO and is a prominent health-care provider in Northern California.  The clinical rotation emphasizes efficient delivery of patient care in an integrated health system model.

VA

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Our residents rotate through the Mather VA.  This is a large hospital and outpatient clinic serving a large area of Northern California.  Residents assume primary responsibility for a wide variety of patient care and hands-on skin surgery.   Excellent clinical attendings include experts in dermatopathology, contact dermatitis, wound healing, and Mohs surgery. 

Dermatology Surgery

Our department has 4 fellowship trained Mohs surgeons on staff.  Mohs surgery is performed at our C street location and at the Mather VA.  General excisional surgery is performed at all of our sites. Residents rotate through 3 blocks of surgery every year.

Path

We have 3 dermatopathologists at our C street location, and one at the Mather VA.  At C street, our dermatopathology service is on-site, meaning that when you are seeing a patient, you can walk across the hall and look at their slide, or discuss with the dermatopathologists.  On-site dermatopathology also improves ease and accessibility of didactic training

Peds

Dr. Smita Awasthi is our fellowship trained pediatric dermatologist.  She has clinics at both C street and Cadillac drive, and covers inpatient pediatric consultations as well.

Inpatient Consult Service

We have a busy inpatient consultation service.  We have two dedicated attendings who are experts on inpatient medicine.  Residents rotate through this service every year, but all interesting cases are shared either at grand rounds or our CPC (clinical-pathologic correlation) sessions

Cosmetics

Dr Jayne Joo directs our cosmetic surgery service at our Cadillac Drive location.  This encompasses a full range of procedures including fillers, botulinum toxin, surgical procedures, and lasers.  In addition, we have periodic evening teaching sessions where residents recruit patients and inject donated materials (fillers and botulinum toxin) at no charge to the patient. 

Hair

Dr Oma Agbai runs our specialty clinics devoted to hair loss.

Autoimmune

Dr Alain Brassard and Dr Danielle Tartar direct a clinic dedicated to diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases

Psoriasis, Rheumatology-Dermatology

Dr Hwang runs a multidisciplinary clinic along with Dr Siba Raychaudhuri (rheumatology)

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Contact dermatitis

Dr Peggy Wu directs our active contact dermatitis specialty clinic at our Cadillac Drive location, with extensive patch testing capability.  Dr Apra Sood at the Mather VA is also a national expert on contact dermatitis

Oral Medicine

These clinics are run by Dr Nasim Fazel, who is trained both in dentistry and dermatology, and is a national authority on oral medicine, as well as specialty expertise in vulvar disease. 

Outside specialties

We have relationships with other departments and periodically send residents to other clinics or conferences, such as the Genetics clinic and the Vascular Malformations multidisciplinary conference.  

Elective opportunities

The department allows 3 weeks of optional elective time for residents to pursue clinical opportunities of interest outside of our department. 

RCC

Resident continuity clinic is held every other Thursday.  We break the residents up into 5 groups (each with 3 residents and one attending).  The residents follow the same cohort of patients over the entire 3-year residency.  We rotate the attendings every 6 months to expose the residents to a variety of treatment approaches. 

The University is affiliated with a number of student-run free clinics throughout Sacramento.  Residents are encouraged to volunteer and provide specialty care to these underserved populations

Didactics

At UC Davis, we greatly value our residents’ education, and feel it is important to reserve protected time during the week for didactic activities.  Every Wednesday morning and every other Thursday morning are reserved for educational content.  Some highlights:

Grand Rounds are held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month.  Interesting or instructive patient cases are presented, followed by case discussion.  There is also a lecture, frequently from invited national or international experts

Residents are assigned weekly sections of the Bolognia dermatology textbook.  These are reviewed each week as a group along with faculty.  We are currently on an 18-month curriculum, allowing more time to discuss topics in depth

Not everything you need to know is in the textbook!  We have a robust lecture series covering many aspects of dermatology, but also other topics such as billing/coding, ethics, professionalism, diversity, wellness, etc.

There is a faculty-led journal club every month covering the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and JAMA Dermatology.  There is also periodic review of other journals.

We have special lectures from faculty prior to CORE board exams, to help focus studying and emphasize important topics. 

UC Davis dermatology has a strong commitment to research.  Every year the department puts on a morning symposium dedicated to research in the department.  Our active clinical and basic science labs present their research findings, and residents who have been conducting research also present their projects.

There is a monthly clinical-pathologic correlation conference.  Interesting or challenging cases from our hospital consult service are presented, along with consult service faculty and our dermatopathologists.  This leverages our outstanding teaching cases beyond just the residents directly involved in the patient’s care. 

For our new first-year residents, we have a 6-week introductory curriculum.  We do a quick broad overview of dermatologic disease, morphology, basic surgical techniques, EMR tips, etc.  We have found that this greatly improves the transition to residency

Local Conferences

Sacramento has a long history of an active and collegial group of community dermatologists, and UC Davis attendings and residents are active members.

  • The Sacramento Valley Dermatology Society meets every other month. They present interesting cases, and often have invited speakers.  Residents are welcome to attend.
  • The Sacramento Community Journal club has been active for almost 40 years. This is a group of community dermatologists that review journals on a monthly basis.  Residents are welcome to attend.

National Conferences

We encourage meeting attendance – the breadth of dermatology can be surprising, and meeting attendance can open up new opportunities or approaches for residents.  Most of our residents attend the annual AAD meeting, and residents can elect to attend another meeting in an area of their interest, if they wish.  Additional meeting time for presentation of research findings is also available.

Resident Life

At UC Davis we are very focused on providing a supportive and positive resident experience.  Resident well-being and input are greatly valued by our program.  We strive to get continuous feedback on our training program, so that we can optimize and improve in real-time. 

Upon joining our training program, all residents choose a faculty mentor.  This is an informal program designed to help advise residents in such a way as to maximize their goals in dermatology.  Mentor and mentee meet at least quarterly.

There is a resident-only retreat, generally early in the year, to facilitate communication and enhance camaraderie.  These are run by the chief residents, and past retreats have involved a variety of both structured and informal activities.

Every month all residents meet with the Program Director and Assistant Program Director to address any issues that need attention, and to make sure all parts of the program are optimally structured.

There is a combined resident graduation and departmental awards banquet at the end of every year. 

You might not think this is a big deal, but it is.  There is no charge for parking at any of our outpatient clinic locations.  Parking isn’t always as close as you want, but the price is right.

The University provides a one-time $1100 allowance for new PGY2  residents for relocation related expenses.  Upon completion of required annual trainings, the University provides an additional $1500 per year that can be used for moving expenses, computer/cellphones, books, or other supplies.  The Department supplements this with a reimbursement fund of up to additional $1500 per year for education related expenses such as books, subscriptions, registration or travel to meetings, review courses, etc. 

Vacation time

The university allows 4 weeks of vacation time and up to 12 days of sick leave per year. 

Wellness days off

Residents are granted an additional two half-days for Wellness-related activities, such as routine doctor appointments, etc. 

Sacramento is a city of 1.5 million people, with a referral base of much of Northern California and Northern Nevada.  It is large enough for a robust clinical program, yet has more of a smaller-town feel.  Despite our location in California, many find the city has more of a midwestern vibe (although with California weather!).  It is a friendly and diverse community, and is especially known for our excellent farm-to-fork dining.  Sacramento is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, thus rafting and fishing are popular.  The American River bike trail is a unique trail that stretches for 30 miles along the river, frequently completely separated from any evidence of the surrounding urban community.  Within a short drive from Sacramento there is world class skiing and recreation at Lake Tahoe, wine country in Napa, and the San Francisco Bay area.

Resident Research

UC Davis Dermatology has a large and robust research department.  We have consistently been in the top 10 in the nation for NIH funding.  Resident involvement in research is strongly encouraged.  Depending on their project, residents can arrange for protected time to pursue research along with our faculty.