I am puzzled why any physician would go through the hard work of medical school and residency training and then become essentially a beautician? Apparently, that is what a percentage of dermatologists are doing these days. How can the lure of doubling their incomes allow these doctors to forget what the practice of medicine is about? I thought we became doctors to heal the sick and keep people as healthy as we could. Somehow doing cosmetic procedures and injecting botox into youth-craving women and men doesn't seem like practicing medicine.
Even more worrisome is the article in the July 28, New York Times by Natasha Singer saying that some dermatologists are even turning their medical patients over to nurse practitioners and "physician extenders". That last term is a new and scary one to me. I wonder how many malignant melanomas will be missed or how many other patients with serious skin diseass will not receive adequate treatment? I hope the American Academy of Dermatology will have the courage to speak out or legislate against this practice. Greedy physicians are already giving all doctors a bad name. No wonder the opinion about physicians in general is falling to a new low. The good old days of doctors giving the best possible care to patients, whether they were rich or poor seems sadly to be a thing of the past.