History
The Dermatologic Society of Greater New York was founded in 1924 originally as the Bronx Dermatologic Society with approximately a dozen members. It has changed and grown since then to become, with approximately 250 members, the largest regional dermatologic society in the United States. Because of its size and the fame of its internationally-renowned membership, it represents one of the most famous collections of dermatologic thought and innovation in the world.
Members of this group first described or discovered countless new diseases such as Kaposi’s Sarcoma associated with AIDS and inherited syndromes such as Bloom’s syndrome, invented universally applied techniques such as patch testing, pioneered the early detection of lethal malignant melanoma and its treatment by surgery and even antibody therapy, pioneered graduate and post-graduate training programs in microscopically-controlled skin cancer surgery, laser surgery and dermatopathology and first developed and used the surgical techniques of dermabrasion for scars, wrinkles and pre-cancers, hair transplantation for baldness, liposuction for unsightly fat, certain laser treatments of red or brown birthmarks, and laser resurfacing for wrinkles and laser hair removal. The forefront of dermatology has long been and continues to be at the doorstep of this Society.
Our Members
The membership is drawn from Board-certified or Board-eligible dermatologists (and dermatology residents-in-training) from the entire metropolitan New York-New Jersey Region. The breadth of interests and experience of this group is immense and unparalleled since it represents physicians in daily clinical medical and surgical dermatologic practice of adults and children, young doctors in training, dermatopathologists, and academic researchers from our eight local University departments of dermatology.
Meetings
The Society meets monthly from September to May with clinical programs at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. The format includes a variety of clinical vignette presentations, short abstracts of important research work or new therapies, guest lectures and seminars, and a yearly resident competition of clinical studies.
Advocacy
Socio-medical issues are also important to the discussions of this group as it interplays actively with the New York State Dermatologic Society, the American Academy of Dermatology, the New York State Medical Society and governmental agencies, attempting by these measures to improve the dermatologic care of New York area residents. It sponsors and supervises area-wide free skin cancer screenings every May and has developed public educational announcements and programs and other outreach materials.