The OSU Division of Dermatology has two primary goals:

1)  Train outstanding dermatologists by focusing on resident education

2)  Provide exceptional patient care for all patients with dermatologic disease

The importance of thse two objectives is emphasized in the mission statement of the dermatology residency program:

OSU Dermatology Residency Program Mission Statement

The OSU Dermatology Residency Program seeks to produce exceptional clinical dermatologists who practice medical dermatology and/or cutaneous oncology following their residency.  The program seeks to accomplish this by having a robust clinical and didactic curriculum that is rooted in the ACGME core competencies.  A special emphasis is placed on producing dermatologists who will work with patient populations that are underserved for geographic or socioeconomic reasons and/or who will make important contributions to the future of dermatology by choosing careers as academic clinician educators.

Recent Changes in the OSU Division of Dermatology

The past two years have seen incredible changes in the OSU Division of Dermatology.  These changes have dramatically strengthened the division's ability to educate residents, and the division now has very strong educational and patient care abilities in all areas of dermatology.

Four new faculty, all with a deep dedication to resident education and patient care, have been added to the already strong division.  The most important development was the naming of a new division director - Dr. Mark Bechtel.  Dr. Bechtel was a highly respected private practitioner in Columbus for 25 years, focusing on complicated medical dermatology and has been very active in resident teaching for many years.  He felt that resident education was so important that in 2005, at the request of the OSU Dermatology residents and the OSU Department of Medicine, he was willing to give up his private practice in order to devote his full attention to the residency program as residency program director and to the overall success of the division as division director.

After Dr. Bechtel took over the Division, his first new recruit was Dr. Matthew Zirwas.  Dr. Zirwas was a full time faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Dermatoalogy before being recruited to OSU.  Dr. Zirwas has a very strong interest in dermatolgy education, having been the Director of Medical Student Education in Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Zirwas has been named Assistant Program Director and dedicates a significant portion of his time to resident education.  His primary clinical interest is contact dermatitis, and he is also interested in phototherapy and medical dermatology.

The next physician to join the division was recruited by both the Department of Pediatrics and the Division of Dermatology.  Dr. Patricia Witman, a fellowship-trained pediatric dermatologist, was recruited to OSU from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.  She is based at Nationwide Children's Hospital (formerly Columbus Children's Hospital).  Residents work extensively with Dr. Witman on their pediatric dermatology rotations and she is heavily involved in the didactic education program. 

Finally, the OSU Division of Dermatology worked with the OSU Department of Pathology to recruit Dr. Sara Peters from Cornell University.  Dr. Peters is a fellowship-trained dermatopathologist who is assuming the primary responsibility for dermatopathology education of the OSU dermatology residents.  The division is particularly excited about Dr. Peters' background in eduation, as prior to pursuing medicine, she was an accomplished educator in the humanities.

These new faculty members join existing full time faculty members David Lambert, MD and Dean Hearne, MD.  Dr. Lambert is a fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon who served as residency program director from 2002-2006.  His clinical interests are dermatologic surgery, Mohs surgery and cutaneous oncology.  Dr. Hearne practices the full spectrum of dermatology, with particular interests in dermatologic surgery and cosmetic dermatology.

Other key faculty within the division include:

• Dr. Joy Mosser - Dr. Mosser is a fellowship-trained pediatric dermatologist who spends significant time teaching dermatology residents at Columbus Children's Hospital both in general pediatric dermatology and in pediatric dermatologic surgery.
• Dr. Adam Hessel - Dr. Hessel is a fellowship-trainined dermatopathologist and general dermatologist who precepts residents weekly at the Columbus VA dermatology clinic.  Dr. Hessel and his partner, Dr. Julio Cruz, are also involved in dermatopathology education of the OSU dermatology residents.
• Dr. Jess DeMaria - Dr. DeMaria precepts residents regularly at the Columbus VA dermatology clinic.

Numerous other dermatologists in the Columbus area also work with the OSU dermatology residents to provide additional experience in dermatologic surgery, cosmetic dermatology and general dermatology.

See the links on this page for further information on our faculty, our residents, the clinical experiences of our residents, the didactic portion of our residency and on life in Columbus.