Dermatology News
Updates from the UNMC Department of Dermatology
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PANDEMIC RESPONSE: How our Dermatology Team Stepped Up! |
COVID-19 CAN'T KEEP US DOWN!
The Nebraska Medicine (NM) / University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Dermatology team, including faculty, residents, clinical and administrative staff, demonstrated and continue to demonstrate our ITEACH (Innovation, Teamwork, Excellence, Accountability, Courage, and Healing) values throughout this pandemic.
"Several adjustments were made in the spring to accommodate our teams as well as support the ability to continue to provide extraordinary care for our patients," said Kara Tomlinson, MBA, RN NM dermatology clinic director and UNMC department of dermatology administrator. Some of those efforts included:
- Rapid conversion from clinic in-person visits to telehealth
- Development of clinic specific protocols to include scheduling, pre-procedural testing, staffing adjustments, cleaning protocols, etc.
- Scheduling team accomplished on a heavy lift of cancelling and rescheduling patients, adjusting templates and providing patient service recovery
- Acquisition of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) inventory
- Adjusted cleaning protocols to ensure patient and staff safety
- Established screening checkpoints at our clinic locations
- Provided staffing support for priority operations across the health system including inpatient care, N-95 decontamination, entry screening and COVID-19 testing sites
- Implemented innovative processes to accommodate remote work environments
We will continue to be challenged and we will face each day TOGETHER!
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SPOTLIGHT ON DIVERSITY
Kristie Hayes, MD
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Kristie Hayes, MD returned to UNMC in December of 2019 to join the Department of Dermatology. As part of the strategic plan for the department, Dr. Wysong recruited Dr. Hayes into a new role as Director of Diversity for the department. Dr. Hayes together with Tierra Robinson, clinic manager and Karle Olnes, administrative business associate in August of 2020 created a departmental committee that focuses on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.The initial goals of the committee are to provide resources and opportunities to members of our department, to bring awareness to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as to work to strengthen and maintain an inclusive environment for all members of our department to feel welcome and safe. To help accomplish these goals, the committee holds monthly meetings every third Thursday from 12-12:30 p.m. for anyone in the UNMC Department of Dermatology and our Nebraska Medicine dermatology clinic team to join. During these meetings, we present slides on different diversity topics, provide resources and present opportunities around campus and the community. Some actionable items that the committee has already helped start was encouraging everyone in the department to add their preferred pronouns to their signature line. We are excited to announce Visiting Professor Grand Rounds speakers booked for both January and June 2021 to speak about diversity and inclusion in dermatology. Dr. Hayes has also worked with the education leadership team to add more books to the resident library highlighting skin conditions on all skin types on the Fitzpatrick scale as well as to make sure all skin types are represented in the resident’s learning materials. UNMC Dermatology and Nebraska Medicine Dermatology wants to make sure that we have a welcome space for all learners, staff and patients and to create an inclusive environment for everyone to thrive.
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MEET OUR NEW PHYSICIAN
Welcome Dr. Corey Georgesen, MD
Assistant Professor, Dermatologist, Dermatopathologist & Telemedicine Specialist.
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Assistant Professor Corey Georgesen, MD grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he graduated with highest honors. He attended the University of Nebraska Medical Center on a Regent's scholarship where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and graduated with distinction. Dr. Georgesen completed internal medicine preliminary at California Pacific Medical Center and dermatology residency at Weill Cornell/New York Presbyterian. He then pursued additional training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, completing both teledermatology and dermatopathology fellowship training programs. While in college, Dr. Georgesen studied Chinese languages, American History and has studied abroad to China twice.
Dr. Georgesen has been invited to speak at numerous national meetings and has published on several topics including complex medical dermatology, dermatopathology and teledermatology. He plans to continue these professional interests in Nebraska through the establishment of a dermatopathology education program and an inpatient teledermatology service for Nebraska Hospitals without dermatology access.
Dr. Georgesen is excited to be moving back to his hometown after seven years away and buying his first home with his wife Minji and dog Wilson. His favorite place to visit is New York City and he has traveled to South Korea several times. He enjoys spending time with family and friends and loves cooking. Dr. Georgesen admits he has a low-key obsession with peanut butter.
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GETTING TO KNOW OUR NEW STAFF
Welcome Mackinzie Dehmer,
Residency Program Coordinator
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Mackenzie Dehmer, residency program coordinator joins the UNMC dermatology department from the Omaha Community Playhouse where she served as their program director. Mackenzie grew up in Omaha and attended University of Missouri Kansas City and Regent University where she received her MA in Theatre. Mackenzie is a key member of the education leadership team made up of Dr. Wysong (residency program director), Dr. Jennifer Adams (residency associate program director), and Dr. Megan Arthur (associate residency program director, director of medical student education), and Tammy O'Donnell (undergraduate medical education coordinator). Mackenzie's current day to day responsibilities include creating and dispersing resident physician schedules, managing application data for the national dermatology resident application and interview season, as well as responding to the needs of the residents and the program director. She has been with UNMC for three months and is excited to learn a new profession and support the dermatology team.
Mackenzie shares her home life with her significant other Analisa, sons Lincoln age eight, Remy age two and two cats, Asher and Crixus. She enjoys spending time with her family, listening to music, the beach, theatre and responding to her residents with creative interpretive dance.
Some Fun Facts About Mackenzie:
Favorite place to visit: New York
Favorite trip single or family: Las Vegas 2019
Most memorable memory from 2020: Moving my new family into our first apartment together.
Three fun things people don’t know about me:
- I was a singing waitress at a cabaret bar in college.
- I teach private voice lessons in my “spare time”.
- I won a classical music competition when I was 18.
Any other fun facts you want to share….
My creative thesis project for my MA is now used as the example thesis for my program at Regent University.
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Sushmita Adhikari, BS
Research Project Associate
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Sushmita Adhikari joined the dermatology team in September 2020 as our new research project associate. Sush graduated from the University of Nebraska-Omaha with a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Chemistry. Sush served as a lab support assistant at Nebraska Medicine before being recruited to dermatology. Sush spends most of her day at her desk looking up grants, working on IRBs and contacting patients for research studies. Sush is most looking forward to getting to know her new team better. She is excited to work with such a fun group in a positive atmosphere.
Sush lives with her significant other of seven years, DeShone, as well as her kitty Rue. Sush loves to travel and spend time with her family. She enjoys true crime documentaries, playing video games, watching sports especially basketball, and she is an avid Laker’s fan.
Some Fun Facts About Sushmita:
Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal
Favorite place to visit: Atlanta. My older brother lives there and I typically (not this year) visit him once or twice annually.
Favorite trip single or family: Los Angeles. The food and atmosphere there is phenomenal! Also- I saw Mark Ruffalo!
Most memorable memory from 2020: I was watching a NBA game, and the entire league shut down after a player tested positive. It was surreal and it finally hit me- we’re in a global pandemic!!
Three fun things people don’t know about me:
- I don’t have tonsils.
- As far back as we can track, all of my family has been from Nepal (or that area before it was a country).
- I could eat sourdough with brie for every meal and not complain.
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Chantalle Ferguson, CNA
Patient Coordinator Sr. Associate
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Chantalle Ferguson moved within the department to take the newly created patient coordinator Sr. associate position. This is a specialty position focused on working closely with our new dermatopathologist, Corey Georgesen, MD. Specifically, Chantalle will serve as the "point person" for our dermatopathology services and will help facilitate partnerships with our Nebraska Medicine pathology colleagues as well as other clinics and hospitals. Chantalle has worked for Nebraska Medicine for a little over two years and has been with the dermatology program since its initial launch in 2018. Chantalle has her CNA license and is currently pursuing her BSN in nursing. Before coming to Nebraska Medicine, Chantalle worked as a patient coordinator for a respiratory company. She worked with clinics and hospitals to get patients prequalified for their respiratory equipment such as oxygen and cpap. Her transition into this role feels like a natural progression she says.
Chantalle is a supermom of two, daughter Ava and son Bowen. She enjoys 4-wheeling, going to concerts (mostly country music), camping and Husker football as well as spending time with her family.
Some Fun Facts About Chantalle:
Hometown: I’ve grown up in Omaha but I am originally from New Orleans, LA
Favorite place to visit: California. I’ve gone in the fall and just love the mountains and scenery there.
Favorite trip single or family: I was able to take a last minute trip with my best friend to Colorado over labor day weekend last year. We were upgraded to pit tickets to see Dierks Bentley, Cole Swindell and Jon Pardi. It was an amazing 24-hour trip and concert.
What you like most about working at NM: I love the atmosphere and team work. I see how patient focused everyone here is and that is something I really love. Everyone works together to make sure our patients are taken care of especially during the current pandemic. The physicians, managers and coworkers are constantly helping us learn new things each day and that is something that I get so excited about coming to work each day.
Most memorable memory from 2020: This summer we had a day to go to Beaver Lake. We spent the day on the boat, swimming, and then rode 4-wheelers in the evening. It was nice to take a break from everything going on with COVID and spend quality time with my family.
What are 3 things people don’t know about me:
- I’m scared of haunted houses. (lol)
- I have two younger brothers who are 20 and 17. There is a 15 and 18-year age gap between us.
- Vala's Pumpkin Patch is my happy place. I look forward to it each year with my family.
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HIGH-RISK SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA RESEARCH UPDATE
Marissa Lobl, MD, PhD Graduate Student
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The high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) research team, led by Dr. Ashley Wysong, has been hard at work! We have two exciting new additions to the high-risk SCC team, research project coordinator Sushmita Adhikari and Megan Wackel, cancer research graduate program Master’s student. Sush is working hard to build skin cancer databases and tissue banks so that our team can spearhead large epidemiological and translational studies of a variety of skin cancers. Megan graduated from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2020 with a Biochemistry degree and is now pursuing her Master’s in Cancer Research with mentor Dr. Ashley Wysong. Megan’s project will focus on studying SCC in immunocompromised patients. We are excited to welcome them on board!
Marissa Lobl, MD/PhD student has been busy performing basic science research investigating a new gene of interest in SCC that may help predict metastasis. In collaboration with the Dr. Mott lab, the team has been conducting many experiments and research techniques including immunohistochemistry, cell transfection, flow cytometry, and confocal microscopy to name a few. Next, the team is looking forward to translating our findings into a mouse model of skin cancer. Ultimately, we hope for this research to improve treatments for patients with high-risk squamous cell carcinoma.
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"The start of Dermatology residency has been exceptional!" according to Tyler Evans, MD. We are truly spoiled here at UNMC. We have the best faculty and support staff in the nation. I think that we are in a unique position, being the only (and first) class of residents at this time. We get more 1 on 1 time with faculty, lectures are tailored specifically to us, and we are able to help shape the foundation of a new program. Even over the first 5 months, it is very apparent the level of dedication everyone here has to helping us succeed and ultimately become the best Dermatologist we can be. The learning curve has been steep, it has been a flash-back to the fist year of medical school where you are trying to 'drink from a fire hose'. I really think that we have all come a long way in these first 5 months and continue to improve on a day to day basis. We have a solid group of residents here, we all get along very well and have a drive to become great Dermatologists. You don't get to 'pick' your co-residents coming into a program and I am extremely lucky to have people like Dillon and Ritu to spend these next 2.5 years with. It will be a lot of fun in the upcoming months to help interview future residents and hopefully match 6 great people to work with for the next couple of years. Overall, I think things are going very well. I think what makes a place great is the people who work there and this place certainly has amazing people. All of the other stuff can be changed, worked on, switched around, etc. I would like to thank everyone in the department for helping me, Dillon and Ritu out these first couple of months! Can't wait to see what the future has in store!
Tyler Evans, MD
Dermatology, HO-II
University of Nebraska Medical Center
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CHAIR'S CORNER - A YEAR IN REVIEW |
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2020 has been quite the year and I could not be more proud of our entire UNMC and Nebraska Medicine dermatology team! We have learned more about ourselves as individuals and as a group through this challenging time than ever before.
A few highlights:
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Teledermatology: We have fearlessly innovated in the time of COVID-19. Led by Dr. Jennifer Adams, Director of Teledermatology, the 18-month build of our teledermatology program was rapidly accelerated and we now host a robust platform to include synchronous “real time” video visits, eConsult (MD or provider-to-dermatologist), eVisit (patient-to-dermatologist), and telephone visits. Utilizing teledermatology technology, we were able to maintain well over 90% patient visit volume throughout the toughest times of the pandemic. In addition, our clinicians have kept in-person dermatology visits for urgent and emergent dermatology and skin cancer patients and Nebraska Medicine inpatients throughout this challenging time.
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Education: Our education team of myself, Dr. Jennifer Adams and Dr. Megan Arthur, associate program directors, Mackenzie Dehmer, program coordinator and Tammy O’Donnell, education coordinator have been hard at work! Our ACGME residency program in dermatology officially launched on July 1, 2020 with our three new residents in dermatology. The year has been off with a bang with the development of the clinical rotations, didactic lectures, workshops, journal club, and so much more! In addition, our education team has reviewed over 500 applications from around the country to fill our additional 6 residency positions in the NRMP Match program this coming March. We will reach our full resident compliment of 9 residents (3 per year) over the next two years with the goal of training the next generation of dermatologists for Nebraska and beyond!
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Partnerships: We are very excited to announce our formal partnerships with Children’s Hospital and Medical Center (CHMC) and the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System to provide dermatologic care and additional opportunities for teaching and research. Specifically, we have secured funding and support to build our Pediatric Dermatology Division including building a new pediatric dermatology clinic, recruitment of a Chief of Pediatric Dermatology and 2-3 additional pediatric dermatology faculty and the development teaching (medical student, resident and fellow) and research programs. At the Omaha VA, we will begin providing clinical services to our veterans in January 2021 at the new Ambulatory Care Center and will continue to expand our resident teaching and research programs.
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Mohs for Melanoma / Skin Cancer Program – Led by Director of Mohs & Dermatologic Surgery, Dr. Adam Sutton, our Nebraska Medicine dermatology program launched a first-of-its kind in the region program to treat melanoma, our deadliest skin cancer. Mohs surgery, with real-time special immunohistochemical staining (MART-1, SOX, PRAME), offers the highest cure rate for melanoma with the chance for recurrence reported to be well below 1%! When it comes to melanoma, we want to be very sure that the cancer is removed completly with the highest possible chance for cure the first time!
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OUR STAFF'S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF 2020 |
My most memorable moment was giving birth to my son in the middle of a worldwide pandemic! They thought he was going to be between 7.5-8 pounds and he ended up being 6.9 and 19.5 inches long!
One of my favorite memories is seeing Dr. Adams and Kara dressed as a hot dog and a box of donuts walking side by side on Halloween! I love the fun spirit of this team.
Personally it would be starting a garden! It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time and I finally made it happen. Eating vegetables straight from your garden is not only delicious but also rewarding! I am definitely still a beginner and have a lot to learn but I would say that my first year was a success.
We started the Sun Protection Outreach Taught by Students (SPOTS) program shortly after I arrived in dermatology. Our first SPOTS program was zoomed to over 65 high school students through High School Alliance. I just remember being so proud and excited for this department and our Dermatology Interest Group Association (DIGA) students and all that we had achieved in such a short time.
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UNMC Department of Dermatology
985645 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-5645
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