"Insure"
From the Editor
Dr. Schwarzenberger is the former physician editor of DermWorld.
By Kathryn Schwarzenberger, MD, FAAD, September 1, 2024
“To make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions.” (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insure.) In the past few years, DermWorld has shared stories from colleagues who have navigated a variety of challenging situations, ranging from personal illness to natural disasters. Life clearly throws curveballs and all of us risk getting hit at one time or another. While each story is different, a common message we heard is the importance of having proper insurance to mitigate the monetary impact of unexpected and potentially devastating occurrences. Most physicians are familiar with basic types of personal insurance, including health, life, and disability insurance. If you have your own practice, you will likely have workers’ compensation and liability insurance. However, there are other types of insurance available for your practice that you might not have considered. With both hurricane and wildfire seasons in full swing, it is not hard to imagine that some practices may be shut down for periods of time. Business interruption insurance might be a wise addition to your insurance portfolio to help compensate for these unplanned breaks. Hopefully, we will not face another pandemic any time soon, but viruses of another type (the electronic version) could threaten your practice just as effectively. They have insurance for that, as well as many other potential disasters. Insurance cannot prevent us from being hit by problems, but it can certainly limit the monetary damages, and the peace of mind it offers is invaluable. The AAD has resources to help you find insurance and we hope our feature article this month will inspire you to make sure that you and your practices are adequately protected.
This month, DermWorld takes a deep dive into therapy for one of our more common dermatologic problems: warts. Vaccination to prevent infection with certain human papillomavirus types has been shown to be safe and effective, decreasing incidence of targeted HPV-associated cancers, as well as anogenital warts. While still not FDA-approved, there has been growing interest in using HPV vaccines to therapeutically treat warts. Assistant Editor Emily Margosian spoke with authors of several recent JAAD publications about this intriguing topic and their thoughts are discussed in our feature article, which suggests that the route of immunization may be a key factor in whether these vaccines work therapeutically. While there is more work to be done to completely convince me, if I have learned nothing else over the years, it is to keep an open mind to possibilities — and to stay humble. My generation of young docs scoffed when it was suggested that bacteria could cause peptic ulcer disease. After all, we were quite comfortable knowing that too much gastric acid was the cause. …
One of our shorter articles resonated with me this month, and I suspect it will with some of you too. Imposter syndrome. That feeling some of you may have experienced of anxiety and self-doubt, that somehow you really aren’t good enough. If unchecked, impostor syndrome can limit growth, affect mental health, and add to the growing ranks of burned-out physicians. Mentorship can play a key role in addressing imposter syndrome, and one of our specialty’s most respected and honored mentors, Dr. William James, offers his sage perspectives on the topic, along with those of mentee Dr. Paige Porter. This article reminded me yet again of the critical importance of mentorship. I know my life has been so much richer because of the mentors in my life, and I am forever in their debt. Thanks to all the mentors out there for all you do. You are the heart of our specialty, and much of what makes dermatology great.
