Faculty Bibliography

Five patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with unusual manifestations of syphilis are reported. The high prevalence of HIV seropositivity among our patients with syphilis, the rapid progression to tertiary disease, the increased severity of the clinical manifestations, inappropriate antibody responses to infection, relapse without reexposure despite "adequate" treatment, and lack of response to penicillin therapy have been observed in these and in other patients. Data are presented to explain these unusual observations.

DERM/RX (dermatologic therapy) is a computerized data base representing a compendium of therapeutic management options for over 600 diseases of the skin. This data base is housed in the National Headquarters of the American Academy of Dermatology in Evanston, Illinois. It is accessible via DERM/INFONET to members of the American Academy of Dermatology via telephonic communication lines that blanket the United States. The data base is constantly updated by the Task Force on DERM/RX of the Committee on Biomedical Communications of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Since an oversupply of physician specialists leads to a waste of professional resources, planning of the number of physicians may be desirable. A model projecting the future supply of dermatologists was formulated on the basis of current residency capacity, which produces about 270 dermatologists per year, and on experience regarding the average length of active clinical practice. How changes in the training capacity affect the future supply of dermatologists was also examined. The model projects an equilibrium supply of about 9,500 dermatologists, or 3.2 per 100,000 population early in the 21st century, provided the number of new graduates remains at its present level. Assuming no economic barriers to access, 2.8 to three dermatologists per 100,000 population should be adequate to meet demand. Because of many unpredictable factors, periodic reassessment of dermatology training capacity is necessary