National Capital Consortium (NCC) Dermatology Residency Program

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act has mandated a $1 billion expansion and renovation of the medical facility on the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) campus and that Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) close effective September 15, 2011. WRAMC and NNMC have consolidated in the enlarged and refurbished NNMC medical facility. This greatly expanded 350-bed facility which officially opened the same day was renamed as the "Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC)." We have anticipated and experienced a very positive impact on GME with the advantages inherent to being at one expanded site: no traveling between two medical facilities, improved communication, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, and co-location with academic institutions. The WRNMMC is located on the same campus as our military teaching university, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and across the street from the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine. In addition, a new 120-bed hospital was constructed at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, and was named the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (FBCH). FBCH provides further GME opportunities for our trainees. The National Capital Consortium (NCC) is the sponsoring institution for the 68 GME programs and is based at USUHS. The NCC is the largest joint training site for military physicians in the military system.

The National Capital Consortium (NCC) Dermatology Residency Program has experienced the following significant advantages at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center:

• State-of-the-art facilities and equipment in a brand new, enlarged dermatology clinic
• Huge, 1,835 square foot Dermatology GME suite which includes a large open area with 18 resident carrels with storage space and a dermatology library and 6 adjacent rooms for male/female lockers, a 14-headed microscope with projection equipment, and offices for the Program Director, Associate Program Director, and the Program Coordinator
• More effective and efficient use of the combined clinical resources and administrative and medical support staff
• Improved communication among trainees, faculty, patients and staff
• Co-location with the Dermatopathology Fellowship
• Less time spent traveling between medical facilities
• Co-location with the red-line Medical Center metro stop across the street
• Co-location with other academic institutions

In October 2011, the NCC Dermatology Residency program was accredited for the maximum 5-year period with no citations. The program has had a 100% board certification rate for its graduates. Strengths of the program include its in depth and well-rounded didactics and clinical rotation schedule; a high faculty to trainee ratio; numerous subspecialty dermatology fellowship-trained on site faculty members in Dermatopathology, Pediatric Dermatology, Procedural Dermatology, and Immunodermatology; academic affiliations with the Dermatology Branch at the National Institutes of Health which host Dermatology Grand Rounds and medical dermatology rotations; pediatric dermatology rotations at the Johns Hopkins University, clinical conferences hosted by the Washington, D.C., Dermatological Society; and trainees have won numerous competitive national level scholarships to facilitate rotations with prominent dermatologists and dermatology subspecialists.