The inpatient consultation service was started in 1978 by Marc Grossman MD who was a third year dermatology resident at the time already board certified in internal medicine.  He has continued as director of the dermatology consultation service since then.  Throughout most of each academic year since 1979 he has been the attending.  This has provided for consistency and continuity of care for patients who are either frequently admitted with skin manifestations of systemic illnesses or have a severe primary cutaneous disease requiring hospitalization.  Hospitalized patients are generally sicker than in years past with shorter lengths of stay. The presence of the same physician on the in-patient service helps to assure familiarity with the rapidly changing medical literature, the current therapies of choice, the usual side effects and complications of new drugs and surgical procedures as well as the idiosyncrasies that arise in managing patients with complicated skin disorders or complex medical or surgical illnesses.  Such expertise helps to assure more rapid and accurate diagnosis and skillful hands on treatment resulting in a higher standard of care for patients.  This translates into efficiency and cost reductions.

The in patient dermatology consultant interacts with all subspecialties in the hospital which takes him or her to every location in the medical center complex where patients are care for.  The dermatology consultant serves as an ambassador for the specialty with the clear message that every patient with a skin lesion or dermatologic complaint should have a dermatology consult as a vital part of their hospital care.  The in hospital presence and 24 hour availability of this dermatology service has fostered interdisciplinary cooperation and respect.  The inpatient dermatology consult service at Columbia University Medical Center has set the standard of care for consultative dermatology or medical dermatology as a subspecialty and has earned a national reputation.

FACULTY

Marc E. Grossman, MD FACP

Professor of Clinical Dermatology

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Dr. Marc Grossman graduated from the University Of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1974.  He received the Adolph H. Creskoff prize in hematology.  He did his internship and medical residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for his dermatology training.  He was the chief resident for two of his three year residency and was board certified in Internal Medicine and in Dermatology when he completed his residency in 1979.

Dr. Grossman established his practice in White Plains, New York in 1979.  He maintains a busy private practice while carrying out all of his responsibilities as Professor of Clinical Dermatology and Director of the inpatient consultation service.  He has been the medical director of the Center for Hyperhidrosis at Columbia University since its inception.  He has published over 175 papers and two unique textbooks.  The first published in 1995, Cutaneous Manifestations of Infection in the Immunocompromised Host.  The second a two volume text was written with Dr. Paul Schneiderman and published in 2006, A Clinician’s Guide to Dermatologic Differential Diagnosis.  Dr. Grossman is regularly one of New York magazine’s best doctors and one of Castle’s Connelly’s top doctors:  New York metro area.

Dr. Grossman has been running one of the first in-patient consultation services in the country for almost thirty years with the same vigor and passion that he started with.  He has extensive experience in taking care of imunocompromised patients with malignancy, connective tissue disease, HIV disease and organ transplant recipients.  He was on the front line in 2001 making the first diagnosis of cutaneous anthrax due to bioterrorism (New York Times October 18, 2001).  Dr. Grossman’s daily work serves as a model for other academic medical centers to emulate.

RESEARCH
Dr. Grossman is an academic medical dermatologist who serves as the ultimate consultant or final opinion when the patient remains undiagnosed or untreated despite all efforts.  He is the professor often turned to at the medical center for seemingly insoluble cases on the medical service.  Sometimes it is because the disease is rare, the presentation of the common disease is unusual or the disease is currently being described or the condition is occurring for the first time.  If not a new disease it may be a new association or manifestation of a known disease or pathologic process.  Examples include periumbilical purpura in hyperinfection stronglyloides (JAMA 256:1170, 1986), bacillary angiomatosis in HIV disease (JAMA 260;524-527, 1988), eosinophilic myalgia syndrome (AJMed 88:542-546, 1970), renal cell carcinoma in Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome (JAAD 29:1055, 1993), herpetic geometric glossitis (NEJM 29:1859, 1993) and nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy (JAAD 48:55-60, 2003).  In a likewise manner the treatment for disease may be new or has never before been used.  Examples include Antithymocyte globulin in treatment of T-cell lymphoma (Lancet 2:249-250, 1997), and Keratosis punctata palmaris et plantaris treated with topical 5-flourouracil (Arch Derm in press).

The medical dermatology recognizes documents, describes and defines emerging patterns of new diseases or new associations of known diseases.  Dr. Grossman involves the medical students and resident in the entire process from observation or accumulation of similar cases to publications.