Seventy million Baby Boomers are growing old. The youngest of the cohort turned 60 this year. Baby Boomers have strained institutions, creating a surge in demand whenever they reach a milestone. Their parents began to grow their families after World War II. Hospital maternity wards were full. Schools were bursting at the seams and more had to be built. Colleges had to expand, and more professors had to be hired. One reason housing is in short supply is that Boomers bought big houses and don’t want to give them up, partly due to low mortgage rates locked in years ago. As Boomers age, age-related health problems grow and boost demand for various medical services. Last year I wrote about gastroenterologists’ practices being scooped up by private equity, due to Boomers creating what one analyst called, “a golden age of rectums.” According to the Wall Street Journal, skin care is another example of heightened demand partly driven by aging.
Dermatology began to increase in popularity a few years ago. Demand is growing and dermatologists never have medical emergencies at night or on weekends the way obstetricians or emergency medicine physicians do. Women are especial drawn to the specialty because it affords a better work/life balance than most other physician specialties. In the past five years dermatology has become hot, really hot. Hot as in dermatology residency slots are now super competitive. One physician told WSJ that his program had 200 applicants for four residency slots.
Medical residency applications for dermatology slots are up 50% over the past five years, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, with women flooding the zone. A younger generation of physicians wants better work-life balance than their predecessors and, unlike pressure-cooker medical specialties such as cardiac surgery, dermatology fits the bill.“It’s one of the only fields where you can work 40 hours a week like a normal person,” says Zubritsky, 36, who has two children and sees patients between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., three days a week.
Aging patients desperately want to hold back the hands of time, at least on their faces. They need skin care from the damage of all those trips to the beach. The boost in demand for dermatologists has also boosted pay for the specialty.
Dermatologists earn a median $541,000 a year, according to a recent survey of more than 150,000 U.S. physicians conducted by Medical Group Management Association, a trade group. Pediatricians, by contrast, earn a median $258,000 annually.
Something else that is driving the dermatology business is Zoom. Americans who work from home see their images on Zoom and want to do something about them. Social media is another avenue for dermatologists to gain a following. For millions of viewers, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are a way to learn more about skin care than they could ever afford to learn from a doctor. Thus, dermatologists who have large followings on social media can often earn thousands, sometimes tens of thousands from each sponsored post when skin care brands want to get their products in front of viewers.
Dermatology has not always been glamourous. One physician went through residency in the 1980s in New York City. She told WSJ much of her early years was treating skin lesions and eruptions from HIV and other STDs. Botox was approved in 2002, roughly when the specialty began gaining steam. In recent years dermatologists also began performing other types of cosmetic procedures. A New York Times article from a few years ago talked to a dermatologist who had two separate entrances, waiting rooms and phone numbers. One was for cosmetic services (immediate appointments), while the other was for less lucrative Medicare skin checks. Count on a month or more for a Medicare skin check appointment.
Physicians also told WSJ that they enjoy the ability to see a patient and immediately identify their problem rather than rely on tests. A family member told me a story about going to a dermatologist for a skin check and his doctor told him that from six feet away he could see he had a basal cell carcinoma. It was cut off with no further problems. Dermatology would seem an unlikely specialty to make its physicians superstars. It was somewhat stodgy for decades, not commanding the respect that other specialties did, such as cardiology. Yet, it is another example of the boost in demand that aging Baby Boomers drive along with the cohorts that came before them and after.