Greater Des Moines Dermatology and Dr. Abrahamson serve patients of all ages and all diseases of the skin, hair, and nails. Our belief is that if you are wanting specialty care, you should expect to see a Board Certified Dermatologist. A Board Certified Dermatologist has completed medical school and then 4 additional years of residency with 3 years specifically in clinical and surgical dermatology. Most Board Certified Dermatologists graduating in the last 20 years are in the top 20% of their medical school class. You can validate a Board Certified Dermatologist by going to the AAD website (www.aad.org).

Why is this important? Over 75% of practices in the Des Moines region have no intention of letting you see a board certified dermatologist on a regular basis. In fact, many clinics have extenders seeing most clinical patients so the "alleged" overseeing physician can do higher reimbursing cosmetics or surgical activities. Even if a board certified dermatologist is on staff at a clinic, they may have truly NO ROLE in your care at over half the offices advocating "dermatology", "skin care", "cosmetics", and "skin cancer" care in the Central Iowa region.  Ask yourself, was the dermatologist involved with the diagnosis? Would I have avoided a biopsy if I had seen the dermatologist? How can I be confident in the diagnosis that would lead to appropriate therapy?  Was a board certified dermatologist available on-site at the time of my visit should their input, insight, advanced education and experience and/or help be necessary?   Will I be charged another visit should the extender not know how to treat so I have to return to see the Board Certified Dermatologist?

How can this be so?

Some practices do not even have a board certified dermatologist on staff! *Just look at the yellow page listings under dermatology or skin care or cosmetics.* 

Other practices have so many extenders that less then half of all clinical visits are physically seen by a Board Certified Dermatologist: EVER!!! In an office using multiple extenders, there is a strong likelihood that there is little or no role of the staffing physician.    In fact, we frequently have patients come in from an alleged dermatology practice for problems that are NOT getting better and yet they still have NEVER seen the dermatologist after multiple visits.    This will NOT occur at Greater Des Moines Dermatology.  All diagnoses are made by the board certified dermatologist.