Research in the Department of Dermatology is focused primarily on clinical, biomedical, and health services delivery projects. Our research program dovetails easily with our strong clinical and educational programs.
Our current and ongoing research activities and interests are listed below:
Karen Edison, MD, is interested in teledermatology, health disparities, health care access, and health policy.
- A Communication Content Comparison of In-Person and Live-Interactive Teledermatology
- Use of Telehealth in Bioterror Preparedness and Emerging Infectious Disease
- Skin Cancer Epidemiology
- Photodynamic Therapy vs. 5-FU for Treatment of Actinic Keratoses in the Veteran Population
- A Three-Way Comparison of Diagnostic and Management Congruence Among Dermatologists: In-Person; Live-Interactive; and Store-and-Forward
- Health Literacy
Jon Dyer, MD, is interested in mosaicism, epigenetics, and other pediatric dermatology topics.
- Epigenetic Profiling of Pre-Neoplastic Mosaic Skin Lesions
- Epigenetic Changes in Inflammatory Skin Disease
- Inflammatory Mosaic Disorders
- Thymosin Beta 4 in the Treatment of Epidermolysis Bullosa Lesions
Susie Ailor, MD, has interests in medical and health education, sports dermatology, disease prevention, and cutaneous effects of chemotherapy.
- Maps in Medicine: A New Approach to Life Sciences Education
- Effects of Chemotherapy on Skin and Hair
Dana Ward, MD, has academic interests in cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma (CTCL) and psoriasis. She is currently a co-investigator on several of the studies listed above.
John Viator, PhD, is interested in biomedical optics, especially photoacoustics methods for skin depth profiling and imaging. He also uses photoacoustics for detection of circulating melanoma cells in human blood. Additional projects include visible reflectance spectroscopy for analysis of normal and pathological tissue and imaging methods to determine mechanical properties of skin.