MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eliot N. Mostow, MD, MPH Professor & Chair, Dermatology Section Department of Internal Mediciine Northeast Ohio Medical University  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The background for the study is my continued interest in what is sometimes called health services research. That is, how do we improve our ability to deliver optimal medical care from a healthcare system perspective? Simply put, one of the most frequent criticisms about getting a dermatologist to see if patient is that there are delays in scheduling (wait times are too high). I’m not sure this is really justified, as it seems to take a long time to get into psychiatrists, gynecologists, and other specialists in our community as well. That being said, since I’m in the dermatology community and our community has been utilizing physician assistants and nurse practitioners more frequently for many years now, we thought it was worthwhile to explore whether this was having an impact on wait times to get a visit in a dermatologist’s office. (more…)