Notes from the Third Annual Meeting
Contributed by Andrea Losch

Students from eleven medical schools attended DIGA's second annual meeting on February 3, 2007. Representatives were present from the following medical schools: Columbia, Indiana University, Lousiana State, Meharry Medical College, NEOUCOM, Ohio State, Texas Tech, Thomas Jefferson, UC Irvine, UC San Francisco, and Vanderbilt

After the members introduced themselves, Jeanette Waller, DIGA President 2006-2007, opened the meeting on a somber note highlighting the accomplishments of Kelly Werlinger, DIGA's founder who passed away last July. Alex Eshaghian also shared some of his memories before we reflected in a moment of silence. Kelly was passionately dedicated to DIGA and she will be dearly remembered.

Reports from each regional director were read and we were updated on the new member schools since last year's meeting. Since our last meeting, 9 new member-schools have joined DIGA bringing the total number of member schools to 36. Since last year, the following schools have joined (chronologically): Columbia University; University of Alabama; Loma Linda University; University of Hawaii; University of Miami; University of Utah; University of Southern California; Medical College of Wisconsin; University of Michigan.

There have been several changes to and ideas for the DIGA website. The most significant addition to the website was the Dermatology Interviews Database which displays a calendar view of residency interview dates. This project will be continued for future interview seasons. Both the DIGA website and the Derm Interviews Database were dedicated to Kelly in 2006. Future website initiatives will focus on expanding DIGA's fellowships database and creating a section of supportive stories for dermatology applicants. Stories will be anonymous and will highlight the application process, the re-application process, and/or finding happiness in fields outside of dermatology.

The treasurer revealed that the financial status of our organization is healthy and our grants from industry are renewable.

We discussed the year's achievements of our service projects and voted to create a new national service project that focuses on skin cancer education, especially on melanoma. The service project will be a combined initiative using curriculums from the national Melanoma Awareness Project (spotaspot.org) and the Sun Protection Project. DIGA will continue to remain involved with Miles for Melanoma (fundraiser for Melanoma Research Foundation) and other melanoma fundraising projects. DIGA has raised over $16,000 for the Melanoma Research Foundation and a research grant was recently administered in DIGA's name. We will also focus on building stronger relationships with Camp Discovery, Camp Wonder, and Camp Horizon with the hope to increase involvement of DIGA members and other medical students. DIGA raised over $1500 for Camp Discovery last year.

Curricular development will be another focus for DIGA in the upcoming academic year. Seven DIGA chapters are participating in a multi-center study headed by UCSF to evaluate the adequacy dermatology curricula in medical schools. This study is still ongoing. DIGA also hopes to establish a relationship with the Society for Investigative Dermatology to waive registration fees for medical students who attend their educational conference.

Four awards were given: Louisiana State University - New Orleans received "Chapter of the Year" ; Andrea Losch (Indiana University) and Jackie Coloe (Ohio State) each received an award for "Outstanding Service"; and Matt Molenda received "Leader of the Year."

We concluded this meeting by taking a group photo.