History

The beginnings of the Department of Dermatology may be traced to a clinic for Skin and Venereal Disease founded in 1891 in the Outpatient Department of the Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1893, Dr. Sigismund Lustgarten was appointed to the inpatient side as the Consulting Dermatologist. In 1900, this appointment was changed to Attending Dermatologist, the equivalent of Chief of service.

With the death of Dr. Lustgartern in 1910, Dr. Herman Goldenberg became Attending. At this time, beds were assigned to the service. While Dr. Lustgarten had been the first to try salversan to treat syphilis, Dr. Goldenberg's eminence in the treatment of syphilis was recognized when he became the first to receive an allotment of the drug when it became available for general distribution. As noted later:

In the early part of the twentieth century the skin clinics of The Mount Sinai Hospital were outstanding for their large and interesting material. Dermatologists and other interested physicians from all parts of the country visited the clinics for weeks at a time to see the unusual cases and listen to the illuminating discussions carried on by Dr. Lustgarten, Dr. Goldenberg, and other members of the staff.

—Isadore Rosen, 1939

In 1929, Drs. Walter Highman and Isadore Rosen were named Attending Dermatologists. After Dr. Highman's death, Dr. Rosen continued alone. During these years, a dermato-pathology section was created. Syphilis continued as a major focus of research and treatment on the wards and in the clinics. In 1940, a major breakthrough was announced in an unusual press conference highlighting the discovery of the 5-day drip therapy for syphilis. Patients received 4 g. of neoarsphenamine in 5 days. This was devised by Drs. Louis Chargin, Harold T. Hyman, and William Leifer and radically cut the time and cost of treatment. However, this pioneering treatment was shortly eclipsed by the development of penicillin.

In 1946 Dr. Samuel Peck became Chief. A residency program was created and graduated its first doctor in 1948. Dr. Peck's interests included contact and industrial dermatoses, insect-bite reactions, melanin, and mycology. At Peck's retirement in 1971, Arthur Glick was named Acting Chairman. He authored papers on industrial dermatoses and expanded the dermatologic surgery clinic.

In 1975, Glick retired, and Harry Shatin became the first full-time Chairman of the Department. He emphasized the teaching of residents and providing excellent clinical service. He was himself a noted venerealogist. With the appointment in 1979 of Raul Fleischmajer as Chairman, the Department took on a more prominent interest in research. He was interested in research in collagen vascular disorders, scleroderma, and dyslipidoses. More full-time faculty joined the Department over the Fleischmajer years, and the Division of Dermatopathology was expanded.

The current Chairman is Mark Lebwohl. He has a special interest in the areas of psoriasis and skin cancer. The Department of Dermatology has continued to expand and now includes several divisions. The Division of Dermatopathology is headed by Dr. Robert Phelps and includes Drs. Helen Shim-Chang, and Miriam Birge. The Division of Dermatologic Surgery Chief is Ellen Marmur, and includes our Laser Center, which is directed by Heidi Waldorf. The Division of General Dermatology includes Dr. Marsha Gordon, vice chairman of the Department; and Drs. Helen Shim-Chang, Irwin Kantor, Suhail Hadi, Jacob Levitt, Michael Stotsky and Hanna Kim. Dr. Huachen Wei is head of our Dermatology Research Laboratories.

Residents in our program rotate through our affiliate hospitals including Elmhurst Hospital Center, where the Dermatology Services is run by Drs. Irwin Kantor and Dr. Huachen Wei; Queens Hospital Center, run by Dr. Huachen Wei; and North General Hospital, run by Dr. Donald Rudikoff.