A Survey to Assess Perceived Differences in Referral Pathways to Board-Certified Pediatric Dermatologists

This study surveyed all U.S. board-certified pediatric dermatologists to determine referral pathways to the specialty; we obtained a 48% (108/226) response rate. Significantly higher self-referral rates were found in private practice than in academic settings, and higher referral rates from specialist and generalist physicians were observed in academic practice. The substantial differences found in this preliminary study indicate that triage inefficiency may be occurring, and further study to investigate the causes for referral differences and their effect on clinical outcomes is needed.