About the Author
Dr. Steven R. Feldman is a professor of dermatology, pathology, and public health sciences at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was born in Washington, DC, and attended grade school at the Hebrew Academy of Washington, a school that his grandfather helped to found. His family was active in the orthodox Beth Shalom Synagogue where Feldman attended services and had his bar mitzvah.
Feldman received his bachelor’s degree with a focus in chemistry at the University of Chicago. He received his MD and PhD degrees from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 1985, following which he completed his dermatology residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his dermatopathology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston. Since 1991, he has been on the faculty at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Dr. Feldman directs the Center for Dermatology Research, a health services research center whose mission is to improve the care of patients with skin disease. Dr. Feldman’s chief clinical interest is psoriasis. His passion is to help guide how patients with psoriasis are treated. He served two terms as a member of the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation, chaired that board’s subcommittee on education, and served as the director of the foundation’s chief residents’ meeting on psoriasis treatment from 2000 to 2005. He also served as chair of the American Academy of Dermatology’s Psoriasis Education Initiative Workgroup, developing regional courses on emerging psoriasis therapies. Dr. Feldman was director of the psoriasis symposium at the 2005 and 2006 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meetings and is a frequent speaker to lay groups, physicians, industry professionals, and managed care executives. He received a Presidential Citation from the American Academy of Dermatology in 2005 for his psoriasis education efforts and received one of the AAD’s highest awards, the Clarence S. Livingood Lecturership, at the 2006 AAD meeting.
Dr. Feldman has made significant contributions to understanding dermatologic health care delivery. His research team has focused on demonstrating the quality of medical dermatology services provided by dermatologists; defining the role of dermatologists in performing dermatopathology; assessing cost effectiveness of dermatologic treatments; and, most importantly, understanding the effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of outpatient dermatologic surgery. His research group has also published seminal studies on the dermatology workforce, the quality of life impact of psoriasis, and the reinforcing effects of UV exposure in frequent tanners. The work on tanning was covered extensively by major news media; Diane Sawyer interviewed Dr. Feldman concerning the implications of his tanning research on Good Morning America. Dr. Feldman’s research studies into patients’ compliance with their topical treatments helped transform how dermatologists understand and manipulate patients’ use of topical medications over the course of chronic disease. Dr. Feldman was awarded the Astellas Award (and its $30,000 prize) by the American Academy of Dermatology in 2008 for scientific research that improved public health in the field of dermatology.
Dr. Feldman founded the Medical Quality Enhancement Corporation and its www.DrScore.com Web site. The site is designed to help patients give doctors feedback so that doctors can enhance the quality of care they offer.
Dr. Feldman’s work has been published in over 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including top-flight dermatology and managed care journals. He has been a primary investigator or co-investigator on numerous industries, foundation, or federally funded research grants. Dr. Feldman has given over 600 invited lectures to dermatology groups and organizations. Since 1993, he has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. He also serves as an editor of the Journal of Dermatological Treatment, on the editorial board of the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery (the official publication of the Canadian Dermatology Association), the Southern Medical Journal, and Dermatology Online Journal, and as chief medical editor of Skin & Aging.