New Orleans -- Pharmacoepidemiology, the study of the use and effect of medications used by large numbers of people, is the basic science that informs public health and individual patient care decisions with respect to the use of medications.

According to Joel M. Gelfand, M.D., M.S.C.E., pharmacoepidemiology has timely significance for dermatologists, given recent national publicity focused on the associations of isotretinoin with suicide and lymphoma with psoriasis.

Dr. Gelfand, assistant professor of dermatology and director of the Clinical Studies Unit at the University of Pennsylvania Health System's department of dermatology, addressed such issues in a seminar on ...