For Residents

Review of 3 Comprehensive Anki Flash Card Decks for Dermatology Residents

Cutis. 2023 July;112(1):E10-E12 | doi:10.12788/cutis.0813

Anki is a web-based application where users may develop, share, and use flashcard decks of a variety of topics including dermatology. There is a wide breadth of information dermatology residents are required to learn during residency training. Flashcards may be useful tools for dermatology residents to master large amounts of information.

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Publicly available Anki flashcard decks may aid dermatology residents in mastering the learning objectives required during training.

References

Lu M, Farhat JH, Beck Dallaghan GL. Enhanced learning and retention of medical knowledge using the mobile flash card application Anki. Med Sci Educ. 2021;31:1975-1981. doi:10.1007/s40670-021-01386-9
Unknown. Dolphin Dermatology. Reddit website. Accessed July 19, 2023. https://www.reddit.com/r/medicalschoolanki/comments/116jbpc/dolphin_derm/
vismo_djib. Review of dermatology Anki. Reddit website. Published June 13, 2020. Accessed June 22, 2023. https://www.reddit.com/r/DermApp/comments/h8gz3d/review_of_dermatology_anki/
Alikhan A, Hocker TLH. Review of Dermatology. Elsevier; 2016.
Bolognia JL, Schaffer JV, Cerroni L. Dermatology. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2017.
Patterson JW. Weedon’s Skin Pathology Essentials. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2016.
Elston D, Ferringer T, Ko CJ, et al. Dermatopathology. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2013.
Soyer HP, Argenziano G, Hofmann-Wellenhof R, et al. Dermoscopy: The Essentials. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2011.
Robinson JK, Hanke CW, Siegel DM, et al. Surgery of the Skin: Procedural Dermatology. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2014.
AnKingMed. Dermki: dermatology residency Anki deck. Reddit website. Published April 8, 2023. Accessed June 22, 2023. https://www.reddit.com/r/medicalschoolanki/comments/12fo9ji/dermki_dermatology_residency_anki_deck/
Dermki deck for Dermatology Residents. Notion website. Accessed July 10, 2023. https://ankingmed.notion.site/Dermki-deck-for-Dermatology-Residents-9e0b8d8abc2a4bf7941903d80e5b01a2
Eleryan M, Friedman A. The Full Spectrum of Dermatology: A Diverse and Inclusive Atlas. Sanovaworks; 2021.

Similar to medical school, residency is a time to drink out of the proverbial firehose of knowledge. Along with clinical duties, there is a plethora of information ranging from clinical management decisions to boards fodder that dermatology residents are expected to know, leaving residents to adopt study habits from medical school. Flash cards remain a popular study tool in the medical education community. The use of Anki, a web-based and mobile flash card application (app) that features custom and premade flash card decks made and shared by users, has become increasingly popular. In a 2021 study, Lu et al¹ found that Anki flash card usage was associated with higher US Medical Licensing Examination scores. Herein, I provide an updated review of the top 3 most comprehensive premade Anki decks for dermatology residents, per my assessment.

COMPREHENSIVE DERMATOLOGY DECKS

Dolphin Dermatology

Creator: Reddit user, Unknown²
Date created: December 2020
Last updated: April 2022
Number of cards: 13,833
Resources covered: Photographs of common dermatologic diagnoses from online sources such as VisualDx (https://www.visualdx.com/) and DermNet (https://dermnetnz.org/).
Format of cards: One image or factoid per card.
Card tags (allow separation of Anki decks into subcategories): Each general dermatology card is tagged by the diagnosis name. Pediatric dermatology cards are tagged by affected body location.
Advantages: As you may glean by the sheer number of flash cards, this deck is a comprehensive review of clinical dermatology. Most cards feature clinical vignettes with clinical photographs of a dermatologic condition or histologic slide and ask what the diagnosis may be. It features photographs of pathology on a range of skin tones and many different images of each diagnosis. This is a great deck for residents who need to study clinical photographs of dermatologic diagnoses.
Disadvantages: This deck does not cover dermatopathology, basic science, treatment options, or pharmacology in depth. Additionally, is difficult to find a link to download this resource.
At the time of publication of this article, users are unable to download this deck.

vismo_djib’s Review of Dermatology Anki

Creator: Reddit user vismo_djib³
Date created: June 2020
Last updated: February 2022
Number of cards: 8454
Resources covered: Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology⁴ is the main resource with supplemental images from VisualDx, Bolognia et al’s Dermatology,⁵ Patterson’s Weedon’s Skin Pathology Essentials,⁶ Elston et al’s Dermatopathology,⁷ Soyer et al’s Dermoscopy: The Essentials,⁸ and Robinson et al’s Surgery of the Skin: Procedural Dermatology.⁹
Format of cards: Cards mostly feature a diagnosis with color-coded categories including epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, histopathology, and treatment.
Card tags (allow separation of Anki decks into subcategories): Cards are tagged with chapter numbers from Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology.⁴
Advantages: This impressive comprehensive review of dermatology is a great option for residents studying for the American Board of Dermatology CORE examinations and users looking to solidify the information in Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology,⁴ a frequently used resource among dermatology residents. It currently is my favorite deck because it features holistic information on diagnosis, epidemiology, pathogenesis, histopathology, and treatment with excellent clinical photographs.
Disadvantages: For some purposes, this deck may be too lofty. For maximum benefit, it may require user customization including separating cards by tag and other add-ons that allow only 1 card per note, which will separate the information on each card into smaller increments. The mostly free-response format and lengthy slides may make it difficult to practice recall.

AnKingMed Dermki

Creator: Reddit user AnKingMed^10,11
Date created: April 2023
Last updated: This deck features a dynamic add-on and collaboration application called AnkiHub, which allows for real-time updates. At the time this article was written, the deck was last updated on June 19, 2023.
Number of cards: 7889
Resources covered: Currently 75% of Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology⁴ with supplemental images from DermNet and Eleryan and Friedman’s The Full Spectrum of Dermatology: A Diverse and Inclusive Atlas.¹²
Format of cards: Cards are in a fill-in-the-blank format.
Card tags (allow separation of Anki decks into subcategories): Cards are tagged by chapter number and subsection of Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology.⁴
Advantages: As the newest contribution to the dermatology Anki card compendium, this deck is up to date, innovative, and dynamic. It features an optional add-on application—AnkiHub—which allows users to keep up with live updates and collaborations. The deck features a fill-in-the-blank format that may be preferred to a free-response format for information recall. It features Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology,⁴ which is a high-yield review of clinical dermatology, dermatopathology, surgical dermatology, pharmacology, and histopathology for dermatology residents.
Disadvantages: The deck is still currently in a development phase, covering 75% of Alikhan and Hocker’s Review of Dermatology⁴ with plans to add the remaining 25%. The add-on to access the most up-to-date version of the flashcards requires a paid monthly or annual subscription; however, the creator announced they will release periodic free updates of the deck.

Final Thoughts

As a collaborative platform, new flash card decks are always being added to Anki. This article is not comprehensive of all dermatologic flash card decks available. There are decks better suited for medical students covering topics such as the American Academy of Dermatology Basic Dermatology Curriculum, UWorld United States Medical Licensing Examination dermatology, and dermatology in internal medicine. Furthermore, specific study tools in dermatology may have their own accompanying Anki decks (ie, The Grenz Zone podcast, Dermnemonics). Flash cards can be a valuable study tool to trainees in medicine, and residents are immensely grateful to our peers who make them for our use.

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