Our Department has made many important contributions to patient care, education, and research over more than a century.
Historic Milestones
1891
A Clinic for Skin and Venereal Disease was created in the Out-Patient Department of the Hospital.
1893
Sigmund Lustgarten was appointed Consulting Dermatologist for the patients on the hospital wards.
1910
Sigmund Lustgarten was the first to give Salvarsan as a treatment for syphilis in the United States.
1911
On Lustgarten’s death, Hermann Goldenberg became the Chief of Service.
1914
Hermann Goldenberg received original allotment of Salvarsan before the drug was released for general use and in treatment of early syphilis.
1920
Walter J. Highman establishes the first dermatopathology section in 1920.
1921
Highman authors the textbook Dermatology, one of the first of its kind.
1929
When Goldenberg retired, Walter Highman and Isidore Rosen became Attendings in Dermatology.
1932
Samuel Peck describes the use of moccasin snake venom for the treatment of bleeding symptoms.
1934
Isidore Rosen organizes the first clinic in America for the systematic treatment of congenital syphilis.
1935
Chargin, Hyman, and Leifer describe a five day treatment for syphilis using large amounts of arsenicals. Other early major dermatologic discoveries at Mount Sinai include the description by Henry Koplik in 1896 of Koplik spots. Jacob Churg and Lotte Strauss described allergic granulomatosis (Churg-Strauss disease) and Louis Silzbach descibed the intradermal testing and skin biopsy for the daignosis of sarcoidosis.
1938
Peck was the first to show data on the use of undecylenic acid, the first available antifungal agent.
1946
On Rosen’s retirement, Peck became the Director of Dermatology, a post he held until 1971.
1947
Peck authors the book Occupation Diseases of the Skin with Louis Schwartz and Louis Tulipan.
1968
Orlando Canizares authors the first of several volumes of Clinical Tropical Dermatology, which became a classic.
1971
On Peck’s retirement, Arthur W. Glick was named Acting Chairman, a position he held for 4 years. Glick published several papers on industrial dermatoses and expanded the dermatologic surgery clinic.
1975
Harry Shatin became the first full-time Chairman of the Department. He integrated the residency programs at Mount Sinai, Elmhurst Hospital, and The Bronx Veterans Hospital.
1979
Raul Fleischmajer was appointed Chairman of the Department. He was the first to measure collagen in a quantitative measure in the skin. He was the first to designate scleroderma a disease of inflammatory origin.
1982
Mark Lebwohl is the first to report cardiac complications in pseudoxanthoma elasticum. He went on to describe new techniques of diagnosing PXE and in elucidating its pathophysiology and helped identify its genetic defect.
1984
Fleischmajer and Altchek describe the ultrastructure and composition of connective tissue in lipoid proteinosis.
1985
Susan Bershad was the first to describe hypertriglyceridemia and isotretinoin.
1995
Mark Lebwohl publishes Atlas of the Skin and Systemic Disease, the first atlas devoted to cutaneous manifestations of systemic disease.
1995
Mark Lebwohl becomes Chairman of the Department. Lebwohl goes on to become an international authority in psoriasis, leading groundbreaking clinical trials in widely used and innovative biologic psoriasis treatments.
1998
Huachen Wei was a pioneer in the use of genistein for the prevention of chemical and ultraviolet light-induced squamous cell carcinoma in 1998.
2001
Mount Sinai researchers describe the use of the TNF-blocker infliximab to treat pyoderma gangrenosum and psoriasis.
2002
Mount Sinai researchers describe the use of the topical immunomodulator imiquimod to treat actinic keratosis. This heralds the use immunostimulatory agents to treat cancerous and precancerous skin lesions.
2003
Mount Sinai researchers describe the use of topical calcineurin inhibitors to treat facial and intertriginous psoriasis.
2012
Dr. Guttman develops the mollecular immune maps of atopic dermatitis (eczema)
2014
Mark Lebwohl elected President of American Academy of Dermatology 2015-16.
2014
Dr. Guttman published the first study suggesting that atopic dermatitis (eczema) is an immune disease, driven by Th2 T-cells, opening the door for the therapeutic development for eczema
2015
Mount Sinai merges with Continuum Hospital. The Department of Dermatology becomes one of the largest dermatology departments in the country.
2015
Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman endow the department. It becomes the Kimberly & Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology.
2017
Approval of the first biologic for eczema patients
2018
New studies are initiated at Mount Sinai for alopecia areata and scarring alopecia, including with biologic treatments, that are changing the therapeutic landscape of hair loss diseases.
2021
Dr Guttman becomes the system chair at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the first female chair of a dermatology department in NYC
1893
Sigmund Lustgarten was appointed Consulting Dermatologist for the patients on the hospital wards.
1891
A Clinic for Skin and Venereal Disease was created in the Out-Patient Department of the Hospital.