General practice doctors in the US may be ill-equipped to diagnose or treat basic skin conditions because medical schools include little dermatology training in the general curriculum, a survey suggests.

Based on queries to 137 accredited medical schools, researchers found that most didn’t offer dedicated dermatology courses or require their students to take clinical rotations in dermatology, according to a report in JAMA Dermatology.

Of the 135 schools that responded to the survey, just 12% had a course dedicated solely to dermatology in their two-year preclinical curricula, while 36% included dermatology lessons as part of other coursework.

Only 1% had a required third-year clinical rotation in dermatology, lasting 1-4 weeks. Many more, 62%, had an elective dermatology rotation in the third year.