The above headline isn't supposed to be dismissive, but some recent news scares the fiend right out of me in terms of oh I dunno, the state of the world today and where it's headed I suppose? Last year, a friend of mine who is in med school told me that the absolute most competitive field for aspiring doctors was in dermatology, for the simple fact that doctors practicing Botox and face lifts make tons more money and avoid those grueling hours and depressing people suffering from real diseases. I was shocked by this news (well, not totally shocked), and this article, just penned by my favorite beauty reporter and trusted colleague Natasha Singer, confirmed my pal's assertion. Indeed, med students are scrambling to make it into highly competitive dermatology residencies, and the numbers are there to prove it.

Now, what this means is that our best and brightest medical students are eschewing important, potentially life-altering (not to mention life-saving) research and practice in order to cater to the folks so rich and so vain that they have nothing better to focus on than preserving their looks. Does this make anyone else nervous? What does this say about our priorities in an age where we are not only dealing with millions of uninsured American individuals and families, but also continuing plagues such as cancer, AIDS and HPV, in addition to environmental concerns and oh God...feel free to call me the hypocrite that I am, but I'm truly interested in having this discussion and thinking about it from all sides. Thoughts?