Victoria P. Werth, MD, FAAD
Chief, Dermatology, Philadelphia V.A. Hospital
Professor of Dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Professor of Dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Veteran's Administration Medical Center
Division Of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania Health System
Dr. Werth is a Professor of Dermatology and Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Chief of the Division of Dermatology at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital. Dr. Werth earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and dermatology residency and immunodermatology fellowship at New York University School of Medicine in New York, funded by the NIH and Dermatology Foundation. She joined the faculty at Penn in 1989 and has developed an internationally recognized program in autoimmune skin diseases.
She is a co-founder of the Rheumatologic Dermatology Society and previous president of the group. She is co-founder of the Medical Dermatology Society, and a recipient of their lifetime achievement award. She initiated the combined internal medicine/dermatology residency program in the U.S., which has successfully trained prominent leaders in complex medical dermatology. She has a longstanding interest in clinical and translational research pertaining to autoimmune skin diseases, including cutaneous lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, and autoimmune blistering diseases, with a focus on improving the outcomes of autoimmune dermatologic diseases. She has developed and validated disease severity tools now used in many international trials for these diseases, with a goal to advancing evidence for current and new therapeutics. Her laboratory studies include studies in cutaneous lupus and dermatomyositis that relate to pathogenesis and heterogeneity of response to treatment, and ultraviolet light effects on skin. Recent clinical studies have examined mechanistic effects of therapeutics in CLE, as well as subset-specific expression of cytokine signatures. She has received numerous honors for her work, including the lifetime achievement award from the Medical Dermatology Society, the Rose Hirschler Award from the Women’s Dermatologic Society, and the American Skin Association’s Research Achievement Award in Autoimmune & Inflammatory Skin Disorders, and the Lifetime Career Educator Award, Dermatology Foundation. Her work has been funded by the Dermatology Foundation, NIH, DOD, the Veterans Administration, the Lupus Research Alliance, the Lupus Foundation of America, the Myositis Association, the International Pemphigus and Pemphigoid Foundation, CARRA, and industry.