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Dr. Joel M. Gelfand is assistant professor of dermatology; associate scholar, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics; associate fellow, Center for Public Health Initiatives; medical director of the Clinical Studies Unit in the Department of Dermatology; and a member of the Cancer Center and Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, all at Penn Medicine.

Dr. Gelfand is a board certified dermatologist whose clinical work focuses on general dermatology and psoriasis. His research focuses on clinical trials and epidemiology. His clinical trials research is aimed at improving trial efficiency through the development and validation of surrogate endpoints and the use of efficient statistical designs. He has designed and conducted clinical trials to evaluate novel therapies for psoriasis, hidradenitis, and cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Dr. Gelfand's epidemiologic research focuses on the natural history of diseases associated with psoriasis. He has published extensively on the epidemiology of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, the impact of psoriasis on health related quality of life, and the risk of various co-morbidities such as obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, lymphoma, and myocardial infarction associated with psoriasis.

Dr. Gelfand is the author of over 60 research articles, reviews, and text book chapters and is an associate editor for pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, and continuing education editor, e-medicine, dermatology section. He is also an ad hoc editor for over 10 peer reviewed medical journals. Dr. Gelfand received his undergraduate training at Tufts University, (BS, Biology, Summa Cum Laude), and his medical degree from Harvard (Magna Cum Laude). He performed an internship in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and completed his residency in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a masters of science in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania as well.

Dr. Gelfand's research and career are supported by grants from the National Institute for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases, the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute, the American Skin Association, and the Dermatology Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology and the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology.