JMIR Dermatology

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Skin cancer rates are at all-time highs, but the shortage of dermatologists compels patients to seek medical advice from general practitioners. A new referral pathway called the Suspected Skin Cancer (SSC) service was established to provide general practitioners in Waikato, New Zealand, with rapid diagnosis and treatment advice for lesions suspicious for skin cancer.

In-hospital dermatological care has shifted from dedicated dermatology wards to consultation services, and some consulted patients may require postdischarge follow-up in outpatient dermatology. Safe and timely care transitions from inpatient-to-outpatient specialty care are critical for patient health, but communication around these transitions can be disjointed, and workflows can be complex.

The role of teledermatology for skin lesion assessment has been a recent development, particularly, since the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ability to assess patients in person. The growing number of studies relating to this area reflects the evolving interest.

Consensus guidelines and recommendations play an important role in fostering quality, safety, and best practices, as they represent an expert interpretation of the biomedical literature and its application to practice. However, it is unclear whether the recent collective experience of implementing telemedicine and the concurrent growth in the evidence base for teledermatology have resulted in more robust guidance.

Gender disparities exist across all facets of academic medicine including within the editorial boards of dermatology journals. Only 22% of these editorial boards comprised women, even though 51% of full-time, faculty dermatologists are female. When inviting academic dermatologists to our editorial board at JMIR Dermatology, we invited 50% women to represent the gender distribution of academic dermatologists; however, we have not sufficiently reached gender equity among accepted editorial board members. We will continue to strive toward the goal of gender equity on our editorial board and invite other dermatology journals to do the same.

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Social media has rapidly become one of the main avenues for news and communication among those with access to technology. Nearly 60% or 4.7 billion people worldwide use social media. Different social media networks provide users with a barrage of posts, opinions, and transformations. With this noticeable uptick in physician and patient education usage of social media, exploration of the impacts of social media on patient education in dermatology is crucial.