Forum for Nordic Dermato-Venereology Nr2,2017 | Page 5
Special Report
Dermatology Mondays: On a Global Scale
O mid Z argari 1 , D avid J. E lpern 2
and
G regor B.E. J emec 3
Dana Clinic, Rasht, Iran, The Skin Clinic, Williamstown, MA, USA, and 3 Department of
Dermatology, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde; Health Sciences Faculty, University of
Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected]
1
2
“That’s when I first learned that it wasn’t enough to just do your job, you had to
have an interest in it, even a passion for it.” – Charles Bukowski
Each Monday, as physicians, we start our “working week”. If
one happens to live in Iran, the week begins on a Saturday. The
actual day does not matter; the job we do is linked to humanity
not chronology. The practice of dermatology may also vary in different parts
of the world, depending on the circumstances our patients’
experiences, the environment, the genetics, the vagaries of the
healthcare systems, or any of number of other factors. Thus,
while we may think we are bound together by our specialty we
We examine our patients’ lesions and occasionally palpate their
skin; but first we listen to their stories. Based on our years of
study and training, we seek information from what we hear and
see. Sometimes we perform tests, but most of the information
comes from the clinical examination. We contemplate, explain,
counsel and recommend. Our job is to try to help all comers;
and eventually we become part of their stories. may all in fact be doing different things. We may be as different
as our patients.
As a consequence of continuous changes in medicine, the
practice of dermatology in the future is certain to be different
from that of today. However, the lesions and the stories will
remain the same. They are what drive the patients to seek our
help, as has always been the case.
We therefore decided to do something simple: we asked a group
of colleagues who work in different parts of the world to collect
the first 10 cases on a given Monday in their practices in order to
gauge the dimensions of dermatology as it is practiced routinely.
Not as big data, or formal epidemiological studies, but as the
personal encounters that constitute the work we do. This gave
us a “snapshot in time” of global dermatology.
Twelve colleagues from 12 countries participated (Fig. 1). The
youngest was 36 years old and the oldest 73 years old, with a
Fig. 1. Participating countries.
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