Teaching diverse dermatology: Joe wyer’s experience

Joe is a final year medical student at the University of Birmingham and SFAA ambassador. With a keen interest in Dermatology Joe recently carried out a Dermatology revision session for his fellow final year students in time for the MLA (medical licensing exams). Here are his thoughts about teaching diverse dermatology to fellow medical students…

“Recently, I had the opportunity to  deliver a dermatology revision session to fourth year medical students. I took this as an excellent opportunity to reinforce Skin For All’s key message of diversity and inclusion in medicine.

Dermatology is a speciality where diversity education is particularly crucial, given the significant variations in how conditions present across different skin tones. For example, many dermatological conditions will manifest with erythema on lighter skin. However, in darker skin tones, erythema can be more challenging to detect and therefore the presentation will appear vastly different.

When creating this session, I aimed to ensure students were familiar with dermatological manifestations for skin tones across the Fitzpatrick scale. During my own dermatology rotation at medical school, I noticed many resources predominantly showed conditions on white skin only. Skin For All’s resources gave me the base of knowledge I needed to present each condition across the spectrum of skin colour, ensuring my presentation was inclusive for all. 

I was delighted the session was well received. Feedback from students mentioned they ‘loved the inclusivity of different skin tones’, reflecting a shared enthusiasm for improving representation in dermatology. It is really encouraging to see growing awareness in this field, and I am sure this progress will continue to grow.

As I approach my final months of medical school, I look forward to continuing my work with Naabil and the Skin For All Academy. I am also keen to continue promoting the message of SFA as I begin work as a resident doctor in August.”

- Joe Wyer (MBBS Birmingham 5th Year Student and SFAA Ambassador)

You can access Joe’s educational resource here

DISCLAIMER: This resource is purely for educational purposes and none of the images used has been claimed to be self made- the citations and acknowledgments can be found below. This resource has been created to the best of the tutor’s knowledge, however they accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies. Do not use this resource as clinical advice, you are concerned about a health related problem please contact your doctor for more information.

For more information about Skin For All and its work contact skinforallwebsite@gmail.com