A closer look at the role of the dermatologist in championing total women’s health through the dermatology gateway

New data collected by the Women’s Dermatologic Society (WDS) through a membership survey conducted in August 2018 reflect the key role of the dermatologist in championing the overall health of the total woman through the dermatology gateway. These meaningful results provide a first-ever metric glimpse into the myriad systemic/internal diseases, disorders, and conditions that WDS dermatologists detect and diagnose in female dermatology patients and the wide scope of our collaborations with other physician specialists to manage complex, underlying medical conditions. Insightful perspectives from medical and health experts outside of dermatology address the importance of teamwork, reaffirm the unique role that dermatologists play on the medical team, and underscore the vital importance of our proclivity toward collaboration, the latter of which is shown to be significant according to the WDS data. Given an apparent general lack of awareness about the role of the dermatologist in the health journey of the total woman, we have an important opportunity to advance this broadened perspective among our colleagues in and outside of dermatology, our patients, the media, and the public at-large. By raising awareness, we can elevate our specialty in the medical profession and in the public eye, increase the likelihood that people will consult a dermatologist (proactively and reactively), inspire mutual referrals and greater cross-specialty teamwork and communications to benefit patients, and positively affect public health.