Dermatology images database including diverse skin types in its beta version

An online database of skin conditions featuring images of people of all skin tones is set to officially launch later this year. The database is intended as a resource for medical students and practicing clinicians, who can also submit images.“Our hope is that skinimages.ca will become like a DermNet or some sort of educational website resource that encompasses all skin types,” said the project’s medical lead Dr. Yvette Miller-Monthrope, who is a dermatologist and dermatopathologist. She was delivering a presentation at the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario’s annual symposium in late February.Skinimages.ca, currently in its beta version, was “established to raise the standard of care for patients of all skin types,” according to the website. It is supported by an ad hoc committee called DiTiDE, whose stated mission is to “improve the patient experience and outcomes of under-represented skin types in Canadian dermatology, through physician education, resources, and industry support.”During her presentation, Dr. Miller-Monthrope noted that a study from 2021 found that skin of colour is underrepresented in main dermatology textbooks used in residency programs around the world. The highest percentage of images of people with racialized skin in any one textbook was 18%. Over the past decade, representation has improved somewhat when it comes to images of skin conditions in dermatology resources, Dr. Miller-Monthrope noted. For example, there are now several textbooks dedicated to skin of colour. However, these textbooks are emblematic of how diverse skin types have been relegated to the sidelines.“These [images] are not part of our main textbooks. They should be. Why are they othered into a separate category?” she said.For now, the website features only clinical images, but pathology images will eventually be added, Dr. Miller-Monthrope told the Medical Post.“Without pathology . . . it’s very hard to do clinical dermatology and vice versa,” she said. “So the website is not only going to look at people across all skin tones—it’s also going to look at skin disease from a cellular level as well as a macro level.”Knowledge gap in caring for patients of colourThere are only a handful of Black dermatologists working in Canada, and all of them, said Dr. Miller-Monthrope during her presentation, including herself, regularly see referrals like this: “Please see this 37-year-old Black woman for multiple skin issues. She prefers to see a Black dermatologist who will understand her skin.”“We have to ask the question: Why would a patient feel the need to request a dermatologist with the same ethnic background or make such a statement? This is a problem,” Dr. Miller-Monthrope said.

Dermatology images database including diverse skin types in its beta version

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