PATIENTS & PUBLIC
Join clinical experts, thought leaders, and advocates for a collaborative discussion on the issues of health disparities, structural racism, and medicine as we examine specific dermatologic diseases in a series of four free and open educational webinars.
Register now for one event or all four!
Did you know that the membership of the Skin of Color Society hails from 41 states in the US and 32 countries around the world? Since the organization was founded in 2004 by Dr. Susan C. Taylor, the Society has been growing steadily on a global scale, now with nearly 800 members representing different membership categories, including:
It is important to note, as we are occasionally asked about this: it is not necessary to be an individual with skin of color in order to be a member of the Skin of Color Society! As an organization dedicated to promoting excellence in skin of color dermatology in service to patients of color, the Society welcomes all races and ethnicities of qualified professionals in the eligible categories outlined above who have a special interest and/or training in this field.
We are proud of the diversity of our professional membership, which represents a cross-section of the specialty—spanning academia, private practice in all aspects of the field, including medical, surgical and cosmetic dermatology, as well as scientific and clinical research.
As our membership around the world continues to grow, we greatly value learning about all of our members and staying connected with one another—particularly in this new era of distancing imposed by the pandemic. To this end, we invite our SOCS members to introduce yourselves to our membership by answering a few short questions, which we can share on our social media platforms through a SOCS Member Spotlight. If you would like to participate in a social media feature, please contact
We look forward to hearing from you!
The worldwide spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a serious public health concern. The Skin of Color Society (SOCS) is working to mitigate the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and inform our members of the most current recommendations for addressing changes to their practices.
The SOCS COVID-19 Resources page is an active living page with a compilation of industry communications, related links, podcasts about practice management guidance, support ideas for your patients and recommendations from CDC, WHO, AAD, ILDS and the AMA. This page will be updated daily to serve as your hub for anything related to COVID-19 and dermatology practices.
Skin of Color Society
Listen to SOCS President in the MDedge Dermatology Weekly Podcast
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With content in six languages, the app delivers mobile access to a wealth of COVID-19 knowledge resources developed by WHO, including up-to-the-minute guidance, tools, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for patients infected by COVID-19 and protect themselves as they do their critical work. You can download and share the app from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)
International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS)
American Heart Association (AHA)
American Medical Association (AMA)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
World Health Organization (WHO)
MDedge: Cutis Audiocasts
American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)
American Heart Association (AHA)
International Master Course on Aging Science (IMCAS)
IMCAS Academy is offering 1-month free premium membership. To unlock this offer, follow these steps:
Journal of Drugs in Dermatology (JDD)
NIDI Skin
Skin of Color Update
World Health Organization (WHO)
JAMA Network
American Medical Association (AMA)
Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)
Federal Student Aid: Loans
We are committed to delivering on the mission of the SOCS despite these challenges. Donations to SOCS are always welcome. Please show your support and make a donation today. 
Did you know that currently, an estimated 3.5 billion people around the world use social media on a daily basis?!
That’s approximately 45% of the global population! Are you one of them? Would you consider yourself a social media devotee or a dabbler? Or, is it your natural reflex to just pick up your phone to place a call to share your news, rather than posting on social media? Wherever you may fall on the social media continuum, we would like to hear from you and let our community know more about you, especially as SOCS continues to expand globally. Ideally, we’d like our own social media footprint to expand as we do, and we’re very interested in featuring member-centric content to enliven our Skin of Color Society social media platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Sharing member stories and images will help SOCS members from around the world (now in 31 countries) become better acquainted, share interesting content and stay connected.
To this end, our Skin of Color Society Technology and Media Committee co-chairs, Dr Dhaval Bhanusali (@drbhanusali) and Laura Scott (@laurascottandco) invite all members to provide a photo (clinical or outside of clinic, whichever you prefer), as well as short answers to the following questions:
This material would be incorporated into future social media content on the SOCS platforms. If you’re active on social media, we’ll tag you so that you can share with your audiences, too. We’ve created a OneDrive folder where you can upload your responses and photos, by using this link: https://bit.ly/2TsrlOR.
In addition to member profiles that would include a photo and your answers to the three questions above, we’d also like to introduce more member-focused, short-form, and self-made video on our social media platforms. Do you have an activity, project or cause that you’d like to tell us about? Or a point of view on a topic of interest to the skin of color dermatology community? Or, some important news or insights to share that would be useful for others to know about? We encourage you to use your smartphone to film yourself (no longer than one minute is recommended). For those of you who are experienced in creating video messages for social media, please share your best practices with us, and we may publish them in future blogs. If you decide to create a video message, you can also upload it to the OneDrive folder noted above.
The bottom line is: SOCS members, we want to hear from you and share your content with our fast-growing organization!
If you have not done so already, please connect with us on social media to keep abreast of all the exciting, beneficial programs and activities coming up this year:
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Dear SOCS Members,
Are you drawn to the idea of volunteering overseas?
Would you be interested in teaching opportunities for one to four weeks in an underserved part of the world?
Giving back to the world makes a true difference and can remind us of why we chose to go into medicine.
Interestingly, doctors who volunteer report less physician burnout and gain tremendous rewards by experiencing different cultures while appreciating the difference in the practice of medicine around the world.
As shared with the SOCS membership previously, we are considering a collaboration with Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO), a non-profit organization founded in 1986, whose mission is to improve the availability and quality of health care through the education, training and professional development of the health workforce in resource-scarce countries.
HVO sends qualified professionals overseas to train local health care providers in dermatology and a number of other medical specialties such as: anesthesia, hand surgery, hematology, internal medicine, nursing education, oral health, orthopedics, oncology, pediatrics, physical therapy, and wound care. HVO’s highly skilled and experienced volunteers come from both private practice and university settings, with a significant number of retirees as well.
Many SOCS members have actively volunteered previously, yet some may find that now that they’re busy with their practices, institutions, families and communities, and there may not be time for longer volunteer stints. So, making a shorter commitment through an organization such as HVO may be more workable for some individuals. Many HVO sites around the world allow families to come, and if your spouse is in medicine, there may be an opportunity for him/her to volunteer as well, depending on the specialty.
Since SOCS has members in 29 countries, if a SOCS member would like to consider their home country as an HVO site, we can explore that possibility as we look at working out a program with this organization.
For more information about HVO, you may visit: hvousa.org.
We are very interested to know your opinion about this collaborative opportunity.
If you have not done so already, please take a few minutes to take a short survey to let us know what you think: https://bit.ly/2lCoyDy
Thank you very much for sharing your opinion with us!
