Visual Learning Equity Initiative Enhances Preclinical Dermatologic Image Representation: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Despite growing diversity in the United States population, studies show that medical education lacks representation of conditions in darker skin tones. Given that medical conditions present differently in different skin tones, limited exposure to images of darker tones in medical training may contribute to incorrect or delayed diagnoses, perpetuating health inequities. This study examines the preclinical curriculum at the Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUSOM) to report on its image representation with respect to skin tone and to assess the impact of a student-driven initiative in achieving visual learning equity (VLE). Of 1050 preclinical images, 58.2% depicted conditions in light/white skin tones, 31.3% in medium/brown, and 10.5% in dark/black. The microbiology and pathology courses had the highest percentages of dark/black and medium/brown images. Infectious disease images made up 36.3% of all images with 54.6% light/white, 31.5% medium/brown, and 13.9% dark/black. Overall, the first images representing conditions were 63.5% light/white, 30.0% medium/brown, and 6.6% dark/black. When dark/black images were presented first, 64.3% were of infectious diseases, compared to 35.1% for medium/brown and only 28.4% for white/light first images that were infectious diseases. A significant increase in images of conditions in darker skin tones was observed in the IRD course 2022 compared to the IRD course 2020 (P<.001). Our study highlights an underrepresentation of darker skin tones compared to lighter skin tones in the GUSOM preclinical curriculum. A student-led initiative significantly increased the representation of darker skin tones in dermatologic images, demonstrating the potential impact of such efforts in achieving VLE in medical education.J Drugs Dermatol. 2024;23(7):519-524.  doi:10.36849/JDD.7992.

TikTok and Black Skin: Is This a Missed Opportunity for Dermatologists?

BACKGROUND: A study by Villa-Ruiz et al (2021) found that educational videos dominate the content of dermatologic videos on TikTok with 25.8% of the videos being posted by board-certified dermatologists. We sought to examine if these results would differ when the search is adjusted to hashtags specific to black skin.  Methods: On October 12th, 2021, an investigator input #BlackSkinCare, #BlackSkinTreatment, #BlackSkinAdvice, and #BlackSkinCareTips in TikTok. #SkinOfColor was not searched as this term is used almost exclusively by dermatologists and could skew the results. After the total of 200 videos was obtained, the videos were then classified into categories regarding their content, and the skin concern and creator were recorded. RESULTS: Most of the videos were of educational content (57.1%), followed by personal experiences (23.2%). Clinical demonstrations/live procedures, business/advertisement, and entertainment/humor followed with 9.6%, 5.6%, and 4.5%, respectively. 54.5% of posts were about general skin care. 22.7% of posts addressed dark spots followed by acne (12.1%). Ingrown hair/razor bumps and skin texture/open pores followed, both with 3.5% each. 54% of videos were posted by vloggers or personal accounts. Board-certified dermatologists followed with 18.7% of the videos posted. Estheticians accounted for 16.2% and, lastly, business/industry comprised 8.6% of the videos analyzed. CONCLUSIONS: When searching black skin, TikTok posts are mostly educational and were less likely to have been created by a board-certified dermatologist. The top skin concern specified was dark spots. These findings suggest that there is an opportunity for dermatologists to increase educational content relating to black skin on TikTok. Campbell JR, Woolery-Lloyd H, Williams K. TikTok and black skin: is this a missed opportunity for dermatologists? J Drugs Dermatol. 2023;22(7):698-700. doi:10.36849/JDD.7061.