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Why Representation in Dermatology Education #MedEd matters to me, someone with #DarkSkin, in an 8 tweet thread:
~ 4 months ago, I went in to Student Health for a lesion I had for 3 months that wasn& #39;t going away, bled sometimes, and was starting to concern me.
~ 4 months ago, I went in to Student Health for a lesion I had for 3 months that wasn& #39;t going away, bled sometimes, and was starting to concern me.
I met with a white, male family doctor who took one 15-second look at it and said I could probably find a suitable treatment at drug stores or an aesthetician. He said he couldn& #39;t help me. He didn& #39;t tell me any alternatives, when to come back, or seem to acknowledge my skin tone.
Flash forward to now, 4 months later, I still had the lesion, it still bled sometimes, and I was still concerned. Now we are in the era of #COVID19 so I could not go in person to Student Health.
I met with a different family physician over the phone, told her the now updated timeline of my lesion, and sent her photos. She acknowledged my concern and my skin tone (which is *always* relevant in derm!). She sent the photos in to dermatology for an e-consult.
They got back swiftly (within an hour #Telemedicine)! They let her know it ~seemed~ like a keloid scar and she prescribed me topical corticosteroids and said when things normalize, I might need injected steroids or to come back in so they could investigate further.
4 months ago I felt dismissed and now I& #39;m closer to getting answers. I can& #39;t help but wonder if this is a combo of the complexity of derm presentations in primary care that was ALSO exacerbated by the fact that my scar looked different, perhaps less concerning on my darker skin.
I am a medical student, I knew to go back and advocate for myself for something that was very abnormal for me. Not to settle for a non-diagnosis made *confidently* by someone I felt did not understand me as a patient. Not all patients would go back and do the same.
As we learn in our derm unit, I continue to see lesions only shown on white skin. It continues to be brought up across medical schools. I know work is being done by my peers to improve this. #RepresentationMatters - I hope we remember this whenever we see lesions on dark skin.
