[Dermatology in current medicine]

Dermatology evolved in the second part of the last century as a branch of internal medicine and was for many years confined to morphologic descriptions. Skin diseases are common and vary enormously in severity. Although most of the conditions are not life threatening, many of them are debilitating due to functional loss, pain and itch, and the social problems they cause. Skin diseases are a major public health problem in developing countries. After the second world war there has been an explosion both in the amount of scientific knowledge and with regard to the treatment of dermatoses, many of which can now be managed adequately. The dermatologist is also involved in prevention of skin diseases, as e.g. contact dermatitis and malignant tumors of the skin. Increasing specialisation within dermatology has become more common with the expansion of expertise in dermatopathology, photodermatology, contact dermatology, dermatological surgery, dermatologic pediatrics, phlebology. There are too many dermatologists in our country. If an increasing role in caring for minor skin diseases would be assigned to the generalist, the government he will have to decide how contraction of dermatology manpower would occur and how the dermatology training of the generalist should be improved.