Future of Dermatology / Efficient Practice

Context

Dermatologists face a growing mismatch between demand for care and available time. Administrative burden, inefficient workflows, and follow-up visits that could be organised differently reduce time for patients with genuine medical needs. This Working Group focused on practical, immediately applicable solutions to improve efficiency without compromising quality or safety.

Key outcomes

→ Development of a practice-ready framework to increase time spent on specialised patient care.

→ Identification of opportunities for task delegation, including expanded roles for trained nursing staff.

→ Practical guidance on agenda management, triage, and workflow redesign (For example: allergy tests, surgery, standard skin checks, ... can be grouped within specific timeslots.).

→ Promotion of tele-expertise (Pilot tests showed that 90% of cases where a GP teleconsulted a dermatologist, no visit to a dermatologist was needed) and collaboration with general practitioners (GPs) (eg. train GPs from your region on most common dermatological conditions, work with standard referral letters, ...).

→ Creation of standardised follow-up schedules for systemic treatments, based on evidence-based guidelines.

→ Solutions designed to be also feasible for solo (73% of FTE dermatologists, 2024) and small group practices.