Talking Points

Below are a series of important talking points that will help guide you as you communicate about the campaign with various people, whether they be journalists, policymakers, or your nextdoor neighbour.

About the campaign

  • Skin is our largest organ, but it does not receive enough attention in global healthcare policy, which leads to serious, negative impacts for those who live with skin conditions and diseases.
  • The ‘Not Just My Skin’ Campaign is a global awareness campaign bringing awareness to the significant burdens of skin diseases faced by people living with them along with their families and caregivers.
  • The goal is to encourage people to sign an open letter to health policy leaders worldwide. In this letter we urge policy makers to prioritize the following critical issues: better access to care and timely diagnosis; affordable treatments; and holistic approaches to care, which recognize that the impacts of skin diseases are much deeper than the physical symptoms alone and can affect patients’ mental health.
  • An impact report including the number of signatories will be developed following the campaign and this information will be used in the future as an advocacy tool.

FACTS ABOUT SKIN DISEASES

  • Skin diseases are the world’s third most prevalent cause of illness, and in the top 10 causes of disability.1
  • They are also one of the most common reasons that people seek help from a health worker.2
  • In addition to their physical symptoms and comorbidities3, these diseases are directly or indirectly associated with excess mortality, and often cause substantial stigma, which can even extend to human rights abuses4, along with unsupported psychological and social burdens.5,6,7
  • In many settings, patients are often mis-diagnosed/undiagnosed, experience a poor quality of life,4,5,6 and lack access to appropriate treatments – either because none exist, or they are unaffordable.
  • Although there are many different diseases of the skin,8 contributing to the complexity of achieving accurate diagnosis and correct treatment (particularly in the absence of special knowledge and skills), with the right training and support, local health teams can quite effectively address a high proportion of this burden of skin care.9
  • In 2019, 4.86 billion cases of skin diseases were reported globally.10

You are encouraged to share local examples related to access, affordability, time to diagnosis and psychosocial impacts.

GOAL OF THE CAMPAIGN

  • Policymakers around the world need to address this crucial health issue that touches billions of lives.
  • The ‘Not Just My Skin’ Campaign is asking people to sign an open letter addressed to policymakers.
  • This letter is calling on policymakers to unite together to tackle this issue. The Coalition is seeking:
      • Public Recognition: We urge a public declaration by policymakers through a 2025 World Health Assembly resolution acknowledging the profound impact and burden of skin conditions on individuals’ lives, thereby placing it as a priority on the global and national health agendas.
      • Strategic Action Plan: We seek a comprehensive, transparent strategy to address the burden of skin diseases within healthcare systems. Informed by the dermatology community (including doctors, patients, patient advocates, and researchers), this plan would detail tangible steps toward increasing funding for research on prevention, which is also critical to reducing costs, time to diagnosis and more effective treatment of skin diseases, and strengthening the health workforce worldwide by providing more training to front line healthcare workers ensuring universal health coverage.
      • Collaboration with Experts: We recommend meeting with and involving specialized groups, like the World Skin Health Coalition, and/or national societies, that represent skin patients and dermatologists in your region, in discussions to ensure that policies and healthcare solutions are informed by a wealth of expertise and the lived experiences of patients.

ABOUT THE WORLD SKIN HEALTH COALITION

The World Skin Health Coalition is a patient-led multi-stakeholder collaboration among independent organizations, medical societies, research groups, institutions and companies, dedicated to dermatology patient care. It was established in January 2022 by 20 founding partners and was publicly announced during the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May of that year.

Its mission is to harness its collective power to raise awareness about the global impact of dermatological diseases/conditions and increase their health policy prioritization.

Together, Coalition partners are working to change perceptions about the often-severe impacts of skin diseases and conditions and elevate their prioritization in health policy both at global and national levels. Learn more about the Coalition here.

REFERENCES

  1. Hay RJ, Johns NE, Williams HC, Bolliger IW, Dellavalle RP, Margolis DJ, Marks R, Naldi L, Weinstock MA, Wulf SK, Michaud C, J L Murray C, Naghavi M. “The global burden of skin disease in 2010: an analysis of the prevalence and impact of skin conditions”. J Invest Dermatol. 2014 Jun;134(6):1527-1534. PMID: 24166134
  2. Finley CR, Chan DS, Garrison S, Korownyk C, Kolber MR, Campbell S, Eurich DT, Lindblad AJ, Vandermeer B, Allan GM. “What are the most common conditions in primary care? Systematic review”. Can Fam Physician. 2018 Nov;64(11):832-840. PMID: 30429181; PMCID: PMC6234945.
  3. Yamanaka K. Special Issue: “Skin Disease and Comorbidities”. J Clin Med. 2021 Dec 9;10(24):5754. doi: 10.3390/jcm10245754. PMID: 34945050; PMCID: PMC8707480.
  4. Franklin A, Lund P, Bradbury-Jones C, Taylor J. “Children with albinism in African regions: their rights to ‘being’ and ‘doing’”. BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2018 Jan 12;18(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s12914-018-0144-8. PMID: 29329540; PMCID: PMC5767025.
  5. Koo J, Lebwohl A. “Psycho dermatology: the mind and skin connection”. Am Fam Physician. 2001 Dec 1;64(11):1873-8. PMID: 11764865.
  6. Ahmed A, Leon A, Butler DC, Reichenberg J. “Quality-of-life effects of common dermatological diseases”. Semin Cutan Med Surg. 2013 Jun;32(2):101-9. doi: 10.12788/j.sder.0009. PMID: 24049968.
  7. Seth D, Cheldize K, Brown D, Freeman EF. “Global Burden of Skin Disease: Inequities and Innovations”. Curr Dermatol Rep. 2017 Sep;6(3):204-210. doi: 10.1007/s13671-017-0192-7. Epub 2017 Aug 7. PMID: 29226027; PMCID: PMC5718374.
  8. American Academy of Dermatology. “Dermatology: the burden of skin disease”. Available at: https://www.ncmedsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NCDA-AADA-LC-18-Burden-of-Skin-Disease.pdf (last accessed 28 June 2023)
  9. Brown DN, Langan SM, Freeman EE. “Task Shifting in Dermatology: A Call to Action”. JAMA Dermatol. 2017 Nov 1;153(11):1179-1180. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.3342. PMID: 28903134; PMCID: PMC5906794.
  10. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “Skin and subcutaneous diseases — Level 2 cause” Available at: https://www.healthdata.org/results/gbd_summaries/2019/skin-and-subcutaneous-diseases-level-2-cause (last accessed 28 June 2023)