IADVL dermatosurgery guidelines: Charting uncharted territory

S Sacchidanand

 President, IADVL, 2008, India

Correspondence Address:
S Sacchidanand
President, IADVL, 2008
India

Dear Colleagues,

I feel privileged to pen a few words on the occasion of the publication of this special supplement issue of IJDVL carrying the recommendations of the IADVL Dermatosurgery Task Force for standard guidelines of care for dermatosurgical procedures. Indeed, an IADVL document on dermatosurgery in India, which is an emerging subspecialty of dermatology, was long overdue. Sensing the need for continuing medical education in this field, I always felt that a concerted effort towards the publication of such guidelines was necessary. When such a publication is released by the IADVL, it carries more weightage and authority. Hence, an effort was made by many like-minded individuals such as Dr. Mysore Venkataram, Dr. Chetan Oberai, Dr. Suresh Joshipura, Dr. Koushik Lahiri and a few of my other colleagues to bring out this guiding publication.

Dermatosurgery is rapidly gaining ground in the Indian dermatology scenario, especially amongst the younger dermatologists. It has all the essential ingredients that a young aspiring doctor looks for-it is challenging, produces rapid results and is an economically viable proposition. However, as far as training in this specialty goes, the situation is rather dismal in our country. Barring a few reputed centres such as PGIMER - Chandigarh, AIIMS - Delhi, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, and St. John′s Medical College and Hospital - Bangalore, which are running a full one year fellowship course in dermatosurgery, there are no recognized centres imparting any training in dermatosurgery in India. It would be important and relevant here to mention the pioneering efforts of Dr. Satish Savant, Dr. Subrato Malakar, Dr. Harwinder Singh Marwah and a few of my other colleagues, in this field.

After more than a year′s hard work by Dr. Venkataram and his group, I am happy that IADVL is now publishing these guidelines written by IADVL members for IADVL members in a special issue of IJDVL. Carefully chosen authors, who are pioneers in their own fields, have contributed chapters for this issue. They have taken many pains to author these chapters and I individually congratulate them for their efforts. These chapters have been peer reviewed and suggestions received have been acted upon. I take this opportunity to thank the reviewers for their time and efforts. Lastly, I would be failing in my duties if I did not acknowledge the efforts of Dr. Mysore Venkataram and Dr. Uday Khopkar who have given the final shape to this project of IADVL. They deserve all accolades for their untiring efforts.

I hope that this endeavor of IADVL will be well received by all the members.