ABOUT VGRD

Virtual Grand Rounds in Dermatology

 A Service to the Global Community

Please consider participating in VGRD. We look forward to hearing from you, and welcome submission of interesting and/or challenging cases to share with our members. VGRD has hundreds of dermatologists on our mailing list and they cover all of the subspecialties in dermatology.

We would like to invite dermatologists and other interested practitioners from both developed and developing countries to join us and share your experiences with our members.  Together we will be able to provide better care for our patients.

Over the past twelve years, we have found this form of electronic communication and teledermatology has helped to enhance our patient care. Your participation will make VGRD an even more effective teaching tool.

Yours sincerely,

David Elpern MD

The Skin Clinic

Williamstown, MA, USA

( kauai@bcn.net )

Henry Foong FRCP

Foong Skin Specialist Clinic

Ipoh, Malaysia

( bbfoong@gmail.com )

Stephanie Hu, M.D.

Department of Dermatology

New York University

New York, New York

( stephwhu@gmail.com)

INTRODUCTION

 Founded in 2000, Virtual Grand Rounds in Dermatology (VGRD) is a gathering place for dermatologists the world over to meet with one another and share interesting and/or challenging patients. In addition, we welcome all other health care practitioners with an interest in cutaneous disorders.  One may want to ask a question about diagnosis or therapy, present an interesting clinical photo or post a photomicrograph. We are a group of clinical and academic dermatologists who believe that web-based teledermatology can be both personally and professionally enriching.

Digital photography makes it possible to post clinical and microscopic images with ease. There are a dizzying number of cameras to choose from. The site creators will help you with advice here if you want.

Even if one lives in a city with a major medical center it is often difficult to get one's patients to Grand Rounds. And if one does, the turnout and discussion may be disappointing. VGRD is always available. You can post a message at 6:00 p.m. in Boston, Henry Foong may see it at 6:00 a.m. in Ipoh, Malaysia as he sits down at his home computer. Often, you will have received a few suggestions or comments when you log on the next morning.

     VGRD has been a virtual consultative and collegial community for over a decade. John Halle, the 16th Century English physician and writer, penned these perceptive words about the consultation in a long forgotten tract:

    When thou arte callde at anye time,

    A patient to see:

    And dost perceave the cure to grate,

    And ponderous for thee:

    See that thou laye disdeyne aside,

    And pryde of thyne own skyll:

    And think no shame counsell to take,

    But rather wyth good wyll.

    Get one or two of experte men,

    To helpe thee in that neede;

    To make them partakers wyth thee

    In that work to procede....

Halle's words guide us as we gather 500 years later in a consultative community the likes of which he probably could not have fathomed. So, let us "laye disdeyne aside,/ And pryde of [our] own skyll:/ And think no shame counsell to take,/ But rather wyth good wyll" join us in this global community of peers to help our patients and improve each other and ourselves.