Doctors launch "Ask a Derm", the first dermatology website in Bahrain

Manama, May 13 (BNA): "Ask a Derm" is a website run by a group of Bahraini dermatologists who hold Arab Board Fellowships. This website represents the volunteer dermatologists of training committee in Salmaniya Medical Complex, Dr. Mariam Baqi, Dr. Ameen Al Awadhi, Dr. Fatima Khamdan, Dr. Zainab Al Mossalli, Dr. Maryam Al Najem and Dr. Marwa Al Baharna and Dr. Aisha Al Moosa. The website aims to raise skin awareness in the community and targets a larger group of people by providing simplified medical knowledge and by answering public skin-related queries in a scientific and reliable manner. The website includes the dermatologists’ activities and achievements as well as their lectures beside a perennial for common questions from the public. “The idea goes back to when I was doing my fellowship in the US, in Manhattan, where my mentor had a personal website that he used to put his personal lectures. I liked the idea and we just wanted to improve it and add our own touches to it,” Dr. Baqi, the founder of the website, said. The website is the product of the team and each volunteer doctor played a significant part. “My main work is to manage and update the website, take the pictures and questions and distribute the questions equally among doctors,” Dr. Al Mossalli said. “I worked on collecting the data and preparing the list of our achievements and volunteer work and then pass it to my colleagues to edit it and to make an electronic form. I am now assigned to answer the questions posted by people,” Dr. Al Najem said. Most questions on the website are related to hair, skin, nails and cosmetics, along with queries about common diseases, such as acne and acne scars causes and treatments. The doctors’ plan is to launch an application that completes the website beside a hashtag with all the questions and answers and to include more dermatologists from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.