DermNet NZ: Consumer Health Information About the Skin
This is an abstract of a presentation Dr. Oakley gave in June of 2006.
The New Zealand Dermatological Society established DermNet NZ in 1996, primarily as a health information site for patients and health professionals. There are now more than 750 illustrated topics on skin diseases and its management. We have tried to comply with Health-on-the-Net and other guidelines for health information web sites.
There are an average of over 19,000 sessions per day and nearly two million page views per month (May 2006). Visitors are predominantly from North America, the United Kingdom and Australasia, 36% arriving at the site via a search engine.
The most popular topics are skin infections, dermatitis, psoriasis and skin cancers. Each month we receive about 80 requests to copy images, mainly to be used for lectures and school reports.
The costs of writing and editing high quality material, registration, hosting and managing the site have been mainly funded by sponsorship and advertising by the pharmaceutical industry.
Comment: You can find almost everything you want on Dermnet. Dr. Oakley and her NZ colleagues have provided the global community with an extraordinarily valuable locus. In DermCentral, we will try to supplement DermNet for our patients, but recommend the latter as a great starting place for any query related to the skin. Although they have pharmaceutical industry funding, they do not let this influence content.
Again, please test drive: DermNet NZ: Consumer Health Information About the Skin