Final Report of the 4th ILDS World Skin Summit

2025 Theme: Making Treatment Accessible and Affordable Worldwide

The 4th ILDS World Skin Summit (WSS) took place in Cape Town, South Africa from 23-25 October 2025, under the theme Making Treatment Accessible and Affordable Worldwide, and has been deemed a great success. The summit, organised by the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS), brought together 162 delegates, representing 82 ILDS Member Societies across more than 54 countries to discuss challenges and opportunities to improve access to affordable skin health care.

The ILDS is proud to publish the World Skin Summit's final report, which presents a comprehensive overview of the discussions and outcomes of the conference. It will serve as a valuable resource for dermatologists, healthcare professionals, and policymakers worldwide as they work towards improving skin health and promoting global partnerships in dermatology.

The ILDS World Skin Summit serves as a platform for dermatological societies worldwide to collaborate, discuss, and find solutions to the unique issues faced by their respective regions. The event, held every few years between the ILDS World Congresses of Dermatology, aims to foster global partnerships and promote improved dermatologic care for people worldwide.

Attended by influential leaders representing dermatological societies from around the globe, the 4th ILDS WSS facilitated productive discussions and interactions. Plenary sessions and breakout sessions provided opportunities for participants to exchange ideas and contribute to the ILDS's strategic planning for the coming years. In addition to the dermatological society representatives, patient advocates, the World Health Organization (WHO), academia and industry partners actively participated in the summit. The programme featured 22 speakers and presenters from 14 countries, bringing diverse perspectives across clinical practice, research, policy and patient advocacy, and supporting productive plenary and workshop discussions that will directly inform ILDS strategic planning and programme development in the years ahead.

Key areas of focus included progress towards implementation of the World Health Assembly Resolution on Skin Diseases as a Global Public Health Priority, strengthening global data and surveillance, improving education and training across the dermatology workforce, integrating patient perspectives into research and policy, and addressing emerging global challenges including climate change, crisis-affected health systems and digital innovation in dermatologic care.

Cape Town was selected as the location for the 4th WSS in recognition of the strong leadership and growing impact of dermatology across Africa, alongside the persistent challenges in access to dermatologic care faced by many populations in the region. Holding the Summit in South Africa provided an important opportunity to centre discussions on equity, capacity building and the role of dermatology within broader global health agendas.

The success of the Summit was driven by the active participation of attendees, as well as by valuable input provided ahead of the meeting. We would like to thank the ILDS Member representatives, patient partners, speakers, moderators and sponsors for their engagement and collaboration. We are especially grateful to our South African hosts for their leadership and warm hospitality, and to the ILDS Board and Secretariat for their outstanding support in ensuring the smooth delivery of the meeting.

We hope this report provides a useful overview of the discussions and outcomes of the 4th World Skin Summit and serves as a foundation for continued collaboration as we work collectively to advance skin health for the world.

The final report encompasses an executive summary, highlights from past summits, expectations and goals from the meeting, a comprehensive programme summary, information on workshops, recommended actions going forward, feedback from attendees and more.

We invite you to download and explore the full report of the 4th ILDS World Skin Summit now