Our Impact

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Skin health for the world

2025 was a landmark year for the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS). From the historic adoption of a World Health Assembly resolution recognising skin diseases as a global public health priority, to expanding access to essential medicines and frontline care in underserved communities, our work in 2025 advanced skin health on every front: policy, research, education, and patient care.

Together with our 232 member societies and global partners, we are translating global commitments into practical action that improves lives.

Read our highlights of the last year below.

Global policy wins

Historic World Health Organisation (WHO) resolution: In May 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted a special resolution — co-sponsored by seven countries — recognising skin diseases as a global public health priority and calling for coordinated national action.
Two new inclusions on the WHO Essential Medicines List: ILDS-supported applications secured the inclusion of adalimumab and ustekinumab for psoriasis, broad-spectrum sunscreen for people with albinism, and urea and glycerol-based moisturisers for atopic dermatitis, opening the door to better care for millions worldwide.

A growing global network

232 member societies are now represented worldwide, following the addition of 16 new societies in 2025.
200,000 dermatologist members united through our global network.
The Fourth World Skin Summit in Cape Town brought together 160+ delegates from 82 societies and 54 countries.

Evidence to Drive Change

The largest global study ever conducted on access to skin health, the Global Access to Skin Health Observatory, a joint project with L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty, completed data capture from 157 of 194 countries, covering 96.3% of the world's population. Findings will be published in 2026 at skinobservatory.org
The Grand Challenges in Global Skin Health programme advanced four disease-specific atlases and produced its first joint publication, alongside a major review with WHO and GlobalSkin on inflammatory skin diseases and associated comorbidities.

Frontline Care and Training

Regional Dermatology Training Centre, Tanzania: treated more than 16,600 patients and supported almost 3,000 people with albinism.
Pacific Dermatology Training Centre: celebrated its first three graduating trainees and now serves a population through a clinic seeing more than 20,000 patients annually.
GLODERM Mentorship Programme: supported 24 dermatologists, who collectively trained nearly 3,000 healthcare providers and reached more than 14,000 patients, backed by US$140,000 in Access Grants.
DermLink projects funded in 2024 delivered care to over 10,000 patients and trained nearly 500 healthcare providers, with 15 new projects awarded in 2025.
US$50,000 invested through the DermImpact programme to strengthen long-term capacity building.

Reaching the most vulnerable

Supported more than 1,000 refugees in Tanzania with dermatological care.
Convened the first World Forum on skin cancer prevention in persons with albinism, with 71 delegates from 30 countries advancing global action.

Looking to the future

These achievements reflect steady, measurable progress across ILDS and the International Foundation for Dermatology (IFD) — improving access to dermatology specialists, strengthening the global dermatology workforce, supporting underserved populations, and turning global commitments into action on the ground.

We thank our members, partners, and supporters whose collaboration makes this work possible.