Change in medicine occurs all the time.
This often imperceptible progress is at
a much more rapid pace than we
imagine. With these thoughts in mind I
tackled the third edition of this book,
asking myself, for every sentence and
each page, 'how has the practice and
approach to the topic been advanced?'
Many changes, both subtle and more
blatant, were needed. Advances in
genetics, molecular biology and
immunology have been incorporated,
alterations in treatment regimens
inserted and the cultural change of'the
holistic team approach' has been
integrated in the appropriate places.
Figures have been brought up to date
and replaced if necessary.
Medicine has become more
international, aided by political
changes, notably European integration,
and through the multinational nature
of most major pharmaceutical
companies, which take a world-wide
view on the marketing of many drugs.
The third edition has been written with
a more global flavour than its
predecessors. This is also reflected in
the updated Bibliography and list of
Self-help groups.
The widespread availability of most
medical scientific knowledge via the
Internet has led many physicians and
nearly all medical students to use the
'web' as a prominent source of
reference material. With this in mind,
a new section has been written on
'Dermatology and the Internet' and
websites that give extra information
and further reading have been
incorporated on each page.
I hope that the revisions and
additions made for the third edition
will provide medical students, family
practitioners, residents or specialist
registrars in dermatology or general
internal medicine, and dermatological
nurses with an account of dermatology
in its theory and practice that is
concise, comprehensive and up-to-date.
dermatology an illustrated color text
