Dermatology.ru - the largest teledermatology network since 2016 embraces over 21000 clinicians from Russia, CIS and overseas. In 2016 alone, the network provided 109 professional broadcasts, offering over 300 hours of CME with free access to 49243 registered healthcare professionals from 322 cities of Russia and 53 nations abroad. The audience have sent 6145 questions to faculty, resulting in weeks-long discussion on 2082 major topics. On average, one broadcast attracted over 397 clinicians and 55 questions for open discussion. Before January 2017, dermatology.ru subscribers have authored over 7100 explicitly described clinical presentations and more than 2000 cases of dermoscopy illustrated by over 23000 photographs. 

Map of dermatology.ru weekly broadcasting audience. 

How many dermatologists in Russia use the Internet professionally for their clinical work? Synovate Comcon has already calculated this, gathering data for their Medi-Q survey on 'Practitioner's opininon'. Dermatology.ru, the online journal you are now reading, leads the 2015 survey results, being referenced by 35% of dermatologists (raising from 26.8% in 2013). It is the only successful clinical specialty website in Russia so far, since clinicians of other, less happy branches of medicine, nominate Rx registries and general journals, but not their specialty professional resources. On top of that, Dermatology.Ru's popularity value among clinicians outclasses the share of 5 largest medical online communities taken together! Less than 3.5% of Russian dermatologists use English-language professional websites regularly. One can understand them: almost everything can be found here.

Map of our 2015 videoconference professional audience, connections by location

The XVI European congress of dermatologists and psychiatrists took place in Saint-Petersburg on June 25-27, 2015, together with Regional session of International Forum of Dermatovenereologists and Cosmetologists, chaired by Prof. Nikolay N. Potekaev. Over 500 clinicians participated, including 226 international delegates from 45 countries. Much of the success of the meeting was achieved by the effort and influence of Prof. Andrey N. Lvov (Moscow), the leading researcher in the field of pshychosomatic dermatology. 

The Fourth World Congress of Dermoscopy and Skin imaging was conducted in Vienna (Austria) on April 16-18, 2015, (President - Prof. Harald Kittler). Russian Society of Dermoscopy has sent to the Congress the official delegation, including the Chairman, Dr. Vasiliy Sergeev MD, Ph.D. (Board member, IDS), and the Board members Dr. Mikhail Ustinov and Yuri Sergeev Jr. Russian delegates made 3 oral presentations, including 2 at the session Dermoscopy around the world. The Chairman shared his vision of Russian Dermoscopy, originating from first publications of 1924-1928 to original (yet unknown in the West) developments of Soviet era, and to numerous advances of nowadays. Dr. Sergeev underscored the importance of Russian national tradition in dermoscopy maintained by the Russian Society, convening nation-wide congresses and awareness campaings, supporting activities from National terminology consenus to indigenous Russian monographs and dermoscopy devices. Concluding his talk, Dr. Sergeev presented the simple fact: in 2014, 18% physicians interested in dermoscopy in Europe were from Russia - as seen in Eurodermoscopy project, where Russian dermatologists from Crimea to Siberia took the first place (n=1481) among participating countries.

VIII International Forum of Dermatovenerologists and Cosmetologists took place in Moscow on March 18-20, 2015. Over 1500 healthcare professionals participated, attending 27 breakout sessions, 12 symposia, 4 workshops, together with clinical case series, discussions and seminars. As an important part of the Forum, III All-Russian Congress on Dermoscopy and Optical Diagnosis of skin again attracted hundreds, with session hall being overcrowded by enthusiastic physicians both from dermatology and oncology fields. They were happy to learn about two new indigenous dermoscopy systems developed in Russia under the auspices of the Society and by the deeds of its leader, Dr. Vasily Sergeev. 

Starting with educational broadcasting in 2007, the Interregional Society of Teledermatology (domicile in Moscow, Russia) has conducted 59 videoconferences in first semester of 2014, with 11677 connections from clinicians in 241 regions of Russia, CIS and overseas. The average duration of each broadcast exceeded 2 hours, and the professional audience sent 1943 questions to the faculty, that managed to answer 985 of these. Such activity clearly outperforms all traditional dermatological meetings conducted in Russia in the same period, taken together. The faculty was represented by 53 key opinion leaders in dermatology and allied clinical specialties.

In 2014, the educational activities of our Teledermatology Society reached the new levels in both continuous and real-time webcasting, formation of subspecialty courses, installing the inter-university Board of Distance Learning in Dermatology, maintaining the repository of over 500 educational videos, international accreditation and developing the integrated e-learning platform with personal educational track, automated evaluations and issuing of CME credits. In just 6 months we have provided the curriculum of 184 academic hours in postgraduate medical education. The Teledermatology Society has recently joined International League of Dermatology Societies (ILDS).

The Second Russian Congress of Dermoscopy was summoned by Russian Society of Dermatoscopy and Optical Diagnosis of Skin during VII IFDC in Moscow on March 19 and 20, 2014. The Society, having just renewed its executive board and declaring the ambitious Program at the fall of 2013, reported on the recent developments in the field. Unlike the previous congress, the agenda skipped the sessions on optical coherence tomography and fluorescence imaging, focusing only on dermoscopy, with key messages as follows:

1. The 'innovations programme' of 2009-2013 is declared successful. The Russian HD digital dermatoscope (RDS-1) is produced serially and commercially available, Russia holds the patent. All RDS-1 devices are interconnected with dermoscopy network, allowing for instant remote automated diagnosis and machine vision with augmented imaging in real-time (PKAD client and server complex, installed in 26 regions of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine).  
2. Cloud network of peers is developing, the separate server dermoscopy.ru to be launched in fall of 2014.
3. Russian Expert Corps in Dermoscopy is summoned and will be acting as self-regulated entity.
4. A cheaper version of dermatoscope with optional digital imaging is under development.
5. The adaptor device connecting any traditional (cheap) dermatoscope with virtually every affordable digital camera is produced since 2013. The Society offers free adaptors to the clinicians actively promoting dermoscopy.
6. The sophisticated RDS-2 dermatoscope is expected to enter production no later than mid-2015.
7. Although the Society voted to support Russian editions of major dermoscopy textbooks, only original Russian monographs and textbooks on Dermoscopy will be promoted since 2014. The Society issues support statement for 2 original editions in 2014.
8. The Society has decided to support EuroDermoscopy survey, conducted by IDS. National coordination group is installed on behalf of Society, with members active in all Federal Districts of Russia and CIS representatives. The questionnaire is translated in Russia, to be distributed in Q3, 2014.
9. The Society has decided to support EuroMelanoma project, enhancing the Melanoma Day in Russia with clinical contests and offering all participants instant second-opinion service on May 26-28, 2014.

The highly-motivated, professional audience of 'Dermatology in Russia' e-learning framework has grown towards 11000 by the end of 2013. Dermatologists of Russia and other CIS states published more that 4000 thoroughly illustrated clinical and dermoscopic cases, posted over 600 medical blog entries and discussion threads with over 28 thousand comments. Hundreds of Russian-speaking dermatologists participate in clinical contests, solve online diagnostic puzzles, manage the editorial workflow and keep active several task forces. The e-journal Dermatology in Russia is rapidly shifting towards international, peer-reviewed, professional media portal and free access online publication.

In a year, we have conducted 127 major 2-hour videoconferences, embracing over 10 thousand clinicians in Russia and neighboring countries. In just this timeframe, the faculty of our education network - top opinion leaders of Russian dermatology and venereology - had answered over 2000 questions.

The First Russian Congress on Dermoscopy and Optical Diagnosis of Skin took place in Moscow, on March 21 and 22, 2013. The congress, convened by the Russian Society of Dermoscopy, offered scientific and educational programme with plenary and breakout sessions, symposia on fluorescent diagnostics and optical coherent tomography, 5 educational workshops, round-table talks and consensus meetings on dermatoscopic standards and education. The congress hosted the foundation session of Russian Expert Corps on Dermatoscopy: the reference comission of diagnostic experts. More than 400 participants have attended the meetings freely, all sessions were broadcasted through http://tv.dermatology.ru. 

The first public board meeting of  electronic edition "Dermatology in Russia" (www.dermatology.ru) was summoned in Moscow on June 27, 2012. Members of the board have approved the edition's progress in 2011-2012 and set the plans for the next year. The primary topics were transition towards full-scale peer-reviewed and indexed e-journal, development of public Russian bibliography database and upgrades of "Case of the month" and other image posting and discussion teledermatology systems.