Dear GlobalSkin Members,
It is my pleasure to welcome Gaone Matewa (South Africa), Rowena Lou Ortiz (Philippines), and Christina Raj (India) to the GlobalSkin Board of Directors! I would also like to thank our two outgoing members, Michelle Capon and Truong Tran Hong who sadly passed away in June. We are grateful to Michelle and Truong for their dedication and thoughtful contributions in making GlobalSkin a success.
As GlobalSkin works to Elevate our members, I’m pleased to share that we have welcomed 17 new members from four new countries (Taiwan, Dominican Republic, Liberia and Gambia). This brings our total membership to 338 patient organizations from 78 countries, representing 59 disease areas! We continue to see increasing interest from patient organizations interested in joining and I will keep you updated as new members join the GlobalSkin family.
Since the adoption of the WHA Resolution on Skin Diseases in May, we are working harder than ever to present a strong and representative voice for people affected by skin conditions all around the world. GlobalSkin continues its active dialogue with the World Health Organization and they actively plan consultations to help inform the development of the Global Action Plan on Skin Diseases, which was called for in the Resolution. At the same time, we are working on plans to meaningfully engage GlobalSkin members in this important process. As we Champion this effort, your participation will be greatly appreciated and is critical to the success of global implementation of the coming Global Action Plan.
It has been inspiring to Unite as a community to call for change in the way the world sees dermatological conditions. The GRIDD Project will continue to be a major focus for our organization and members as we leverage the data collected through our global study in 2023 to accomplish our goals. Downloads of the PRIDD App continue to grow and we now have over 300 downloads. There have been many requests to use the PRIDD Measure including by University teaching hospitals, hospital networks, patient organizations and a pharmaceutical. The GlobalSkin team has been busy spreading the word at conferences, presenting posters and publishing scientific journal articles in order to share more insights from the GRIDD Study.
Lastly, I would like to thank all those who participated in the recent GlobalSkin Member survey. We received 130 responses to the 2025 Member Experience Survey. Results will be shared with our community in communications each month. Thank you for all who participated! I hope that our commitment to hearing from you about your experience with GlobalSkin illustrates that we prioritize our members and will always put the needs of people affected by dermatological conditions first.
Gratefully,
Marc Yale
GlobalSkin Board President
