About the speaker

Dr Chin Whybrew
GP with a Special Interest in Dermatology

I qualified as a GP in 2001 and after 5 years in my first partnership, I relocated to Cheltenham, working as a locum, a 3-session salaried GP, and did some community paediatrics for a few years. I then took over a partnership role in Cheltenham from a GPSI in dermatology (this was deliberate – I always loved dermatology), and soon found that I needed extra training! I did the diploma in practical dermatology in 2010/11 and was then asked mark and moderate the online forums. I did the Cardiff dermoscopy course, again I was asked to stay on as a tutor. I joined the primary care dermatology society (PCDS) committee, and have been instrumental in changing the dermoscopy teaching, helping to update the general dermatology courses run by PCDS and organise some of the meetings. I run dermatology education sessions for various groups (GPs, registrars, nurses, HCAs, pharmacists, podiatrists, even dermoscopy teaching for dermatologists– anyone who is interested, frankly!) I have recently started offering GP dermatology improved access sessions to patients from across the network and feeding back to the referring GPs with annotated photos where possible.

My main passion is teaching dermatology and dermoscopy to anyone who will find it useful, whatever their qualifications or role. It’s such an interesting and exciting subject, I love to have the opportunity to pass on my enthusiasm and in doing so, to improve the care of patients with skin diseases where we can do so much more in primary care with a bit of extra knowledge. We had so little dermatology teaching at medical school and during the VTS, and yet such a large proportion of our work is skin related, and we can make a huge difference to people’s lives, even by just managing eczema and acne confidently.