I qualified in medicine from St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in 1978, and trained in General Medicine on the South English coast.  
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I was lucky enough to spend a year as a junior doctor at St. John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, and then a Dermatology Registrar at St George’s Hospital London, and St. Helier Hospital, Carshalton Surrey.
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I have been in both NHS and private dermatological practice in East Lancashire, since 1990, and partially retired in 2020.   I am a generalist, and love the variety of a general practice. I have a particular responsibility for investigating contact dermatitis locally.  My main interest is in medical dermatology,
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Along the way I have written chapters for 4 editions of the major UK dermatology textbook (Rook’s Textbook), and was a joint initiator and editor of The Treatment of Skin Disease, now in its 6th edition.
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I have always enjoyed teaching; regularly speaking at the annual BAD meeting and St. John’s Consultants Course.  Although something of a technical novice, I have created some You Tube videos that clardemonstrate the use of dermatological treatments (such as paste bandages, hydrocolloid occlusion, permanganate soaks) so that patients can optimise their therapy.
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Having just finished renovation of a holiday home, and with not too much to do on Mondays and Tuesdays, an out of the blue email form Martin Keefe, a fellow UK trainee now long emigrated to New Zealand arrived, asking if I may consider filling some very big shoes!  Those being taking over the editorship of Dermentnz!
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Like everyone in the dermatological community, I have huge respect and admiration for the energy and foresight that Amanda Oakley had in initially singlehandedly constructing the site and writing the initial content.  It is a resource that we all use many times a day.I must also thank Delwyn Dyall-Smith for her thorough approach in keeping things going for the last year, and patiently teaching the new team the ropes.

The Dermnetnz team have been very welcoming, and amazingly efficient.  I am sure it will be a pleasure working with everyone from the trustees, staff writer and image processors, and particularly the volunteer writers. Our priority will be to make sure that the most frequently visited 200 pages are updated, and there should be nothing more than 4 years old, and any more recent pages where there are significant developments are updated even sooner.   I hope to link educational videos.  
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I live on the edge of one of the North of England’s areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Yorkshire Dales, but this is just 35 miles from the conurbations of both Manchester and Leeds.  My retirement present to myself was an electric mountain bike, but it looks like I may be significantly entertained with Dermnetnz to take full benefit.  But maybe one day the trails of New Zealand will beckon!