H11: British Association of Dermatologists’ historical abstracts: an unrivalled resource (284 abstracts by 393 authors)

R. Akhter, O. Matthews and N.J. Levell

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich, UK

The History Committee has been running symposia at the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) annual meetings since 2001. Abstracts for oral presentations and posters have been submitted since 2002 and are published in the British Journal of Dermatology’s meeting supplements. We analysed all historical dermatology abstracts published from 2002 to 2020 inclusive, and categorized them to produce a database of dermatology history. There were 284 historical abstracts published over 19 years by 393 different authors. These were categorized as follows: biographical (n = 99; 34·8%); disease (n = 72; 25·3%); treatment of a specific disease (n = 31; 10·9%); pharmaceutical [conventional or alternative; n = 18 (6·3%)]; cosmetic (n = 18; 6·3%); regional (n = 9; 3·2%); dermatological surgery (n = 8; 2·8%); photodermatology (n = 6; 2·1%); psychodermatology, dermatopathology and cutaneous allergy (n = 4 each; 1·4% each); organization (n = 2; 0·7%); and other topics (n = 9; 3%). We imputed all abstracts into an Excel spreadsheet and searched for duplicate terms. Although there was some duplication of topics, for example multiple abstracts on the thalidomide tragedy, patch testing, cryosurgery and so on, the content of posters on similar topics varied, looking at the different aspects of an issue. We will make this database available for future potential authors of historical abstracts to search for and identify topics of historical dermatology that have already been studied and published, and also for academics to identify easily papers and fellow researchers on dermatology history. This study shows the breadth of interest, historical research experience and accumulated knowledge of 393 dermatologists from the UK and around the world who have contributed to the BAD historical symposia and posters over the last two decades.