Dermatology has many faces and encompasses a variety of fields including medical dermatology, skin oncology and surgery, genetic and paediatric skin diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, allergic skin diseases and aesthetic medicine. 1 These fields are heterogeneously practiced by hospital-based dermatologists, extra hospital public dermatologists and private practice dermatologists. These differences are brought about by the possibility of performing certain techniques (e.g. surgery, allergy testing), the ability to prescribe expensive drugs (e.g. biologics) and the economical revenue of treating different disorders (e.g. chronic skin disease vs aesthetic problems) among others. Dermatology practice is also affected by the number of dermatologists in each area, and the availability and attitude of primary care physicians (e.g. general practitioners and paediatricians) to treat skin disease.The issues of who is taking care of skin diseases and how dermatology practice is perceived by the general population may be very important to health policy decisions, the allocation of research funding and the planning of information campaigns. Very few studies have addressed these topics in European countries. [2][3][4][5][6] In this issue of the Journal, Matthias Augustin and coworkers report on a study investigating the perception of dermatology and dermatologists in the Germany general population. 7 They found that the vast majority of the population (88%) identified the dermatologist as the primary caregiver for the most common skin diseases including skin cancer, inflammatory skin diseases, acne and cosmetic treatments, and this percentage was higher than it was in 2002. However, the proportion fell to less than 50% when considering other common skin disorders such as hair loss, childhood skin diseases, allergy; and to less than 12% for genital and sexually transmitted diseases. Moreover, phlebology and proctology appeared to be covered almost exclusively by other specialists. Another study from Italy found that the general population has a good knowledge of skin diseases, and the dermatologist was the main referral specialist for nevi control, skin tumours and inflammatory skin diseases. 8 The general practitioner and paediatricians are frequently consulted first.Almost half of the surveyed turned out to have a trusted dermatologist to consult in the case of skin problems and that they were looking for technical competence and loyalty.Understanding how much diffuse is the knowledge on skin diseases, whether dermatologist is considered as one or the exclusive healthcare provider for skin problems, and the perceived position in the healthcare system may have a significant effect on a multitude of issues. These ranges from the undergraduate to postgraduate medical education, guiding campaigns for increasing awareness on curability of common skin diseases and strategies for improving dermatologic care. Further studies are needed to address these issues taking into account the different healthcare organization in each co...