An evolving dermatology scenario in Saudi Arabia: a need assessment

Objective: To assess the need of dermatological research in Saudi Arabia considering the divergence between the current dermatological and desired condition. Materials and methods: A total of 164 reports published in the past 10 years were retrieved from the Medline database using the key words: ‘dermatology’ and ‘Saudi Arabia’. Results: The proportion of research reports was 30.5% (50/164). Fifty percent (25/50) of the research reports were clinical epidemiological descriptions of clinical and demographic features of various skin conditions. Reports on etiological and therapeutic research were 12% (6/50) and 14% (7/50), respectively. The majority of publications were non-research consisting of case reports and case series 52% (86/164), reviews 14% (23/164), and others 1.2% (2/164). Conclusion: Data obtained from various dermatological publications not only indicated that Saudi Arabia is doing pretty well when compared to other countries in the region but also showed that it is way behind the economically developed countries. Dermatological research in Saudi Arabia has a long way to go. Specific recommendations on this are made on how to address the dermatological research needs.