Dermatology in Public Health Environments: A Comprehensive Textbook, Volumes I and II, edited by Renan Rangel Bonamigo, MD, PhD, and Sergio Ivan Torres Dornelles, MD, MSc, is a skillfully integrated presentation of dermatological diseases and the role that public health and epigenetic factors play in these various diseases and the lives of the people who live with them. The authors methodically connect the often separate worlds of clinical medicine and public health, emphasizing the necessary nature of their overlap in improving the medical approach to patient care. This text is an ideal resource for physicians, nurses, students, and other members of medical teams who are interested in understanding dermatological disorders in the context of public health by going beyond diagnosis and treatment of disease and seeking prevention of dermatological diseases and their outcomes. There are over 160 physicians, researchers, and experts in the field who have contributed to this text, providing readers with current evidence-based content and the tools necessary to identify and treat dermatological diseases and approach care from an epidemiological perspective.

This text is divided into 10 parts, with the first six parts found in Volume I and the remaining four found in Volume II. Overall, the organization style of the chapters between the two volumes is similar, containing key point summaries, glossaries, and detailed references, with unique section categories within each chapter. The disease-specific chapters contain sections on epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, clinical presentations, complementary examinations, diagnostics, therapeutic approaches with some discussion of prognosis, and some recommended outside readings. The general flow of the topics discussed in these two texts begins with a discussion of public health, followed by specific dermatological disease manifestations, epigenetic factors and their effects on skin, major prevalent diseases and their associated skin manifestations, public health issues effecting dermatology, broad skin concepts with the details of the dermatological implications, and, finally, a discussion of the role of the multidisciplinary team approach in dermatological care. The chapters are supplemented with high-quality images that highlight skin manifestations of various conditions, along with tables, charts, graphs, and more blue box summaries that help the reader categorize the components of each chapter's topics.

VOLUME I

Part I of this book begins by defining general concepts of relevant diseases within public health and then dives into numerous examples of recent global public health initiatives and strategies for change. This part progresses to detail the social and demographic characteristics of dermatologic patients, their needs, and the impact of preventative campaigns as experienced in Brazil.

Part II exclusively presents infectious causes of dermatological diseases, with eight chapters that detail both common and emerging pathogens and their cutaneous manifestations with a discussion of preventative considerations by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of the infectious agents discussed include mycobacterium, sexually transmitted infections, and bacterial, viral, prion, fungal, parasitic, and protozoal infections.

Part III details the cutaneous presentations of various neoplasms, beginning with methods for identifying lesions that precede skin cancers, followed by a discussion of skin cancers.

Part IV investigates inflammatory changes and autoimmune diseases with descriptive presentations of atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis, acne, rosacea, vitiligo, bullous dermatoses, and aphthae. Notably, the last chapter of this section expertly presents various adverse drug reactions and their effects on the skin with incredible detail, making it a valuable clinical reference and guide.

Part V explores the effects of environmental factors such as extremes in temperature, ultraviolet radiation and idiopathic photodermatoses, plants and oils, venomous animals, and occupational irritants that can adversely affect the skin.

Part VI focuses on the physiological and pathological skin, hair, and nail changes specific to pregnancy, neonates, and the geriatric population.

VOLUME II

Parts VII and VIII provide the bulk of Volume II. Part VII focuses on the associated skin findings and susceptibilities of major prevalent diseases including diabetes mellitus, nutritional deficiencies, HIV, AIDS, human T-cell leukemia virus type 1, paraneoplastic skin diseases, transplantation, and select psychological disorders. Some of the topics discussed include acanthosis nigricans, bullous diseases, xanthomas, dyschromia, sweet syndrome, pyoderma gangrenosum, excoriation disorders, and much more.

Part VIII is multifaceted and begins by presenting the emerging public health issues that impact dermatology including air pollution, photoprotection, physical activity, natural disasters, poverty, malnutrition, and war-related skin issues. Midway through, the authors discuss a variety of vaccines and their role in the prevention of dermatological diseases. As readers progress through this part, they are presented with an interesting discussion about human skin allograft storage centers, the process of harvesting, processing, and storing of skin, along with the needs and issues associated with these technologies. Also presented in this part is a chapter on how society and marketing industries influence the perception of one's body with a bioethics discussion. Authors explore the variety of assessment tools developed by organizations such as the World Health Organization to assess quality of life and scales developed to monitor various diseases. This part ends with a presentation of the benefits of using a dermatoscope and how its use has improved diagnostic accuracy along with how teledermatology can be utilized in remote areas in need and the reductions in cost associated with its use.

Part IX approaches broader concepts in dermatology and then explains the details of their causes and presentations. Topics discussed include pigment changes, rashes, pigmented lesions including nevi lentigines, cafe au lait spots, causes of pruritis, prurigo, urticaria, erythema nodosum, nail diseases, and pain and calluses of the feet.

Part X is a brief section that discusses many different parts of the multidisciplinary team and their particular role in dermatological care. This section begins with a chapter on the nursing approach to skin care in the primary care setting followed by a detailed chapter on appropriate wound care. Interestingly, the authors next went into incredible detail on the physical therapy needs of patients with leprosy. The text ends with a brief discussion of using a psychological approach in caring for patients with chronic dermatoses and contains several case examples to illustrate some scenarios.

We recommend this text as a reference and guide for students and medical professionals with an interest in dermatology within a public health frame because it is an excellent collection of evidence-based literature, easy to read, and abundant with illustrations that bring these diseases and concepts to life. The authors' passion for this subject is clear as evidenced by the great degree of detail and care that went into the development of the text. We believe this text is an ideal resource for those in the dermatological field not only for its unique content presentation but also for its rich reference list and the recommended readings it provides to readers who seek to go into more depth on specific topics.