Key Questions About the Skin of Color Society’s Efforts This Year, with Crystal Aguh, MD

During the 21st Annual Skin of Color Society (SOCS) Scientific Symposium in Orlando, Florida, a wide variety of notable experts in the field of dermatology have been in attendance. One of these experts is Crystal Aguh, MD, known for her work as associate professor of dermatology and the director of the Ethnic Skin Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Aguh was interviewed by the HCPLive editorial team on-site at the SOCS Symposium during the week of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting in Orlando, with questions being asked to Aguh about SOCS’s goals this year and her role as co-chair of their scientific committee.

“Shortly after the last meeting, the new president appoints committee co-chairs, and so I was asked to co-chair the scientific committee, along with Dr. Cesar Virgen, and our first goal was really to establish a theme for the symposium…” Aguh explained. “For this year, our theme was innovating for equity, and we wanted to talk about the importance of research innovation and how it can close some of those gaps that we see in disease outcomes and treatment opportunities.”

Aguh further highlighted the present political landscape and its impact on the efforts of SOCS.

“We really want to emphasize all of the gains that all patients, all physicians, and all practitioners can see when we improve health equity, when we improve representation in clinical trials, and when we start to tackle diseases that have been historically understudied or underfunded,” Aguh said. “So even though we started planning in a different political landscape, I feel like the theme that we have seems even more important and takes this added importance in our current setting.”

Aguh was later asked about the unique opportunities or challenges that come with planning a meeting such as the SOCS Scientific Symposium.

“Some of the challenges that can come really pertain to the fact that a lot of our panelists are really sought after,” Aguh said. “They play very important roles within our specialty. I cannot tell you how honored I am to see that so many of the people that we requested to be here chose to come to our meeting, as opposed to other places that we could be. Dr. Simal Desai, who's the president of the AAD, really made a point to carve out time in his schedule to be at the Skin of Color Society meeting to deliver remarks.”

Lastly, Aguh was asked about the role SOCS plays in advocating for better representation and inclusion in clinical trials and research.

“Well, the Skin of Color Society is the largest organization in the world dedicated to understanding and treating diseases that disproportionately impact patients with skin of color, and because this represents a majority of the patients that we see, not just nationally, but worldwide,” Aguh explained. “It means that a lot of the work that members within the Skin of Color Society do impacts a substantial proportion of our patients. So I think that the Skin of Color Society has already served as really kind of a great example of this representation that we want to see within our specialty, and I think they'll continue to do that moving forward.”

To find out more from Aguh about these topics, view the full interview posted above this summary. For more on AAD 2025 and interviews such as these, view our latest coverage here.

The quotes used in this interview summary were edited for clarity.