Wound Care Belongs at the Heart of Dermatology

Wound care is sometimes discussed as if it sits adjacent to dermatology rather than within it. That framing undersells both the discipline and the patients we serve. At its core, dermatology is the specialty of skin health, skin disease, skin repair, skin restoration, and skin longevity. Wound healing is not a peripheral concern. It is skin biology in action.

Dermatologists and Skin Wounds 

Every dermatologist encounters wounds in some form. We create and manage acute wounds through biopsies, excisions, cautery, grafting, lasers, injections, and reconstructive procedures. We also evaluate and treat chronic and complex wounds, including venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, pressure injuries, inflammatory ulcers, vasculopathic lesions, infection-associated breakdown, immunobullous erosions, pyoderma gangrenosum, hidradenitis suppurativa tunnels and sinus tracts, radiation injury, burns, and medication-related impaired healing. We care for patients whose wounds are driven by inflammation, malignancy, infection, vascular compromise, metabolic disease, immune dysregulation, or iatrogenic injury. In many of these situations, the wound is not simply a hole in the skin. It is a visible end point of complex biology.

That is precisely why dermatology matters. For too long, wound care has often been separated into procedural, nursing, vascular, podiatric, surgical, or primary care silos. Each of these fields brings critical expertise. Dermatology, however, brings something distinct: the ability to recognize when a wound is not “just a wound.” A nonhealing ulcer may be vasculitis, pyoderma gangrenosum, calciphylaxis, cutaneous malignancy, atypical infection, contact dermatitis from wound products, or an inflammatory dermatosis masquerading as tissue failure. A chronic wound may be worsened by edema, neuropathy, colonization, systemic therapy, nutritional status, or immunosuppression. A surgical wound may fail to heal because of tension, infection, hematoma, ischemia, or an unrecognized inflammatory process. Dermatologists are trained to see these patterns and connect clinical morphology with pathophysiology.

United States Data Trends

National data underscore how much opportunity remains. In a recent analysis of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, researchers found that dermatologists managed only 3.9% of outpatient cutaneous wound visits overall and only 7.4% of chronic wound visits, despite chronic wounds being among the most biologically complex and diagnostically challenging problems involving the skin.¹ These findings should not be viewed as a failure of dermatology but rather as a call to action. If dermatology is the specialty of skin biology, inflammation, infection, repair, and barrier restoration, then our specialty should have a more visible role in the care of patients with chronic wounds.

Growing Wound Care Needs 

The need is growing as the population ages. Patients are living longer, often with multiple comorbidities, including diabetes, obesity, peripheral vascular disease, autoimmune disease, cancer therapy exposure, immunosuppressive medication use, and complex surgical histories, all of which can increase the burden of impaired wound healing. At the same time, dermatology is performing more procedures than ever, from skin cancer surgery and cosmetic interventions to laser-based and device-based treatments. As our procedural footprint expands, so does our responsibility to understand wound prevention, wound healing, scar outcomes, infection risk, and postprocedural recovery.

Wound care also sits at the intersection of science and compassion. Chronic wounds can be painful, malodorous, stigmatizing, and socially isolating. They can limit mobility, disrupt sleep, impair work, and erode quality of life. Patients often endure repeated visits, dressing changes, antibiotics, debridements, and uncertainty. When healing stalls, frustration grows for patients and clinicians alike. Dermatologists are well positioned not only to diagnose the underlying cause but also to help restore confidence, function, and dignity.

Wound Healing Is Ripe for Innovation 

Advances in regenerative medicine, biologic dressings, growth factors, cellular therapies, negative-pressure systems, antimicrobial materials, artificial intelligence, imaging, and molecular diagnostics are reshaping how we think about tissue repair. This innovation must be grounded in clinical judgment. New technologies are useful only when applied to the right wound, in the right patient, at the right time. Dermatologists can help ensure that wound care remains evidence based, diagnosis driven, and biologically informed.

Prioritizing Wound Care in Dermatology

To bring wound care closer to the center of dermatology, several steps are needed. First, wound healing should receive greater emphasis in dermatology education and residency training, not only as a procedural afterthought but as a core expression of skin biology. Second, dermatologists should be active partners in multidisciplinary wound programs, especially when diagnosis is uncertain or when inflammatory, infectious, neoplastic, or medication-related causes are possible. Third, our specialty should continue to generate high-quality evidence on dermatologic wound management, including outcomes that matter to patients: pain, time to healing, recurrence, scarring, function, and quality of life. Finally, we should encourage collaboration across specialties while making clear that dermatology has a central role to play.

Wound Healing Society

Dermatologists who wish to deepen their engagement in this field do not need to start from scratch. The Wound Healing Society, currently led by dermatologist Robert Kirsner, MD, PhD, provides an important professional home for clinicians and investigators committed to advancing wound-healing science, education, and patient care.² Its educational offerings, clinical resources, webinars, scientific meetings, and multidisciplinary community can help dermatologists build the knowledge base and collaborations needed to participate more fully in modern wound care.³

The Future of Wound Care in Dermatology

This is not about claiming ownership over wound care at the expense of other disciplines. It is about recognizing that skin repair, regeneration, and longevity are fundamental to what dermatologists do. The best wound care is multidisciplinary, but dermatology should be visibly and consistently represented at that table.

Wound care belongs at the heart of dermatology because wounds are more than defects to be closed. They are diagnostic clues, biologic events, therapeutic challenges, and deeply human experiences. As a specialty, we have the tools to understand them, the training to diagnose them, and the responsibility to help patients heal. It is time to place wound healing where it belongs: not at the margins of dermatology, but at its center.

Christopher G. Bunick, MD, PhD, is editor in chief of Dermatology Times and an associate professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

References

1. Grada A, Chandy RJ, Park J, Feldman SR. Outpatient cutaneous wound care in the United States: specialty distribution and antimicrobial prescribing patterns. Antibiotics (Basel). 2026;15(2):142. doi:10.3390/antibiotics15020142
2. Leadership. Wound Healing Society. Accessed June 8, 2026. https://woundheal.org/about/leadership/
3. Educational content. Wound Healing Society. Accessed June 8, 2026. https://woundheal.org/education/