About Skin Trust
Evidence-based education. Accountable authorship.
Skin Trust exists to help patients and families understand skin disease, treatment choices, and what usually comes next—without turning education into an advertisement for a practice.
Our mission
Understanding should travel.
Good education should not depend on geography, appointment length, or whether a patient already knows the right questions to ask. Skin Trust turns complex dermatology into a clear path through diagnosis, decisions, treatment, healing, and prevention.
The institution has an explicit editorial stance: dermatology and dermatologic surgery are valuable when the evidence earns that conclusion. The same standard requires us to explain when surgery may not be necessary, when alternatives deserve serious consideration, and where the evidence does not justify certainty.
Persuasion comes from clarity, sources, and honest tradeoffs—not concealed interests or claims of neutrality that no educational publisher can truly make.
Editorial standards
What every page should earn.
01
Evidence before certainty
We begin with medical literature, clinical guidelines, textbooks, conferences, and continuing study. We distinguish what is established from what remains uncertain or contested.
02
Named physician accountability
Articles identify the physician responsible for the final educational content. Authorship is a promise of accountability, not a marketing claim.
03
Balanced treatment choices
We explain where dermatology, dermatologic surgery, and Mohs surgery are supported by evidence—and where observation, medication, radiation, or another approach may fit better.
04
Patient decisions first
We organize education around the questions patients actually face: what a diagnosis means, which options exist, what happens next, and what deserves a conversation with a clinician.
05
Corrections are part of trust
Medical knowledge changes. Material should carry review dates, source support, and a visible path for correction when evidence or guidance changes.
Editor-in-Chief
Thomas L.H. Hocker, MD, MPhil
Dr. Hocker serves as Skin Trust's Editor-in-Chief. He is a triple board-certified dermatologist, dermatopathologist, and Mohs surgeon whose work spans diagnosis, skin-cancer treatment, reconstruction, and patient education.
Through Skin Trust, he brings evidence, clinical judgment, writing, and teaching together in a free educational resource for patients and clinicians. The mission is to widen access to trustworthy knowledge, reduce avoidable suffering, and help people make better-informed decisions about their health.
Standard article byline: Thomas L.H. Hocker, MD — Triple board-certified Dermatologist · Textbook Author, Review of Dermatology · Editor in chief, Skin-Trust.
Disclosures
Plainly stated.
Dr. Hocker is the founder of Advanced Dermatologic Surgery, a clinical dermatology and skin-surgery practice in the Kansas City area. Skin Trust has a separate educational mission. Practice links, appointment requests, comparative marketing, and conversion calls to action do not belong inside Skin Trust articles.
Skin Trust provides education, not personal medical diagnosis or treatment. A patient’s own clinician must interpret information in the context of the actual examination, pathology, medical history, goals, and available choices.