A note from our founder
My parents immigrated to Canada with less than $600 between them. There were no doctors in our family and I became the first.
I matched into dermatology, and I thought that was the hard part. Then I started practicing, and I saw the real problem.
Why I built DermCafé
I trained for ten years to see patients who had already waited more than six months. So I built something better.
Dr. Annie Liu, Co-founder of DermCafé
I had trained for ten years, only to see patients who had been waiting more than six months.
By the time they reached me, the care that could have truly helped often came too late. That's not what I trained for.
So I quit the traditional set up of medicine, that wasn't working for my patients or for me.
In 2020, with one developer and no investors, I built DermCafé, a virtual derm micro-clinic. Your dermatologist reviews the photos you submit, then meets you by video, so care no longer depends on which doctors happen to practice near you. When more patients need us, we add more dermatologists to the team instead of adding to a waitlist. That's how a six month wait became less than one week.
We launched in May 2020. There was resistance from the start, from colleagues, even some of my own mentors, and from the systems built to keep medicine the way it had always been. But patients kept coming, so I knew the spirit of the service was right for them.
And I named it DermCafé on purpose.
Seeing your dermatologist should feel like grabbing a coffee. Quick, easy, personal.
So pull up a chair. We saved you a seat.
- Dr. Annie Liu
Co-founder, DermCafé