Saul Halpern
Consultant Dermatologist

Consultant profile

Dr Saul Halpern qualified from the London Hospital Medical College (University of London) in 1987 with an additional first class honours degree in Pharmacology.  He subsequently undertook higher medical training at St Bartholomew’s and Guy’s Hospitals London, prior to obtaining membership of the Royal College of Physicians.  He then entered specialist training in Dermatology as Registrar at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London in 1991 and spent a further year’s research fellowship investigating biochemical effects of steroids on the skin, before moving to Liverpool as senior registrar in 1995.  In 1998 he was appointed as Consultant Dermatologist at The Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, Kent and was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) in 2000. 

During 21 years as NHS consultant at The Medway NHS Foundation Trust Dr Halpern became educational supervisor for trainee dermatologists as well as teaching junior hospital doctors, GP trainees, GPs and medical students.  He was a core member of the Skin Cancer Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and took a leading role in departmental management and governance.

Following the Trust’s decision to stop providing a secondary care dermatology facility at Medway Maritime Hospital in 2019, Dr Halpern was appointed as consultant Dermatologist at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, where he is now their lead clinician and educational lead.  He currently performs skin cancer screening clinics and dermatological surgery from the Dermatology hub department at Kent & Canterbury Hospital, in Canterbury and general dermatology clinics at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford.

Dr Halpern has been involved in the development of Teledermatology (use of digital technology to remotely diagnose and advise on management of skin disease) since 2001 and is now widely considered as a national expert in the field.  He was chairman of the British Teledermatology Society from 2006 – 2018 and chairman of the British Association of Dermatologists Teledermatology Sub-Committee to 2019.  He is also the UK representative and Board member of the International Society of Teledermatology, acting as its President from 2014-16, and organiser of the 6th World Congress of Teledermatology in London 2016.

He has lectured and been an invited speaker, particularly in the field of Teledermatology, at multiple national events and international conferences including the World Congress of Dermatology 2019.  He has written and co-authored on numerous publications and has been an invited reviewer of submitted papers for leading Dermatological journals including the British Journal of Dermatology, Clinical and Experimental Dermatology and European Journal of Dermatology and Veneriology.

Dr Halpern believes in a holistic approach to his patients and the importance of an excellent rapport in order to facilitate the optimal management for their skin conditions.  He is a fastidious dermatological surgeon, insisting on the best cosmetic outcome to skin surgery wherever possible.