The Internet is increasingly important for doctors in all branches of medicine, but to what extent it is used by dermatologists is not known. In May 2001, we sent a questionnaire by post to 1,291 members of the dermatological societies of the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway. Six hundred fifty-three (51%) responded. Excluding those from retired doctors and non-dermatologists, 522 questionnaires were available for analysis. Ninety-five percent of the respondents had access to the Internet, at work (77%) and/or at home (83%). Seventy-nine percent used the world wide web for medical updating and other professional purposes. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, age and private practice were negative predictors for Internet use (p<0.001). Sixty-two percent found medical databases on the Internet and 25% believed the Internet version of medical journals to be important for their continuing medical education. This may be compared to those who found medical journals on paper(83%), medical meetings(81%), and various forms of contact with peers and colleagues(62-66%) to be so. This study shows that a large proportion of dermatologists, especially younger doctors, use the Internet for medical and educational purposes, but Internet use has not yet replaced traditional ways of obtaining continuing medical education.