Q&A: Clinician Investing and Injection Anxiety, With Manju Dawkins, MD

Injectable therapy now anchors a growing share of dermatologic care, and needle fear remains a practical barrier to it. A meta-analysis of 119 studies in the Journal of Advanced Nursing found needle fear in most children and estimated prevalence at 20% - 50% in adolescents and 20% - 30% in young adults.¹

The same analysis tied needle fear to avoidance of influenza vaccination in 16% of adult patients and found the fear common among patients with chronic conditions requiring injection.¹ For dermatologists prescribing long-term injectables, these figures point to a patient-experience gap sitting alongside efficacy data.

Clinician-founded ventures aimed at gaps like this one increasingly find early backing through specialty-specific investment networks. Skin Angels, a dermatologist-driven angel group operating for close to 2 years, has seen more than 300 companies present, according to Peter Lio, MD.² Members have funded more than 30 of them, spanning over-the-counter products, drugs, and devices.²

The group screens early-stage companies, hosts pitch sessions, and leaves each member to decide individually whether to invest, with some joining companies as advisors instead. Manju Dawkins, MD, a board-certified dermatologist practicing in Redondo Beach and Torrance, California, founded Thimble Health, an over-the-counter needle care platform. The company pairs patches for use before and after injections with an app addressing needle anxiety.

She joined the LEADderm session "Skin Angels at LEADderm: Building the Next Generation of Dermatology Innovation" to share her path from clinician to founder. In this new Q&A interview, Dawkins spoke with the HCPLive editorial staff at LEADderm 2026 in Newport Beach, California, about the Skin Angels model, clinician roles in dermatology innovation, and injection pain and anxiety.

HCPLive: Can you walk us through why this session was important for you to present?

Manju Dawkins, MD: Yes. First of all, I'm going to be part of an ensemble of skin angels, and we're the first dermatology-driven angel group. So it's new, it's exciting, we're growing. I'm excited to inform people about what we're doing and all the opportunities beyond just being a clinician in dermatology. What are the investment opportunities, the advising opportunities? What if you have your own startup, which is how I got involved? I do have my own startup, and that's what I'm going to be talking about. It's my own story of entrepreneurship, what it's taught me, what I've learned along the way, and there's a lot more to learn.

HCPLive: Why is Skin Angels significant, and what takeaways do you hope attendees leave with?

Manju Dawkins, MD: I think there's just a lot of opportunity. There's so much new stuff in dermatology, every aspect: drug development, aesthetics, AI in dermatology. There's so much that's happening, and I think it's really important that we as clinicians play a role in the development. We have to have a voice, and it's important. We can't just keep our heads down in clinic. We've got to expand our role not only in medicine, but also in society. I think this is one way where we can explore.

HCPLive: Can you explain what this angel investor group is?

Manju Dawkins, MD: It's an angel group made up of dermatologists and other experts in skin disease. We meet on a regular basis. We screen hundreds of companies, actually, who are in different spaces: drug development, aesthetics, AI, tech. We screen all of these different companies, and then we try to get the ones that we think would be most interesting to the group in front of them.

We have these pitch sessions, then we debrief and evaluate them, and then everybody is able to make their own decisions about whether they want to invest or not. Sometimes the opportunity isn't just investment. A lot of these companies may be built by tech leads or people from the business world, so again, it's important to have that clinician voice. It's an opportunity for a dermatologist to potentially come on as an advisor, and so on and so forth. So that's the story.

HCPLive: Should clinicians seeking investment for their own ideas consider joining Skin Angels right now?

Manju Dawkins, MD: Yes, I think so. Lots of people are trying to grow in the area of skin care, so come to Skin Angels. We would love to have people present their ideas, their companies, their vision, and hopefully we all grow together in a great way.

HCPLive: What are you most looking forward to in dermatology right now?

Manju Dawkins, MD: There's so much exciting stuff happening in dermatology. There's been an explosion of new drugs, and what I think is amazing is we're coming back to a time where we're thinking about the actual human being experiencing the care. It's not just about the new drug, but how is the new drug benefiting the patient? What I'm seeing is, for example, injectable medications where there are fewer injections over time, which makes the experience of receiving those injections so much better, paying attention to how the patient feels when they receive it.

Oral versions of all of these molecules that we know are so effective. So I'm excited about that. I'm also excited to see the way that we as dermatologists have really opened our minds to what is out there. It's not just pharma, it's not just surgery. What are the integrative things we can be doing, exploring different modalities of medicine that we can incorporate into practice?

My startup was actually what led me to be a part of Skin Angels. My startup is called Thimble Health. It is a platform of products to lessen the pain of injections. There's a patch called the Prepare Patch that you apply before any injection to numb the skin so that the injection doesn't hurt as much. Then there's a post-procedure patch that's plant-based, called the Recover Patch, and you apply it afterward to alleviate the soreness and bruising for up to 2 days. We also think about the psychological aspects, so we're building an app that puts all those research-backed tools together.

The reason I'm so excited about it is, as we've all seen, there is just an explosion of injectables, not just biologics, but GLP-1s being used in dermatology, and this is amazing for patients. But I think we need to think more and more about how patients are feeling when they're receiving this care, and we need to empower those patients, the 60% of adults who are experiencing needle phobia these days and don't have a lot of support. We need to think about how they feel and offer them solutions where we can.

Editor's Note: This transcript has been edited for grammar and clarity using artificial intelligence tools. Dawkins had no relevant disclosures of note.

References

1. McLenon J, Rogers MAM. The fear of needles: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Adv Nurs. 2019;75(1):30-42. doi:10.1111/jan.13818.

2. Lio P. Skin Angels and the Atopic Dermatitis Pipeline, With Peter Lio, MD. HCPLive. August 31, 2026. Accessed September 24, 2026. https://www.hcplive.com/view/skin-angels-atopic-dermatitis-pipeline-peter-lio-md.