“ARM Yourself with Knowledge": Emmy Graber, MD, MBA, Shares Insights on Acne, Rosacea, and More

As founder and course director of the “ARM Yourself with Knowledge” meetings, Emmy Graber, MD, MBA, shared some recent highlights on acne, rosacea, atopic dermatitis, and alopecia areata. Free, on-demand content from each meeting is available to watch on the ARM website.

TRANSCRIPT:

Graber: Hi. I'm Dr Emmy Graber. I am in private practice in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Dermatology Institute of Boston, and I am an affiliate clinical instructor at Northeastern University, also in Boston, Massachusetts. I am the founder and director of the "ARM Yourself with Knowledge" virtual meeting series.

Dermatology Times: As course director and founder, what inspired you to establish the "ARM Yourself with Knowledge" meetings?

Graber: So, I decided to found the "ARM Yourself with Knowledge" meetings because I felt there was a real need to better understand acne and rosacea. The "ARM" Yourself with Knowledge" meetings started out as just discussing acne and rosacea, but now we've expanded into other disease states, such as atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata. I started with acne and rosacea because that's my passion, but also because at the time, 5 years ago when I was starting these meetings, there were a lot of new therapeutic modalities in acne and rosacea. I found that while a lot of great meetings offered lectures on these new therapeutics, they were maybe limited to 5 or 10-minute talks, which were really pretty quick and didn't allow the attendee to dive deeper and get a better, thorough understanding as to how to utilize these medications and modalities to treat our patients with acne. So I founded the meeting to have more extended lectures, longer lectures, diving into each of these different treatment options, and also creating a longer panel discussion. What I was finding was that at a lot of meetings, there were panel discussions which the audience really loved, but they were maybe limited to just a few questions or lasting 5 or 10 minutes. So as part of the "ARM Yourself with Knowledge" meeting series, I wanted to offer extended panel discussions that went maybe 20, 30 minutes or longer, to talk to the experts and get their opinions on how to do things.

Dermatology Times: How do the ARM meetings give back to clinicians?

Graber: The ARM meetings give back to dermatology clinicians in that it gives them the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of each therapeutic, not just to glance over the basics of it. It also allows clinicians to ask questions in an interactive platform so that we can then address them in the panel discussion. If you missed the "ARM Yourself with Knowledge" virtual meeting series in 2024, you can still watch it. If you go to armmeeting.com, the content is still available, free on demand if you register, and you can get free CME for watching the meetings. There's one meeting on acne and rosacea and a second meeting on atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata. I hope you'll attend.

Dermatology Times: What are some clinical pearls you shared at the first meeting on acne and rosacea?

Graber: So, there were two clinical pearls that I really enjoyed learning about at the acne and rosacea meeting that I don't always think of, and one was dealing with topical clascoterone. Now I know that topical clascoterone is a sebum inhibitor. We think of it that way, as the only topical that we have available to inhibit sebum, but I often don't think of it as also being anti-inflammatory in nature. And there were a few lectures that pointed that out. And so, I think that's important to remember, that not only is it reducing oil in the skin, but it's also having an anti-inflammatory mechanism of action. The other takeaway that I want to emphasize to patients was Dr Del Rosso talked a bit about data, talking about relapse rates after patients completed a course of isotretinoin. And he shared some data to suggest that relapse rates, or the need for another course of isotretinoin, is lowest amongst those who take the lidose version of isotretinoin. And we know the lidose version of isotretinoin can be absorbed with food or without food, so that's really important for our patients, and it's important to know that using this formulation may lower relapse rates.

Dermatology Times: What were some key takeaways you shared in the second meeting on atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata?

Graber: There is so much new in atopic dermatitis and alopecia areata. You have biologics, the JAK inhibitors. What I took away from that was that it's not just simple things that we can offer our patients, but we have these new modalities that we need to keep learning about through meetings such as this, to stay up to date and learn about those. There were a few things about topical treatments that I took away from those meetings, and one was about topical ruxolitinib. Ruxolitinib seems to work very fast, and I didn't realize quite how fast it works in reducing pruritus. So some data was shared showing that, as early as 15 minutes after application, patients are noting a reduction in itch with it reaching its peak effect at reducing itch 4 hours afterward. So that was a big takeaway/pearl for me. Not only does it work, which I know it works, and the data suggests that, but I saw data to suggest that it works really quickly to reduce itch.

Dermatology Times: What upcoming dermatological advancements are you most looking forward to in 2025?

Graber: So upcoming in 2025, there's a couple things that I am really excited about as it pertains to acne and rosacea. And rosacea in particular, there's a newly FDA-approved low-dose minocycline for treating rosacea, and I'm excited to be able to offer that to my patients in 2025. There's also been a lot of new medications coming out and being approved for hidradenitis and this is very exciting because we know that patients with that disease suffer so much, and it's great to know that there may be some new options on the horizon.

Dermatology Times: As the year winds down, what was one of the most exciting aspects of dermatology to you in 2024?

Graber: So one of the most exciting things to me about dermatology in 2024 was just seeing how much is new in dermatology. I went to a lot of meetings this year, including running my own virtual meeting, the "ARM Yourself with Knowledge" meeting. And it's just phenomenal to look back at 10 years ago and see what we have now and what everyone is talking about. And there's so many new pharmaceuticals and therapeutic modalities for many different diseases. And I think, in general, hearing all of my colleagues speak about these different things in 2024 has been especially exciting for me.

[Transcript has been edited for clarity.]