Allergan, Skinbetter Science Announce DREAM: Driving Racial Equity in Aesthetic Medicine

Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company, and Skinbetter Science recently announced the launch of its long-term initiative, DREAM: Driving Racial Equity in Aesthetic Medicine. The companies say the initiative will further the understanding of racial and ethnic diversity and inclusion in dermatology and plastic surgery.

"As leaders in aesthetics, Allergan Aesthetics and Skinbetter Science are likeminded in our pursuit of advancing equality and diversity in the aesthetics market and believe it is our responsibility to create meaningful, positive change within our own companies, and with our customers," stays Carrie Strom, senior vice president, AbbVie and president, Global Allergan Aesthetics, in the press release. "We are inaugurating the DREAM Initiative with three important projects, which will immediately expand available resources to enhance the care of all patients, as well as to better diagnose and treat dermatologic conditions across the full spectrum of skin types and patients of color."

Case studies and other data for identifying symptoms and disease relevant to people of color are grossly underrepresented in medical textbooks, which can lead to under- or misdiagnoses.

With the DREAM initiative, Allergan and Skinbetter Sciences are working to bridge the gap by creating The National Racial Equity Medical Residency Curriculum.

The curriculum, as a help to students, faculty and staff within dermatology and plastic surgery residency programs, will assist in the identification of implicit bias risk in academic and clinical settings, and show how to address the situation when it happens.

It is being piloted by a leading university and will then be rolled out nationally, according to the press release.

DREAM will also be sponsoring the development of The Spectrum of Dermatologic Disease, a photo atlas textbook showing comprehensive characteristics of skin conditions across racial and ethnic skin types. Upon publication, the textbook will be disseminated to medical residents, faculty, and program libraries.

With plans to convene Forces of Beauty Summits, the companies hope to help identify different beauty perceptions among racial and ethnic groups so that the dermatology and plastic surgery specialties, corporations, and media can better understand the needs of all patients, according to the release.

"Inspired by the nationwide peaceful protests that have galvanized our communities in calling for racial equity in all sectors of society, Skinbetter Science and Allergan Aesthetics wanted to identify ways in which we could leverage our collective experience and knowledge to make a tangible contribution to improving health equity," says Jonah Shacknai, executive chairman of Skinbetter Science, in the release. "Helping to make aesthetics and dermatology more inclusive and fair, and enabling physicians and healthcare providers to bring that to life, is an important place to start."

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