Discussing Clinical Pearls in Dermatology With Omar Noor, MD, FAAD

Kicking off the Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants (SDPA) Annual Summer Dermatology Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, Omar Noor, MD, FAAD, presented his session, "Clinical Pearls for Pediatric and Adult Dermatology."

Noor, a board-certified dermatologist, co-owner of Rao Dermatology, and Penn Medicine affiliate, sat down with Dermatology Times® to discuss the key highlights of his session.

Omar Noor, MD, FAAD: My name is Omar Noor. I am a board-certified dermatologist in New York and New Jersey, and I am affiliated with Penn Medicine.

Dermatology Times: What are key highlights and takeaways from your session, "Clinical Pearls for Pediatric and Adult Dermatology?"

Noor: Pearls from adult and pediatric dermatology, it really was a session to really focus on the bread and butter of dermatology, which tends to lean itself towards acne and atopic dermatitis being the most common conditions that we see—really making sure that we are at the forefront of as much innovation and as much learning and education that we can be in order to provide the best treatments for our patients. A lot of times, we sometimes get a little bit distracted with things outside that maybe are not as common, that we see sometimes in our practice, but really getting down to the bones of what is most common and what can help most of our patients.

Dermatology Times: What are some top considerations and factors when differentiating and diagnosing skin conditions?

Noor: When evaluating atopic dermatitis, you really want to communicate well with the patient. Atopic dermatitis is a clinical diagnosis. We very infrequently are biopsying a rash to rule out atopic dermatitis. It's more of a discussion with the individual, and we know that distribution of atopic dermatitis can vary based on age, it can vary based on skin color. And for a lot of times, sometimes you may not realize it, but the things that we really look out for are symptoms like itch, and then distribution. The waxing and waning nature of atopic dermatitis can really clue us into that diagnosis.

Dermatology Times: What are some challenges to consider when developing management/treatment plans for specific skin conditions?

Noor: Some of the things that we talk about that can be challenging is really identifying age-appropriate treatments. So there are some treatments that are specifically FDA approved for a certain age group, and we kind of need to stay within the rails of what's appropriate, what's on label. Not saying that we can't lean off label in certain scenarios, but we really want to stay on label as much as possible because we know we have the framework of that clinical trial to base our decision making from. We're very lucky that in atopic dermatitis, we have biologics like dupilumab down to 6 months of age, so really having that as our main kind of tool for that disease allows for helping those patients.

[Transcript edited for clarity]