Jonathan Silverberg, MD, Previews Upcoming Virtual RAD Conference and Exciting Topics

The 2023 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) virtual conference will be held on December 10, from 1pm to 6pm ET. Important topics such as new and emerging treatments for atopic dermatitis (AD), what’s new in AD management, how to select the best therapy for your patients, late-breaking data, and more will be reviewed by experts in the field.

Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor of dermatology and director of clinical research and contact dermatitis at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC, and the founder of the Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) conference, spoke with Dermatology Times to further discuss the upcoming meeting and what’s important in the AD space in dermatology.

Additionally, Dermatology Times and RAD are looking forward to an exciting new Strategic Alliance Partnership between the two organizations to further promote high-quality education and patient care.

Transcript

Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH: I am Dr. Jonathan Silverberg. I'm a professor of dermatology and director of clinical research and patch testing at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC.

Dermatology Times: What motivated you to start the Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis conference?

Silverberg: There's been a lot of really major updates in the world of atopic dermatitis; our understanding of the disease has grown tremendously, many new insights into underlying pathogenesis, disease burden, how to properly assess patients, all these new medications in our toolbox now. And with all of these new advances, many clinicians really just are a little lost. There's just so much happening. It's hard to keep up with it, and really trying to get high-quality evidence and understanding how to guide clinical practice in a meaningful way. The RevolutionizingAtopic Dermatitis conference was developed to really address all of those different issues really, you know, provide that both that balance of cutting edge, all the new insights, and updates in the field things that we can incorporate into our practice today, but also making sure that there's a solid body of evidence and really being attentive to high-quality education and high-quality evidence.

Dermatology Times: What sets RAD apart from other conferences?

Silverberg: RAD is a fascinating conference in the sense that it really brings together a lot of very important stakeholders. Not only do we have dermatologists and pediatric dermatologists, but we also have the feedback of our colleagues from allergy immunology, primary care, patient representatives, and patient stakeholder feedback, and putting all that together to provide those insights to really shape our clinical practice. And in addition, we have a wonderful mix of speakers from around the world who are truly experts in their area of content, as well as, cutting edge late-breaking research presentations around clinical research and things that we can implement on a daily basis in our practice, and really a strong attention to not only what is on sort of the exploratory side of things, but what can we do right now. What can we incorporate into our practices and, and ultimately improve the lives of our patients?

Dermatology Times: How does RAD contribute to optimizing dermatology practice and improving patient outcomes?

Silverberg: When we're managing patients with any chronic disease in general, but atopic dermatitis in particular, there's obviously a lot that goes into it. And it starts with, can we get the diagnosis right? And let's be real, sometimes in atopic dermatitis, it's not easy, especially in those adult-onset cases. Are we properly assessing the severity? Do we understand the burden of disease? Do we even know how to properly do that in clinical practice? And in a way that's feasible? That won't slow us down in practice? And then, well, what are our choices? What are our therapeutic options? How well do they really work? How do they stack up against each other? When should we choose one therapy over another, especially with this growing toolbox? These are so many different steps of how we manage patients that we really need updated guidance on. And the RAD conference really tries to tackle all of that, to really enhance and optimize our ability to deliver care for our patients at all levels.

Dermatology Times: What are you most excited about and looking forward to in what's currently going on in dermatology?

Silverberg: Dermatology is really the next horizon now for therapeutic development. There are so many amazing things that are happening. Atopic dermatitis is so hot right now. And it's going to be hot for the next 10 years, with the arrival of so many new therapies. But really, so many of the other chronic inflammatory skin diseases are really heating up as well, such as vitiligo and alopecia areata. And these are areas that we also need high-quality education around. And, really have to work hard to keep up with all those updates.

Dermatology Times: What are you looking forward to most with partnering with Dermatology Times?

Silverberg: Dermatology Times has worked very hard to deliver high-quality education to dermatologists across all therapeutic areas, and I look forward to partnering together with the RAD conference in order to deliver some of the best quality education for atopic dermatitis, and to really reach the masses of dermatologists in the trenches and making sure that they get what they need to ultimately optimize the care of their patients.

Dermatology Times: Regarding virtual RAD coming up in December, what topics are you most excited about?

Silverberg: I'm really excited about the upcoming RAD conference in December. We're going to have some very important updates, addressing recently approved therapies now in the topical space, in the oral, systemic and biologic space, both new therapies, new insights into therapies that we already have available to us. But we're also going to have some really cool presentations trying to address some of the recent guideline updates, and what should we be keeping in mind when we're addressing patients, and how to reconcile some of the differences. But very importantly, with so many new options available to us for the management of atopic dermatitis, so many choices, but so little time. How do we make that choice? How do we make the right choice for our patients? And we're going to have some really outstanding insights from world-renowned lectures, but also patient stakeholder feedback to help guide us in terms of what matters for patients. And then of course, we have our late-breaking research session, which is going to have some really cool and cutting-edge research being presented.

Dermatology Times: What is in the atopic dermatitis pipeline right now that you're personally looking forward to?

Silverberg: There are many, many new things in the pipeline that are looking extremely promising for atopic dermatitis. We've got multiple new topical therapies under development and late stage and may be approved already by this time next year. We've got a new biologic coming within the next few weeks. We've got another biologic coming out, but probably within 2024 for the management of atopic dermatitis, and we have multiple new classes of medication that all look extremely promising that are now either in late phase 2 or mid-phase 2 studies now. This is not just theoretical advances that may or may not, you know, pan out 30 years from now; these are actionable. I mean, they're coming to a practice near you. They're going to be approved in 2023 2024, and then so much more even beyond that.

[Transcript edited for clarity]