National Eczema Association Expands Visual Guide to Address Skin Tone Disparities

"The patient experience and the eczema journey is so important," said Wendy Smith Begolka, MBS, the Chief Strategy Officer at the National Eczema Association (NEA).

Renata Block, MMS, PA-C, a board-certified physician assistant in Chicago, Illinois, and a Dermatology Times Editorial Advisory Board member, and Begolka discussed efforts to address disparities in eczema diagnosis and treatment, particularly among diverse patient groups. In a previous interview, Begolka and Block discussed the evolving understanding of eczema flares, including the disconnect between clinical definitions and patient experiences.

The NEA is actively addressing disparities in eczema diagnosis and treatment among by expanding its Eczema Visual Guide, a resource designed to document eczema's presentation across different skin tones.

"One of the ways that we have begun to address this is by creating but now also expanding what is called our eczema visual guide," Begolka said, highlighting the existing dsparities. "We definitely have heard from our community as well as health care providers that there is really a paucity of images out there that really just document what eczema, of various types of eczema, look like across the skin tone sort of range that you might encounter in real life individuals."

The guide initially launched with 100 images of eczema in different skin tones. Over the past year, the NEA has worked with patients and providers to expand this collection, aiming to enhance diagnostic accuracy and patient education.

"We launched our visual guide a little over a year and a half ago with around 100 images," Begolka explained. "In this last year, we've had a patient-facing effort to really increase the number of images so that we can provide a much more visual representation of that heterogeneity across skin tones."

The updated guide, expected to launch in 2025, will serve as a reference for health care providers and patients, though it is not a diagnostic tool.

"Even though it's not a diagnostic tool for health care providers, [they can] say this is what I think; this is a good example of what your eczema looks like," said Begolka. "Or this is what it might look like when it would be getting better, or this is what hyperpigmentation might look like, or hypopigmentation might look like."

Expanding Community Engagement

Beyond the visual guide, the NEA is expanding its reach into local communities. Through its Ambassadors Program, NEA is empowering individuals to educate their local networks.

"We still need to be able to penetrate and have our resources reach the community sort of where they live," Begolka emphasized. "So we're taking other steps through our ambassadors to disseminate more locally."

Additionally, the NEA is organizing local educational meetings, including an upcoming event in Chicago on March 22.

"The event is going to be taking place on March 22nd in Chicago at the Gleacher Center, and it's called 'Living Well with Eczema,'" Begolka shared. "It’s a community event designed to give an understanding, a foundation, sort of like an Eczema 101, but also a sense of the community that the National Eczema Association can provide and the resources that are available to help you not only best manage your eczema but really live your best life with eczema."

A Call to Action for Clinicians

Begolka urged health care professionals to connect patients with NEA's resources.

"One of the things that we hear very, very often from our community is, 'I wish we found you sooner,'" she said. "It’s really unfortunate when we hear that from someone who has clearly been struggling with the effects of and the burdens of their disease for quite some time."

She encouraged dermatology clinicians to recommend NEA to their patients as a source of support beyond the clinic.

"It really is an opportunity to give that surround sound for everything that you're going to be telling them in the clinic setting," she said.

Additionally, she highlighted the importance of patient-reported outcomes in eczema management.

"The patient experience and the eczema journey is so important… If you're not collecting at least some form of a patient-reported outcome, I encourage you, you don't have to do everything, just start small," she advised.

For clinicians interested in contributing eczema images to the NEA Visual Guide, Begolka welcomed submissions via the NEA website.

"We have essentially an open call for anyone who would like to submit images," she said. "We’re hoping to have really the biggest library of eczema images available for utilization in a wide variety of purposes."

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