Updates on Inflammatory Diseases

Atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and other inflammatory dermatologic diseases are always hot topics at dermatology conferences across the country as new therapeutic options are approved and studied. In an interview with Dermatology Times®, Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology, director of the Center for Eczema and Itch, medical director of the clinical trials unit in the department of dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and a Dermatology Times® editorial advisory board member, shares highlights from his sessions “Inflammatory Disease Management: Practice Tips,” “Liberating Patients from Prurigo Nodularis One Itch at a Time,” and “A Clear Choice For Plaque Psoriasis Topical Treatment.”

Transcript:

Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD: Hi there, I'm Dr. Raj Chovatiya coming to you from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, where I serve as an assistant professor, director of the Center for Eczema and Itch, and medical director of the clinical trials unit in the department of dermatology. I'm also an editorial advisory board member for Dermatology Times. I'm really excited to give you a preview of the Winter Clinical Hawaii meeting. There's a lot of very fun, exciting, and innovative sessions I'm getting a chance to be a part of and the one I really wanted to highlight was an entire discussion panel on inflammatory diseases. Now you're going to see two groups going back and forth in a little debate style on some of those hot questions we think about related to atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, alopecia areata, even hidradenitis. So, whether you've decided you're a biologic person or an oral person, how do you feel about lab monitoring? And what scores do you like using in a clinical setting? What types of questions, if any, do you ask your patients and what are the most important pearls for an exam, all that is going to be covered, and so it's going to be really fun and interactive for the entire audience. Now another really fun session I'm going to get a chance to participate in is talking about helping patients with prurigo nodularis: one inch at a time. Now PN is a disease that we weren't really talking about that much for many years, but in the last couple, we have been given a lot of innovative research and really cool clinical and therapeutic improvement. We're going to get a chance to talk about some of the burdens, some of the diagnoses, and really the big jumps we've made in terms of FDA-approved therapy and several new therapies that are on the way. Other sessions I'm really excited to talk about include treatment updates as far as JAK inhibitors go with atopic dermatitis, as well as topical innovation in the case of psoriasis. Can't wait. See you there.

Transcript edited for clarity