WASHINGTON – The National Eczema Association (NEA) has established the Coalition United for Better Eczema Care (CUBE-C) to provide practitioners with a resource for “trustworthy, up-to-date, state of the art” information on atopic dermatitis, with the goal of improving health outcomes, according to Julie Block, president and chief executive officer of the NEA.
In an interview at a symposium presented by CUBE-C, Ms. Block provided more information on CUBE-C, including how and why it started and what it can offer to dermatologists, as well as primary care physicians, who care for patients with atopic dermatitis. She said that the NEA convened dermatologists, allergists, immunologists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and patients “to design a curriculum that provided an entire picture of the patient experience, so that we could go out and educate not only on the basics of eczema and atopic dermatitis for a variety of practitioners ... but also for the specialists who are now going to be engaging in new innovations and new therapies for their patients.”
She was joined by Adam Friedman, MD, professor of dermatology and residency program director at George Washington University, Washington, where the symposium, a resident’s boot camp, was held. The boot camp was somewhat unique in that it was geared more towards trainees; typically, the CUBE-C program is a CME program for practitioners, but this reflects the flexibility of the program, which can be tailored to the audience, Dr. Friedman pointed out. “The hope is that programs like these pop up all over the place ... anywhere you have a critical mass of individuals who want to learn about this,” where planners can choose from a menu of topics provided by CUBE-C – which include therapeutics, infections, pathogenesis, and access to care – and “easily formulate a conference like we held here today for the right audience.”
Topics covered at the George Washington University symposium included the impact of climate on the prevalence of childhood eczema, the diagnosis and differential diagnosis in children, infections in atopic dermatitis patients, and itch treatment.
More information on CUBE-C is available on the NEA website.
The symposium was supported by an educational grant from Sanofi Genzyme, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer. Dr. Friedman reported serving as a speaker for Regeneron, Pfizer, and other companies. He also consults and serves on the advisory board for Pfizer and multiple other companies developing and marketing atopic dermatitis therapies and products.