Quarterly Newsletter - April 2023 - Issue No. 18

chris griffiths

It was a pleasure to see so many of you in New Orleans at the American Academy of Dermatology 2023 meeting in March. In-person meetings are so important for promoting collaboration and planning, as are the occasional Jazz Club visit and swamp tour where alligators and unseasonable cold temperatures competed for attention. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the GPA Steering Committee meeting in New Orleans. It was a dynamic, interactive meeting with fascinating, inspirational presentations from Regional Coordinators, Ncoza Dlova and Ricardo Romiti, and IPC Fellow, Jaquelini Barboza Da Silva. By the time our next newsletter is published in July, we will have convened once again in Singapore for the World Congress of Dermatology. We will be hosting a joint reception with IFPA, the IPC and the Burma Skincare Initiative on the evening of 4th July, the invitations for which will be sent out in due course.

 

Since I last wrote to you, The LEO Foundation has approved our application for 1.5 million Euros for Phase III of the GPA. We are immensely grateful for this core funding but continue to pursue additional funding required from industry and non-industry sources. The GPA Annual Report 2022-2023 has been published and I am delighted to let you know that it has been received well by our funders and collaborators. Thank you to everyone who provided updates for the report and to those who were involved in the extensive editing process. Please do follow the link below to read the report and see what we achieved in 2022, as well as what we have planned for 2023 and beyond. I would like to thank Dr Tatjana Maul for her hard work and time spent as Medical Coordinator during Phase II. I will be taking over this role in Phase III and I look forward to continuing discussions and work plans with our Coordinator network.

 

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This newsletter provides updates on our myriad exciting initiatives from website and communication developments, to pending publications and travels to the Eastern Cape. The core GPA team recently had an Away Day on the brooding rainswept moors of Northern England – Wuthering Heights came to mind – where we discussed our research strategy going forward and what we hope to achieve in Phase III. This meeting provided an immensely valuable opportunity to discuss, in an open, forensic manner, the strengths and weaknesses of the GPA as well as any opportunities and threats facing the project.

 

With my best wishes,

Chris Griffiths

Research Update

darren ashcroft

Professor Darren Ashcroft
GPA Research Director

 

We were excited to launch Phase III of the Global Psoriasis Atlas on the 1st of April 2023, and to mark this, we held a research away day to forward plan for our priorities over the next 12 months. This included planning for the presentation of some of the key research studies at the forthcoming World Congress of Dermatology that will be held in Singapore in July. Importantly, we will present findings from our field trip to Greenland last year, plus the work we have recently completed with Dr Choon Siew Eng and her team examining the epidemiology of generalised pustular psoriasis in Malaysia.

 

Alongside this, I’m very pleased to report that we have had some papers accepted for publication since my last research update. The first paper reports on the findings from a cohort study examining fertility trends and adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with psoriasis which has very recently been accepted for publication in JAMA Dermatology. This study included 63,681 women with psoriasis and 318,405 age-matched comparators. We look forward to sharing further details of this new publication in due course.

 

We have also recently published our skin disease survey of the Maasai in North Eastern Tanzania (https://academic.oup.com/bjd/article-abstract/188/2/303/6779539?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false). Of relevance to the GPA was partly the confirmation of the rarity of psoriasis in Tanzania. We also demonstrated that skin disease impacts the work and social lives of the Maasai and highlights the need for field studies in certain communities to better understand their specific dermatological needs and avoid the potential challenges of extrapolating data from studies elsewhere in the region.

 

Finally, we are developing plans to take forward new studies using the diagnostic training tool and very much look forward to working with our Regional and National Coordinators on these new initiatives.

 

Coordinator Update – Dr Claudia De la Cruz and Dr Daniela Armijo

 

In Chile, the estimated incidence of psoriasis is 22.7 per 100,000 person/year. During 2020, Clínica Dermacross, a dermatological centre specialising in psoriasis and rheumatology, launched a psoriasis campaign aiming to create a community and deliver medical information on psoriasis. The campaign currently has more than 13,000 followers and a free of charge book has been delivered to 1000 patients and their families.

 

Through this campaign, we learned that one of the main barriers for people with psoriasis is access to dermatological treatments. The mission of Clínica Dermacross is to understand the patients’ perspectives and their needs when it comes to accessing treatments. With that in mind, it was decided to carry out an ‘open psoriasis clinic’, where we offered 200 free medical consultations. The consultation was focused on initiating treatment and advising the patients on their next steps so that they could discuss them later with their physicians.

 

The patients were evaluated by a total of 5 dermatologists, 2 rheumatologists and 10 staff members. Less than 10% of the patients were on systemic treatments, although most of them had moderate-severe psoriasis, so we were able to prescribe them an initial treatment according to their needs.

 

We achieved 100% satisfaction reported by the patients, as well as a high level of fulfillment from the medical staff due to the satisfaction of joining such a rewarding and humanitarian project. Our goal is to continue giving support to psoriasis patients. We are also excited to continue with free psoriasis consultations.

 

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Dr Claudia De la Cruz with clinic staff

 

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Left to right: Dr Daniela Armijo, Dr Claudia De la Cruz and Dr Felipe Da Costa

 

The LEO Foundation

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We are grateful to The LEO Foundation for their funding support during Phase I and Phase II of the GPA and are delighted that they will continue as the lead supporter of the GPA during Phase III. You can read more about their funding support here: Global Psoriasis Atlas receives grant of EUR 1.5 million - LEO Foundation (leo-foundation.org)

 

"‘I am really delighted that the LEO Foundation continues to fund the GPA in Phase III. The LEO Foundation’s funding of the GPA has been instrumental to the success of the Atlas. Phase III funding will allow us to collect the data on the global burden of psoriasis and in turn lead to better access to care for people with the disease wherever they live in the world.”

- Professor Griffiths.

 

Without the support of The LEO Foundation, the work of the GPA would not be possible. We are looking forward to continuing our research into the epidemiology of psoriasis over the next 3 years.

 
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The LEO Foundation's visit to the GPA office in Manchester in 2022

 

Industry Sponsorship

 

We have recently updated our Partnership Brochure which provides detailed information on our support packages and different ways in which you can support the GPA. You can view and share our brochure by clicking the image below. We have also produced a short video aimed at industry which you can view here: https://www.globalpsoriasisatlas.org/en/resources#industrySponsorship

 

Industry Sponsorship PDF
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Annual Report 2022-2023

 

The GPA Annual Report 2022-2023 was published on the 31st of March. Click the image below to see what we accomplished in 2022 and what we have planned for 2023 and beyond – we have been very busy. Thank you to all GPA collaborators for their contributions to the Annual Report.

 

Annual Report Greenland
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IPC Fellow Visit to Manchester

In January and February, Professor Ashcroft, Professor Griffiths and the GPA team hosted Dr Jaquelini Barboza da Silva (IPC Fellow) in Manchester and London, UK. Jaquelini spent time at The University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Trust and King’s College London. Jaquelini has a strong interest in psoriasis and had translated the survey developed by Peslie Ng’Ambi, as part of his PhD work with the GPA, and conducted it in Southern Brazil in 2022. Professor Ashcroft and Dr Alison Wright, GPA Researcher, were helping Jaquelini with the analysis.

 

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Jaquelini Barboza da Silva and Rebekah Swan

 

American Academy of Dermatology’s Annual Meeting 2023

The GPA Steering Committee and Board of Governors’ meetings took place during the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in New Orleans on Saturday 18th March. The meetings were hybrid with a combination of in-person and online attendance. The Steering Committee meeting included updates from the GPA Director, Chris Griffiths, GPA Research Director, Darren Ashcroft, PD. Dr Julia Tatjana Maul and dynamic presentations by Regional Coordinators, Ricardo Romiti and Ncoza Dlova, and IPC Fellow, Jaquelini Barboza Da Silva. GPA Programme Manager, Rebekah Swan, also provided an overview of marketing and communications. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the meeting.

 

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SKINSCAPE: Skin Disease Survey in the Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape is an under resourced province in South Africa where little is known about the prevalence of skin disease. Working in collaboration with our Regional Coordinator for South Africa, Professor Ncoza Dlova, we plan to conduct a detailed prevalence study on psoriasis, and all other skin diseases, in rural communities in the Eastern Cape region. Our ambition is to guide future research, improve our understanding of the range and distribution of skin diseases and improve healthcare resource planning in the region.

 

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Arabic Translation of GPA Website

The GPA website and all accompanying resources are currently being translated into Arabic. We expect to publish the Arabic website in May. Thank you to Dr Ireny Iskandar who assisted us during the translation process.

 

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Thank you, Dr Teng-Chou Chen

The GPA team would like to give a special thank you to Dr Teng-Chou Chen for his industry and dedication during his time on the GPA team. Teng-Chou was an integral member of the research team and co-authored a number of papers, including “Incidence, Prevalence, and Mortality of People with Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis in Taiwan: A Nationwide Cohort Study”, published in Acta-Dermato Venereology, and ‘’Fertility trends and adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with psoriasis in the United Kingdom’’ which has been accepted for publication in JAMA Dermatology. We wish Teng-Chou every success in his new role back home in Taiwan.

 

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Dr Teng-Chou Chen

 

Upcoming meetings

 

  • 25th World Congress of Dermatology, Singapore, 3rd-8th July 2023
    • IPC, IFPA, GPA and Burma Skincare Initiative joint reception during the WCD: Tuesday 4th July, 6.30-9.00pm SMT
  • European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress, Berlin, 11th-14th October