Quarterly Newsletter - April 2025 - Issue No. 26

Professor Chris Griffiths
GPA Director

Director's Foreword

Welcome to the Spring edition of the Global Psoriasis Atlas (GPA) newsletter. It was a pleasure to see so many of you in Orlando at the American Academy of Dermatology 2025 conference in March. Our international leadership team has expanded markedly in the past several months as we have been joined by an enthusiastic band of new National Coordinators representing more than 40 countries and regions from Mauritania to Montenegro. It was standing room only at our Steering Committee meeting! Thank you to all those who were able to attend our meetings, these in-person meetings are so important for promoting collaboration and planning of the GPA.

The GPA Annual Report 2024-2025 was published earlier this month, the report provides detailed updates on GPA research and activities over the past year. Please do follow the link below to read the report and see what we have achieved over the past year.

I am particularly excited about the energy and opportunities generated by our interactions with the three other Atlases under the umbrella of the ILDS’s “Grand Challenges in Global Skin Health” namely Atopic Dermatitis, Vitiligo and Hidradenitis Suppurativa. Two recent events have reinforced how we have an economy of scale that is at the same time synergistic: (i) a strategy day was held in London in February and (ii) the annual in-person, two-day event that the ILDS WHO committee organises with our cognate team leads at the WHO in Geneva.

An imminent and huge opportunity is around the fact that Côte d’ Ivoire, together with Nigeria, Togo, Micronesia, China, Egypt and Colombia is leading an initiative to place skin diseases firmly on the global public health agenda and have proposed a World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution on “Skin diseases as a global public health priority”. The vote on this will take place at the WHA in May; if successful this will be a game-changer for people with skin disease and their clinical teams worldwide. Fingers crossed.

On a final note, congratulations to Dr Jacquelini Barboza da Silva on being appointed as an International Psoriasis Council (IPC) Councilor. Jacquelini spent time with the GPA team as an IPC Fellow in 2021. Our “youth team” is so important to us, and we have been fortunate to host a number of IPC Fellows over the years, most recently Dr Bryan Guevera (Philippines) in 2024 and for this year Dr Doriane Sabushimike (Burundi). We look forward to welcoming Doriane to Manchester and London later in the year.

With my best wishes,
Chris

Professor Darren Ashcroft
GPA Research Director

It was a huge pleasure to meet up with our expanding international network of GPA Coordinators the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in Orlando in March. These meetings generate so many opportunities to further develop our global psoriasis research programme. Our GPA team presented updates on several of our recent research achievements at these meetings, alongside planning our future research.

You will be able to read more about our research, collaborations and developments in our Annual Report that was published earlier this month.

The research team are working hard to update our global systematic review examining the epidemiology of psoriasis. This project is at an advanced stage, and we are looking forward to launching the third edition of the Global Psoriasis Atlas presenting this new data on World Psoriasis Day 2025. Members of the research team are also working on updating estimates of the epidemiology of psoriasis in the UK with specific focus on how this may vary between people from different ethnic groups. This exciting research, in collaboration with The Psoriasis Association UK, will be presented at the upcoming Psoriasis Association Annual Meeting in June.

Many congratulations to Dr Jaquelini Barboza da Silva on being appointed as an IPC Councilor. Dr da Silva spent time with the GPA as an IPC Fellow in 2021 and we supported her work examining the lived experience of psoriasis in Brazil. Dr da Silva conducted a cross-sectional survey of 563 Brazilian adult residents who had been diagnosed with psoriasis. The study found that the severity, and associated comorbidities of psoriasis negatively impacted health-related quality of life and capability, along with feelings of stigmatisation and barriers to access specialist treatment. Over 86% of respondents reported feeling anxious and/or depressed, and this work has recently been published: “Experience of living with psoriasis in Brazil: a Global Psoriasis Atlas online survey”, https://doi.org/10.1111/ijd.17387

The GPA Annual Report for year 2 of Phase III (2024-2025) has been published.

The GPA have achieved so much in the past year. Read our report to learn about our research, international collaborations, events and digital developments during year 2 of Phase III of the GPA programme.

A big thank you to our collaborating organisations IFPA, the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS) and the International Psoriasis Council (IPC) for their continued support and dedication to the GPA.

Our success is a result of the strong, integrated partnerships between our academic institution and these global leaders in psoriasis care and dermatology.

Read full report here: GPA Annual Report 2024-2025

Atlas teams and ILDS at the Grand Challenges Committee Strategy Planning session

Professor Chris Griffiths, Professor Darren Ashcroft and Thomas Rogers attended the AAD Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida in March 2025. The meeting was a valuable opportunity to connect, collaborate, and strengthen our global community.

At the GPA Board of Governors and Steering Committee meetings on Saturday 8th March, the team welcomed representatives from 19 different countries - highlighting our expanding global reach. The group had active and wide-ranging discussions about our ongoing research, recent publications, field studies, funding, communications and our ambitious plans for the upcoming year.

During the meeting, the GPA team celebrated International Women’s Day 2025 and highlighted the incredible women who play a vital role in the important work of the GPA project.

Thomas Rogers
GPA Programme Manager

As I approach the completion of my first year as Programme Manager of the GPA, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my time in the role so far and by extension the importance of the University of Manchester as our host academic organisation. I have worked at the University since 2022, previously in clinical research study management for the Centre of Musculoskeletal Research. My switch from rheumatology to dermatology, light-heartedly described by one dermatologist as a ‘higher calling’.

Our University, while often not at the focal point of the GPA, is one of the essential pillars of our ongoing success. The University of Manchester is a powerhouse of research and the research conducted here helps make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives across the globe www.manchester.ac.uk/research - we are all proud to play our small part. The GPA team and I are fortunate to be part of a vibrant and purpose-driven research community. The expertise, support and commitment of passionate colleagues across our institution have been invaluable to our programme past and present.

While the GPA truly is a global enterprise, our core team are physically based at Manchester Science Park along the Oxford Road Corridor - where we call home. This part of our city is particularly steeped in industrial, scientific and social history, and to say we are in good company here would be an understatement https://oxfordroadcorridor.com/about-us/timeline/. Although our work is far less profound than the Suffragettes and Nobel laureates who came before, we press on with our important mission.

As we enter our third and final year of Phase III of the GPA, the team and I are taking a moment to reflect on and appreciate our strong academic foundations. We have a busy year to come, and we are excited and optimistic about what’s ahead.

We would like to say a big thank you to our sponsors the LEO Foundation, Almirall, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb and Janssen for their continued support.

The development of the GPA programme and the delivery of our important ongoing research is only possible with funding from our sponsors.

Our Partnership Brochure provides detailed information on our support packages and different ways in which you can support the GPA.

Read the GPA Partnership brochure.