Creating Goals Ahead of Psoriasis Action Month

The wide range of diseased states in psoriasis challenging clinicians was debriefed in a session titled “Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis” at the 2023 Maui Derm NP+PA Meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado June 21-24. Melodie Young, MSN, ANP-c, an NP with Modern Dermatology in Dallas, Texas discussed the status of dermatology care today as it relates to evolving roles and new challenges.

The learning curve for new and advanced treatment, conquering burnout, and the need for increased involvement from other specialists for some patients were topics she touched on during the session. In a Dermatology Times® interview, she looked ahead to Psoriasis Action Month in August so clinicians can start planning goals to better serve patients with psoriasis, not just in August, but year round.

Dermatology Times: August is Psoriasis Action Month. With current treatment options and care available, what action items should clinicians in dermatology keep in mind, especially with more challenging cases presented in your psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis session?

Melodie Young: I think the first thing I would say in August is that if clinicians would say, “This is the month that every person that comes through my clinic is going to get a total body skin exam.” We tend to still let patients direct the exam to say, ‘hey, I have psoriasis’ or ‘everything is cleared, but this spot on my knee,’whereas they don't.They still don't realize that sometimes intertriginous psoriasis is actually psoriasis, because it looks differentlythan then the rest of their disease. Or maybe theydon't see it because you can't see the back your head or some other place.

It's just kind of a resetting of your care plan for that patient. There's more skin cancer found in psoriasis patients [too], maybe because of all the phototherapy,they've used maybe [or maybe] because of some of the medicines we've used. And I think that that will also force you to do skin cancer screening, and really do a head-to-toe and [asking yourself] how much disease do they have? What else can I do to help them control their disease? Just tweaking if you've got some old tubes of medicine—let's run through what you have time to get rid of that stuff. Just refresh and don't bring assumptions into the new year.

Do you have pearls on psoriasis treatment that you would like to share ahead of August? Email DTEditors@mmhgroup.com to be featured in upcoming Dermatology Times coverage.