Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Sponsorship Expands GW Teledermatology Program

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The George Washington (GW) University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) Department of Dermatology recently announced its free teledermatology program, EACH one TEACH one, has received a $500,000 philanthropic sponsorship from Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine to facilitate the program's expansion.¹

The program, also known as Expanding Access to Comprehensive Health Care, is conducted in partnership with the National Psoriasis Foundation and Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church.

“Our comprehensive strategy builds upon a successful program we executed during the pandemic at the peak of limited health care access," said Adam Friedman, MD, FAAD, chair of the Department of Dermatology at GW SMHS.¹ "By both engaging with the community we hope to serve at an unparalleled level in partnership with a national organization like the National Psoriasis Foundation, and screening for and tackling comorbidities associated with inflammatory skin diseases with our partners in internal medicine and primary care, we aim to create a new model supported by best practices that can be employed in other underserved areas."

Friedman works as a project lead alongside Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD; Nehal N. Mehta, MD, MSCE; and George Gondo, MA.

Friedman was originally the recipient of a quality improvement project grant. With the grant, Friedman and colleagues took part in developing and supporting the original teledermatology initiative in underserved communities in the Washington, DC, area. The group established a telehealth clinic at The Temple of Praise Church, inviting residents to participate in free telehealth visits with a dermatology resident at GSW.

As a then faculty member at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Friedman's project identified gaps in access to dermatologic care among residents in regions of Washington, DC, particularly in Wards 7 and 8, where access to dermatologic care was, and still is, considerably limited.

“This is a very low socioeconomic population. Ward 8 especially, the residents, about 92%, self-identify as Black,” Friedman had said in a previous interview with Dermatology Times. “And then if we kind of think about atopic dermatitis, where our data shows that those who identify as Black tend to have more atopic dermatitis, have more severe disease, but make up fewer of the appointments seen by a dermatologist for this condition. Now we’re adding the mix of: while telemedicine enhances access, [among] the people who are at the greatest need, the divide is furthered.”

Since then, the project has since expanded into a collaborative grant program led by the GW SMHS and Pfizer Global Medical Grants. Last year, GW SMHS and Pfizer announced they would be working together to broadly implement the teledermatology help desk clinic model throughout underserved communities in the US. Four recipients of the "Quality Improvement Initiative: Bridging the Inflammatory Dermatosis Care Divide with Teledermatology Grant Program" were announced later in the year. Recipients of the grants were located in Miami-Dade County, Florida; Los Angeles County, California; rural communities in Oregon; and downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.²

References

1. Philanthropic sponsorship expands GW’s free, multidisciplinary teledermatology program in Washington, D.C. News release. GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences; Kohout T. February 29, 2024. Accessed March 1, 2024. https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/philanthropic-sponsorship-expands-gws-free-multidisciplinary-teledermatology-program
2. Four grants awarded by the GW/Pfizer Global Medical Collaborative Grant Program to establish teledermatology programs in underserved communities across the United States. Newswise. October 18, 2023. Accessed March 1, 2024. https://www.newswise.com/articles/four-grants-awarded-by-the-gwpfizer-global-medical-collaborative-grant-program-to-establish-teledermatology-programs-in-underserved-communities-across-the-united-states