October 16, 2019
IN THIS ISSUE / October 16, 2019
DW Insights and Inquiries: Nonepidemic Kaposi sarcoma: The fifth dimension
Academy cautions members of fraudulent email solicitations promoting sale of AAD’s Annual Meeting attendee list
Updated AAD.org puts most-used content at members’ fingertips
Is there a link between lupus and prescription opioids?
According to findings published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, while opioids are generally not indicated for pain in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), nearly one in three patients with lupus uses prescription opioids, often lasting longer than a year.
Researchers looked at opioid use for about 462 patients with SLE as well as 192 nonpatients recruited from a random sample of households in the Michigan area, and found that from 2014 to 2015, nearly one-third of SLE patients used prescription opioids, compared with 8% of the nonpatients. About 70% of the SLE patients taking prescription opioids were on opioid therapy for more than one year.
According to the study authors, “Risks for long-term opioid therapy, including osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, are concerning in SLE patients given their increased underlying risks for these comorbidities. Clinicians managing SLE, including providers in emergency departments, need to be aware of these risks and consider nonopioid pain management strategies.”
Read more about advances in disease pathogenesis and treatments for lupus erythematosus and other connective tissue diseases in Dermatology World.
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DW Insights and Inquiries: Nonepidemic Kaposi sarcoma: The fifth dimension
In 1982, as a dermatology resident attending a New York Dermatology Society meeting, I first learned of cases of KS appearing in young men having sex with men (MSM), several of whom also had pneumocystis pneumonia. The profound impact of that presentation was instantly recognizable — within days, we were seeing similar patients who then developed previously unheard of — and at that time, unnamed — entities such as oral hairy leukoplakia or bacillary angiomatosis. This was only weeks after Friedman-Kien et al described 19 cases of KS in MSM with histories of multiple sexually transmitted diseases who also had exposure to both prescription and recreational drugs. Keep reading!
Academy cautions members of fraudulent email solicitations promoting sale of AAD’s Annual Meeting attendee list
Recently, members may have become aware of attempts to sell the 2019 AAD's Annual Meeting attendee list. This is fraud and is in no way sanctioned by or connected to the Academy. As soon as the Academy becomes aware of these attempts, cease and desist letters are sent.
How do you distinguish between the Academy's online meeting registration site and fakes? Find out in this month's Asked and Answered in Dermatology World.
Updated AAD.org puts most-used content at members’ fingertips
The AAD has launched a new version of its website! Check out the brand-new website at staging.aad.org (this page is part of it). Features of the new site include:
Improved navigation to get members where they need to go faster, developed through extensive testing with member users
Shorter content with clear guidance and calls to action
Upgraded search functionality
Public content that will consistently remind the site’s 28 million annual public visitors of the abilities of board-certified dermatologists and connects them to the Find A Dermatologist tool
Increased stability and faster load times
Have feedback after using the new site? Offer it at staging.aad.org/about-aad/website-feedback.
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Digital marketing for dermatologists 101 – Dermatology World (August 2019)
Digital marketing for dermatologists 102 – Dermatology World (September 2019)
GAO interviews Academy experts on sunscreen safety testing
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently interviewed experts from the American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA) on the additional safety testing required for many sunscreen ingredients included in currently marketed sunscreen products. Henry W. Lim, MD, past Academy president, was included in the interview due to his leadership as chair of the Academy’s Ad Hoc Task Force on Sunscreens.
The Sunscreen Innovation Act (SIA) included legislative mandates for the GAO to produce two reports on FDA’s implementation of the SIA and the over-the-counter (OTC) monograph process. The first report, published in November 2017, focused on the pending time-and-extent applications for new ingredients, which are currently available in other countries. AADA was also interviewed for the first report, sharing disappointment that the SIA did not bring new safe and effective sunscreen ingredients to the United States for the benefit of patients and the general public. This second report is required to be published by late May 2020.
Additionally, the SIA requires the FDA to issue the OTC sunscreen final monograph by Nov. 26. Safety testing will take longer but important updates to OTC sunscreens will be finalized on this date and the AADA will provide updates.
Related content:
New Medicare card transition period ending
Starting Jan. 1, 2020, CMS will only accept claims that list patients’ new Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBI). CMS is replacing the Social Security number-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) with a MBI on the new Medicare cards. Until the end of the year, CMS will accept either the HICN or the MBI for CMS claim adjudication. For patients who have not communicated their new MBI, physicians can access a secure MBI search tool through their Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC). For more information, visit www.cms.gov/newcard.
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AAD diversity workshop addresses disparities in dermatology
Last month, the Academy hosted its inaugural Diversity Champion Workshop in collaboration with the Association of Professors of Dermatology, Skin of Color Society, Society of Investigative Dermatology, and Women’s Dermatological Society. The effort brought dermatology residency program faculty together to discuss diversity outreach programs and initiatives. AAD members representing nearly 60 medical schools in the country, about half of all medical schools in the U.S., participated in the event. Equitable recruitment, mentorship, and research were among the themes that emerged as indicators to improving diversity in dermatology, which is second-to-last in specialty rank when it comes to the number of underrepresented minorities practicing dermatology.
Planning committee member Kanade Shinkai, MD, dermatologist at University of California San Francisco, moderated the “Why are we here” panel, which featured underrepresented minority AAD members. They shared personal stories of overcoming social capital, economic barriers, lack of mentorship, implicit bias, and systemic racism as medical students and their triumphant journeys to becoming dermatologists. Former AAD presidents William D. James, MD, and Henry W. Lim, MD, who spearheaded the Diversity Summit during his tenure, joined Sarah D. Cipriano, MD, for a panel discussion on Holistic Residency Selection Initiatives, highlighting unique tactics their institutions implemented to increase the number of minority students accepted into their medical programs.
Amit G. Pandya, MD, co-director of the event’s planning committee, gave an overview of diversity in dermatology statistics and led a panel discussion on how to successfully recruit URMs. The panelists agreed that lack of mentorship and social capital significantly contribute to the diversity issues in medicine and that academic institutions can fill those gaps by creating pathways for URMs. For example, each of their institutions partner with inner-city elementary, middle, and high schools to provide mentorship and networking opportunities, hands-on exposure to the specialty, internships, and scholarships. Minority students are exposed to the field of medicine and sciences at an early age and are inspired by minority physicians who look like them and encourage them to pursue a career in medicine.
The workshop also focused on research funding’s ability to promote diversity in academic dermatology. Dr. Shinkai identified research as an important step to improving diversity when it includes equitable study of skin disease and prioritizes studies that focus on disparity. Amy McMichael, MD, representative of the Skin of Color Society and member of the workshop’s planning committee, addressed ways to provide a safe work environment during a panel discussion that focused on microagressions, debilitating behaviors that translate into hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial insults toward marginalized communities.
AAD members identified aspects of the Diversity Champion Workshop that they would want to implement at their institution, challenges they anticipate, and solutions to keep diversity initiatives moving forward. Implementing these efforts are critical to the specialty’s goal of increasing the number of underrepresented physicians in dermatology. Other Academy efforts that move the needle on diversifying the specialty include its Diversity Mentorship program for medical students and sponsorship support for bioskills workshops at historically diverse medical schools.
The Diversity Champion Workshop planning committee is gearing up for next year’s program, which will focus on successes and barriers to implementation efforts.
