26574 Acne consultations: Recommendations for optimizing patient-centred care

Abstract

Despite clinical guidelines, many aspects of acne management are overlooked to the detriment of optimal patient care. The Personalising Acne: Consensus of Experts (PACE) group, comprising 13 European and North American dermatologists, aimed to develop consensus recommendations to support patient-centred acne management. The group used a modified Delphi approach. Blinded questions were administered by e-survey. Consensus was defined as ≥75% voting ‘Agree’/‘Strongly agree’; results are presented in brackets (e.g. 11/13 voted ‘Agree’/‘Strongly agree’). It is of paramount importance to discuss long-term treatment expectations with acne patients (13/13), giving consideration to sequelae (eg, scarring), which can be prevented with early, effective intervention (13/13). Treatment goals should be personalized depending on the specific regional impact of acne (13/13); the impact of truncal acne is distinct vs facial acne, (13/13) and should be assessed independently (13/13). Patient discussions should include use of cosmetics, moisturizers, hair products and sunscreen (12/13), while choice of/transitions between treatments should be influenced by factors including specific burden of disease (13/13) and treatment tolerability (11/13). Patients likely to require additional considerations include children <10 years (12/13), patients with darker skin phototypes (13/13), and women who are pregnant/breastfeeding (11/13). Specific populations may benefit from interdisciplinary management (11/12). To optimize comprehensive, patient-centered acne care, physicians could discuss disease burden, treatment goals, long-term treatment expectations, and specific factors related to the patient and their lifestyle. Practical tools to support this, providing clear guidance on each stage of the patient’s journey and care pathway, would be of great value.