Laura Joszt, MA

Panelists at the Value-Based Insurance Design Summit discussed ways their organizations are looking to create a better benefit design to promote health equity and address known disparities.

While melanoma is one of the most aggressive cancers, making early detection crucial for outcomes, because it is visible on the surface, there are opportunities to catch it early, said Sancy Leachman, MD, PhD, professor and chair in the Department of Dermatology and director of the Melanoma Research Program at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University.

Dermatology lends itself well to telemedicine, particularly as a screening tool to reduce wait times and increase access to care for patients with high-risk melanoma, said Erik Jaklitsch, second-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh.

With both biologics and Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors available to treat atopic dermatitis, providers have more options for patients, said Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, FAAD, of Mount Sinai.

Using the DataDerm database has uncovered disparities in prescription patterns, but it’s still early in the process of understanding why those disparities might exist, said Robert Dellavalle, MD, PhD, MSPH, and Ramiro Rodriguez, MD, both of University of Colorado School of Medicine.

There are certain considerations when choosing which patient is the best fit for a biologic to treat hidradenitis suppurativa, said Haley Naik, MD, FAAD, associate professor of dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.

Similar to other therapies, approximately 40% of patients with vitiligo who stopped treatment with ruxolitinib cream relapsed, but they achieved repigmentation once treatment was reinitiated, explained John Harris, MD, PhD, FAAD, director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Chan Medical School.

Many people often don’t connect the dots between climate change and its impact on skin health, but these effects have been happening for years, said Eva R. Parker, MD, associate professor of dermatology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

At the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting there will be multiple presentations on hot topics and the latest advances in microneedling, explained Monica Li, MD, clinical instructor, Department of Dermatology and Skin Science, University of British Columbia.

There is a lot to talk about in the vitiligo space at this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), said John Harris, MD, PhD, FAAD, director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Chan Medical School.

Panelists at the keynote session of the Value-Based Insurance Design Summit highlighted what their organizations are doing in health equity.

A new resource from the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions aims to help plan sponsors adopt biosimilars into their pharmacy benefit plans.

Pegcetacoplan was approved by the FDA to treat geographic atrophy (GA), providing a treatment option for patients who previously had none, explained Eleonora Lad, MD, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology, Duke University.

A Cardinal Health report reviewed the potential impact biosimilars will have in rheumatology, gastroenterology, dermatology, and ophthalmology.

Over the next 18 to 24 months, Humana is exiting the commercial health plan business to focus on government-funded programs, like Medicare Advantage, and specialty businesses.

A panel of experts discussed the explosion of information and advances in cancer genomics and the accompanying challenges of understanding the data and taking action.

There are 2 ranibizumab biosimilars approved in the United States, and with more ranibizumab and the first aflibercept biosimilars on the horizon, gaps in knowledge among retinal physicians should be addressed.

Geographic atrophy is a leading cause of blindness. The new approval will help to fill an unmet need for patients.

When the first adalimumab (Humira) biosimilar launched at the end of January, it was just the beginnings of a wave of coming biosimilars for anti-inflammatory biologics.

While the current therapies are effective for treating branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), they are inadequate for long-term treatment in clinical practice, according to an analysis of real-world data.

Two studies looking at a higher dose of aflibercept found that an 8-mg dose can be maintained at longer dosing intervals with similar benefits and no additional safety signals compared with the 2-mg dose.

Much of the evidence that has been used to base current standard of care for diabetic eye diseases stems from studies performed by the DRCR Retina Network over the years.

The BUTTERFLEYE trial sought to determine if aflibercept, an anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy, was equivalent to laser photocoagulation, the gold standard to treat retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in preterm babies.

Patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who are responsive to anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy experienced visual gains with no additional injections in the 6 months after treatment with the gene therapy.

Home optical coherence tomography (OCT) has shown there is a wide degree of heterogeneity in fluid dynamics and treatment response that may not be clear during regular office visits and scans. Presenters reviewed the latest data in home OCT to manage wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).