AAD 2024 to Feature Topics Including JAK Inhibitors, Biologics

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The 2024 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting will take place in San Diego, California, from Friday, March 8, through Monday, March 11. AAD 2024 will focus on various trends and topics in dermatology, including sessions about Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors, biologics, and other treatments of various skin conditions.

The 2 sessions of late-breaking research, to be held on March 9 and 10, will feature numerous experts in the field—including April Armstrong, MPH, MD, FAAD; Lawrence F. Eichenfeld, MD, FAAD; Shawn Kwatra, MD, FAAD; Amy S. Paller, MD, FAAD; and Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH, FAAD—presenting their abstracts of unpublished studies. These abstracts will include those from clinical trials, studies on new technologies, and other research related to skin disorders.

In an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®, Paller, chair of the Department of Dermatology at Northwestern Medicine, said that the most important part of attending and presenting at AAD “is to hear tips about how we may manage patients in practice they may not have thought of before and very importantly to update them on the latest therapies that may be available for treating inflammatory skin diseases.”

Other sessions featuring discussions on treatment of different conditions will take place throughout the weekend. The symposium “JAK Inhibitors: A New Frontier in Dermatology” will discuss how JAK inhibitors can be prescribed for a variety of skin conditions, including vitiligo, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis, as well as their overall safety. Chair Brett Andrew King, MD, PhD, FAAD, will lead 7 other experts in the discussion of this topic on March 9.

Woman with vitiligo | Image credit: Drobot Dean - stock.adobe.com

Biologics will also take center stage on March 9 with a session devoted to using biologics when treating inflammatory skin diseases, such as psoriasis, entitled “So Many Biologics, So Little Time: How to Pick Your Poison in an Era of Biologic Overload.” This session focuses on how biosimilars and biologics fit into treatment plans for these conditions, how to challenge patient phenotypes, and how to pick the best biologic for a patient. George Han, MD, PhD, FAAD, will lead this discussion with 7 other experts to inform attendees about biologics to be used for vitiligo as well as how to consider comorbidities when using biologics in psoriasis, among other topics.

March 8 will feature a session focused on hidradenitis suppurativa, which more often affects young, black, and/or female patients from disadvantaged backgrounds. Speakers Gregory Orlowski, MD, PhD, FAAD, and Lisa Shen, MD, FAAD, will discuss how disparities in treatment often occur before a patient has their first appointment with their dermatologist in “Management of Hidradenitis Suppurativa in the Socioedonomically Underserved: From Peds to Adults.” Important steps include identifying barriers to treatment in this population and determining how to overcome these barriers.

One of the first sessions at the conference will be “Atopic Dermatitis in Adults: Not Just Big Kids,” which will cover how treatment for atopic dermatitis is different when addressing adults compared with children, including in topical and systemic treatment. The session, hosted by Silverberg and taking place on March 8, will also go over how atopic dermatitis appears in adults and how to identify the key differences in the disease between adults and children.

“There's so much to learn from my colleagues, who, as I am, are doing cutting-edge research and bringing new medications to our patients but also new understanding of diseases,” said Paller.