Understanding inflammatory skin diseases over the long-term: MySkin
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding inflammatory skin diseases over the long-term: MySkin, a longitudinal cohort study
IRAS ID
321368
Contact name
Satveer Mahil
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The burden of common inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis, atopic eczema (herein referred to as eczema) and acne includes their high prevalence, visibility, skin symptoms (e.g. itch, pain), associated multimorbidity, psychosocial impact and need for long-term treatments (with risk of drug-related side effects and costs). The unpredictable clinical course of skin diseases further adds to the already substantial impact on quality of life, and underlines the need for prompt, effective treatment and long-term disease control.
Understanding the factors underpinning disease onset, progression and treatment outcomes represents a necessary step in addressing the long-term burden of inflammatory skin conditions. To address this, close monitoring of affected individuals is required. Effective monitoring considers both objective disease activity and patients’ experiences of their condition. Despite the promise of remote self-monitoring, there are no systems that are integrated into clinical workflows for inflammatory skin diseases. There are few remote monitoring platforms that have been developed with a sound theoretical rationale, in partnership with patients and clinicians, which limits real-world utility. This is a missed opportunity in dermatology, a visual field with a diverse patient-base and exciting potential for monitoring using skin images.
This study will leverage the potential of remote monitoring of patient-generated health data to deliver better understanding of inflammatory skin diseases. We will co-design a remote monitoring tool with end-users (Phase 1) and apply this tool in an observational cohort study (Phase 2), which promises novel insights into factors underpinning inflammatory skin disease onset, progression and treatment outcomes. This knowledge will open avenues for disease modification and prevention. It may uncover biomarkers for identification of those at risk of severe disease or progression, for early effective intervention. Finally, it will inform drug withdrawal/minimisation strategies for those in remission, in addition to drug innovation efforts for effective treatments with minimum off-target consequences.
REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
22/NI/0193
Date of REC Opinion
19 Dec 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion