Finalist
PEARLS medical education programme
Summary of work
Psoriasis is a chronic disease associated with multiple co-morbidities, including psoriatic arthritis (which presents in up to 25% of patients) plus numerous other disorders including gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and psychological conditions. The complexity of the disease creates a patient burden comparable to life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Recent advances in immunologic understanding have created many new therapeutic possibilities; however a lack of high-quality, practical education for physicians could mean patients are failing to benefit from such developments.
The resulting challenge was to bring education to the forefront of this complex therapy area. Events needed to be expert-validated, with a focus on practical content, to ensure delivery of relevant learnings which physicians could apply from day one back in the clinic. Cross-discipline collaboration also became of paramount importance, to ensure patients presenting with different aspects of psoriatic disease were able to benefit from multidisciplinary perspectives.
A flagship multidisciplinary Therapeutic Area Steering Committee composed of 25 specialists led a programme of events ranging from intimate masterclass meetings to large stand-alones, with the goal of revolutionising education in psoriatic disease. Opportunities for cross-specialty collaboration alongside expert-driven content led to an overwhelmingly positive response from the therapeutic area community, resulting in tangible benefits for patients.
Judges’ comments
We liked the excellent way this programme used different media channels so intelligently - it was not simply about style over substance. Based on a clinical area that has been promoted a lot and perhaps a bit overdone, they have really tried to change that with these meetings.
