Winner
Revolutionising Management of Hidradenitis Suppurativa in Europe: Why? What? How?
Summary of work
AbbVie recently launched the first systemic treatment for the poorly understood systemic dermatological disease, hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). As the first and only pharmaceutical partner to the HS community in Europe, it became apparent that AbbVie were facing something much bigger than providing an effective treatment to patients. Dermatologists were unarmed to tackle this challenging disease – a change in clinical behaviour was needed. Lucid, AbbVie and the limited HS expert community united to advance HS quality of care through a coordinated educational programme, driving a belief in the need for change, raising HCP and patient expectations of care, and providing practical support for delivering excellent HS treatment and care – all the while expanding and uniting the clinical community for HS. The two-year medical education programme has taken the European HS community on a journey of change, resulting in recognition of the need for change in >4,500 general dermatologists and development of new standards for clinical practice. Furthermore, 127 new HS specialists and 43 new HS specialist centres have been established, advancing the quality of care in >1,750 patients/month. This united culture will endure beyond the time frame of the programme, changing the lives of patients with HS now and in the future.
Judges’ comments
This well-written entry demonstrated a very strong multi-tiered programme which showed strong relationships between AbbVie and the community. There was clear educational value, with very impressive metrics and outcomes. A clear, very thorough winner.
