Skin diseases like psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, acne, and alopecia areata, have been greatly witnessing systemic and mental health links. Identification and management of these comorbidities is a part of primary care but some patients might not have an established relationship with a primary care provider and may only be visiting a dermatologist.

Thus a study examined the frequency of dermatologists being the main contact within a health care system for patients with these chronic skin conditions.

The researchers performed a retrospective cohort study using Optums De-Identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database. The primary outcome was to determine the proportion of patients who established care with a dermatologist and had no encounters with a primary care provider during the subsequent year following the dermatology encounter.

The result of the study was as follows-

Assessing each skin disease, 21.6%-31.2% of men and 16.9%-26.2% of women demonstrated no primary care visits in the subsequent year after establishing care with their dermatologist.

Thus most patients with chronic skin diseases might see only a dermatologist as a part of contact with the health care system. So dermatologists can explore the opportunity to improve the quality of care in such patients by screening for associated comorbidities.

Source: Barbieri JS, Mostaghimi A, Noe MH, Margolis DJ, Gelfand JM. Use of primary care services among patients with chronic skin disease seen by dermatologists, JAAD International, 2021;2:31-36.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdin.2020.10.010