Dermatology World May 2012 Supplement : Page 18
Recognizing Research in Dermatology e American Academy of Dermatolo Announces a Call for Nominations for the 2013 Everett C. Fox, MD Lectureship. Nominations for this esteemed award, given to an expet clinician who has made outstanding contributions through research in dermatolo , are being accepted through June 6, 2012. Recipients will receive a cash award of $10,000 and have the distinguished oppotunity to present a 30-minute lecture at the Summer Academy Meeting in 2013. Do you know someone who exemplifi es expetise in clinical dermatolo ? Nominate them today at www.aad.org/namedlectureships. Copyright © 2012 American Academy of Dermatology. All rights rese ed. in physician attitudes toward exposure and risk management. “People who continued to prescribe the drug have developed a signi cant understanding of the rationale for the REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies]. It clearly is important that these drugs that can cause such terrible, avoidable side e ects be carefully handled,” Dr. Stone said. “I remember years ago I was talking to a dermatolo-gist who said that he wasn’t going to do pregnancy tests on his patients back before it was compulsory. He said ‘I’m from a small town, I know these kids, I know they’re not sexually active.’ Well lo and behold, that’s exactly the kind of patient that risks exposure. So I think we’ve developed a healthier awareness that you really do have to at least follow some rules and take more than a common sense ap-proach to the issue.” Despite appearing to reach something of a pla-teau, Dr. Maloney said that as the chair of the Acad-emy’s relevant committee, she has not received any feedback from the FDA indicating that a more strict REMS system is in the works. “I can’t speak for the FDA, but personally, I haven’t felt pressure from them that we need to have a stricter program,” she said. “I haven’t felt that as a practitioner or as part of the Regulatory Policy Committee, which I think is reasonable. I think that we have a very tough REMS program at present.” To truly decrease the number to zero, Dr. Malo-ney said, isotretinoin would likely have to be com-pletely withdrawn, which she does not advocate. “I think it’s a great drug. We need to have it available for the patients that need it, and a lot of them do. I think that because we deal with human beings, we have a program that we probably can’t make a lot better,” Dr. Maloney said. In terms of issue visibility, Dr. Stone said, pa-tients and physicians are much more aware of the risks associated with isotretinoin and the proper precautions for treatment than before the media, Congress, and the FDA took up the issue. “I think that we’ve also learned that in spite of the best we can do, there are a small number of pa-tients who, even when we play the game exactly as we should, will get pregnant,” Dr. Stone said. “But certainly it seems that something like iPLEDGE — involving the compulsory regulation of the patient, the forced reminding with each prescription re ll of the serious risk of pregnancy — gets the point across that would not be gotten across if we just had to put a sticker on the prescription pad.” dw 18 SUPPLEMENT TO DERMATOLOGY WORLD // May 2012 www.aad.org