Empathy and Quality of Life for Patients With Skin Disease
Chief Medical Editor
For the first time, the average price for a gallon of gasoline reached $5 in June. I think this would have profoundly bothered me a few years ago. Now, it seems like a milestone, but it is not hitting me on an emotional level. The fact that I am a dermatologist with a substantial income may explain part of it; the bigger reason for my immunity to getting upset over gas prices is that my wife and I now use electric cars, having given up the minivan, which I used to drive when I carpooled the kids to school.
For many people, gas prices impact their lives directly. They are acutely reminded of it every time they go to the gas pump. I can have empathy for what they are feeling, but I do not know what it is like to walk in their shoes. This is the same for our patients with skin disease. If we do not have active acne, eczema, or psoriasis lesions ourselves, it may be hard to fully understand what our patients are experiencing. This gap may lead some patients to be undertreated or, hopefully rarely, to feel like their dermatologist does not care about or recognize the magnitude of their disease.
In this issue, we look at some of the gaps that leave our patients suffering. We look at hurdles to treatment access for patients with atopic dermatitis, the scarcity of dermatology specialists in underserved areas globally, diagnostic challenges in patients with skin of color, and the burden of diseases such as prurigo nodularis (PN). For patients with PN, the effect on health-related quality of life is similar to those with heart failure and stroke.
It will not be easy, much less automatic, but as we treat our patients, we can strive to understand the impact of their disease from their perspective.
