Outcome Measures in Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis

The recent health policy imperatives in the United States have consequentially called to attention the absence of dermatologic evaluations in the health outcome and quality measures that will ultimately grade the success of providers. Psoriasis, in particular, represents a patient cohort with a chronic, complex and debilitating skin disorder commonly encountered in dermatology clinics that can have insufferable consequences from disease progression and comorbidities if it is not properly evaluated and managed. In order to have the appropriate compensation to the providers and the availabilities of the correct treatments to the patients, the presence of psoriasis-specific outcome measures are necessary. Incorporating the concepts employed by the rheumatology group, Outcome Measures for Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials (OMERACT), that created outcomes for several musculoskeletal diseases, initiatives in dermatology have already begun to create standardized, validated psoriasis outcome measures.