Monitoring of skin disease 

Most people receiving treatment for their skin disease need to be monitored by a health care professional such as a doctor or nurse or pharmacist.   Monitoring can simply mean checking to see whether the patient is using their treatment correctly and whether they are getting a good enough response to treatment.  Monitoring can also mean keeping a close eye out for side effects.  Most medicines taken by mouth or by injection also require other tests such as regular blood tests.

Whilst well-intentioned, the problem is that most monitoring schedules are based on poor evidence and tradition.  They are also based on a "one-size-fits-all" approach where someone who is healthy and is stable on an oral medication has to go through the same 3-monthly blood tests as someone who has other underlying conditions and who is at more risk of developing side effects.  Over-monitoring is a waste of patient and healthcare provider time, and contributes to our carbon footprint.

In collaboration with Professor Abhishek (an expert in joint diseases at the University of Nottingham) this theme of our research builds on our growing interest in finding more sensible, and patient-centred approaches in monitoring people needing medicines for their skin disease based on better evidence of risk prediction.