Disease State: Acne Scarring

Background

Acne scars can occur when active acne lesions involute. Acne scarring is one of the primary sequelae that affects patients with acne. It can impact self-esteem, overall quality of life, and body image. There are currently several therapeutic approaches to reduce the appearance of acne scars, including chemical peels, facial resurfacing techniques, lasers, grafts, cryotherapy, steroids, topical treatments, and surgery. However, a lack of outcome assessment standardization across clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of acne scarring treatments remains. This heterogeneity in outcomes presents a challenge when assessing the impacts of different interventions.

Project Goal

The IMPROVED group aims to establish a Core Outcome Set (COS) for acne scarring by (1) identifying all outcomes through a systematic review of the literature, patient interviews, printed and electronic sources, and stakeholder interviews, (2) determining a list of core outcomes that should be reported for all clinical trials of acne scarring, (3) attaining global consensus among stakeholders through the Delphi process on a core set of domains, and (4) developing outcome measurement instruments for each domain of the core set.

Project Lead

Murad Alam

Key Project Team Members

Steering Committee

Murad Alam

Joseph Sobanko

Ian Maher

Todd V. Cartee

C3 Methods Partner

Jamie Kirkham

Contact

Murad Alam (m-alam@northwestern.edu)

Publications

 

Updated October 23, 2023