Helping patients make the most of their treatment

A key challenge for people living with chronic skin conditions is the need to ensure that they use their treatment to optimal effect. Despite the efforts to determine the effective treatment plan, a crucial concern is how the individual interprets and engages with the plan, since there are multiple factors that may interfere with their ability to utilise the treatment in an effective way. Treatment effectiveness depends not only on having evidence of beneficial treatments and making discerning clinical judgements but also on the patient’s interpretation of the treatment plan, their motivation and understanding of it and how in practice they apply it to their lifestyle. Therefore, effective treatment fundamentally depends on people taking an active role in learning about their therapy and knowing how to utilise it correctly. This section focuses on ways of supporting patients to self-manage their condition effectively through playing an active role in treatment decisions and application.

Dermatologists have been accused of thinking that they are the only people who know about skin diseases and that they are the only people sufficiently qualified to treat them. How true is this, and is it likely that dermatologists are going to be the major sources of advice on dermatological matters in the new millennium? (Prof. Robin Marks, University of Melbourne/Former President, International League of Dermatological Societies; Marks (2000))