In a recent EPHMRA-endorsed article, Prescient Associate Director Ishaan Chaudhury explored how immersive research can reveal the lived experience of dermatological disease in ways that virtual, short-term interactions often cannot. By spending time with patients and listening carefully to how they describe their condition, that work illustrated the depth and complexity of burden associated with chronic itch in conditions such as atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis.
The value of those insights is clear; the next step is ensuring they inform the decisions being made across research, clinical practice and commercial strategy.
For those attending the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting, this raises an important opportunity for discussion as dermatology innovation increases in complexity. The introduction of targeted biologics and JAK inhibitors has transformed treatment expectations in inflammatory skin disease, while emerging approaches focused specifically on itch pathways are beginning to reshape how symptom burden is understood and discussed. As therapeutic choice expands, clinicians and healthcare systems are navigating increasingly nuanced decisions around treatment sequencing, escalation and patient selection.
At the same time, we hear so often that the field is confronting a familiar tension: the gap between measurable disease severity and lived experience. Dermatological conditions are typically assessed through visible signs and structured severity indices, yet these metrics often fail to capture the everyday disruption patients describe. Clinical improvement does not always translate directly into relief from persistent symptoms such as itch, sleep disturbance or the psychological burden associated with chronic disease.
Understanding this disconnect is becoming increasingly important as treatment goals evolve, and it is here that patient ethnography offers a valuable lens, helping researchers and strategists move beyond clinical snapshots to understand how disease shapes daily life over time – also uncovering the ‘version of themselves’ patients aspire towards.
In this article, we outline several practical ways dermatology teams can translate ethnographic insight into action across strategy, evidence generation and launch preparation.
Bringing the lived burden of disease into sharper focus
Dermatological conditions are commonly assessed through visible signs and measurable severity scores. These metrics remain fundamental, yet they rarely capture the full impact of disease on daily life.
Research exploring the lived experience of chronic itch illustrates this clearly. Patients frequently describe itch as a persistent and intrusive sensation that shapes daily routines, disrupts sleep and carries a considerable emotional burden. Many adjust their clothing, social activities and even career choices to manage symptoms that are often invisible to others.
Because these experiences can be difficult to articulate in a short consultation, they are easily overlooked in conventional research approaches, but ethnographic methods, such as patient-led interviews, diaries and contextual observation allow researchers to explore these experiences more fully. They help reveal what matters most to patients and how they interpret the impact of their disease over time.
—> Use insights to guide action; Refine how disease burden is framed in internal discussions, to ensure that messaging reflects the realities patients describe, or to identify areas where existing support materials fail to address everyday challenges. Inform engagement with patient organisations by ensuring that communication resonates with the language and experiences patients recognise.
Clarifying how treatment decisions unfold in practice
As treatment options expand, so do the decision pathways. Therapeutic selection now involves a careful balance of multiple factors: clinical evidence, patient characteristics, treatment history, perceived severity, access considerations and physician familiarity. Understanding these decisions requires deep insight into how patients present their symptoms, what clinicians prioritise during consultations and when escalation to advanced therapies becomes a realistic option.
Patient ethnography can provide useful context here. Examining the journey patients take before and during clinical interaction means that teams can identify moments where unmet needs become visible or where the true burden of disease may not be fully recognised.
—> Translate this understanding into productive strategic exercises, grounding competitive intelligence in the realities of clinical practice; Competitor workshops can move beyond simple product comparisons and instead examine how different therapies are likely to be positioned within real treatment pathways. Market research programmes can incorporate patient narratives to test assumptions about how clinicians interpret disease severity and holistic wellbeing, or treatment failure.
Informing meaningful real-world evidence
There is also a growing opportunity for medical teams to apply patient insight when designing real-world evidence programmes.
Health systems, clinicians and patient groups increasingly expect evidence that reflects everyday experience with disease and treatment. As dermatology moves beyond demonstrating skin clearance alone, there is growing interest in outcomes such as itch intensity, sleep disruption, long-term disease control and quality of life. Ethnographic research can help identify which aspects of disease burden patients consider most significant, providing an early signal for outcomes that may warrant further investigation in observational studies.
In chronic itch, for instance, patients frequently describe sleep disruption, emotional distress and the mental effort of constant symptom management. These dimensions of burden may not always be captured in traditional endpoints focused primarily on skin appearance.
–> Recognise insights early to help guide the development of real-world studies that better reflect patient priorities. Explore additional quality-of-life measures, design evidence programmes that highlight broader impacts of disease, or collaborate with patient advocacy organisations to understand how outcomes resonate within patient communities. Such evidence can complement clinical trial data and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of treatment value.
Strengthening launch readiness
Ethnographic insight also has clear implications for teams preparing to introduce new therapies.
Successful launches rarely rely on scientific data alone. As therapeutic options expand across inflammatory dermatology, organisations must understand how new treatments fit within evolving care pathways and how clinicians and patients interpret treatment goals in practice.
When ethnographic work is conducted early, it can shape how educational materials are developed, how field teams are prepared for clinical discussions and how patient support initiatives are designed. It can also help organisations anticipate where misunderstandings about disease burden or treatment goals may arise and address these proactively.
In the chronic itch research described earlier, patient narratives and visual storytelling were used to strengthen internal understanding of disease impact and to support educational initiatives aimed at healthcare professionals and patient organisations.
–> Embed these insights into launch planning to become better positioned to ensure that new therapies are introduced in a way that reflects the lived reality of the conditions they aim to treat.
Continue the conversation at AAD
The article ‘Beneath the surface’ highlighted the power of deep ethnographic research to uncover experiences that would otherwise remain hidden. The opportunity now is to translate those insights into actions that influence research, evidence generation and strategy.
For dermatology teams attending the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting, this provides a useful moment to reflect on how patient insight is being integrated in practice. Whether the focus is strengthening market understanding, designing meaningful evidence programmes or preparing for the next wave of innovation discussed at the meeting, ethnography can provide a valuable foundation.
Members of the Prescient team will be at AAD and would welcome the opportunity to discuss how these approaches are being applied in dermatology today – from patient ethnography and competitor workshops through to real-world evidence strategy and launch preparation.
