Background: Acne, a commonly treated skin disease, requires patient-centered management due to its varying presentations, chronicity, and impact on health-related quality of life. Despite this, evidence-based clinical guidelines focus primarily on clinical severity of facial acne, omitting important patient- and disease-related factors, including ongoing management.
Objectives: To generate recommendations to support patient-centered acne management, which incorporate priority and prognostic factors beyond conventional clinical severity, traditionally defined by grading the appearance and extent of visible lesions.
Methods: The Personalizing Acne: Consensus of Experts consisted of 17 dermatologists who used a modified Delphi approach to reach consensus on statements regarding patient- and treatment-related factors pertaining to patient-centered acne management. Consensus was defined as ≥75% voting "agree" or "strongly agree."
Results: Recommendations based on factors such as acne sequelae, location of acne, high burden of disease, and individual patient features were generated and incorporated into the Personalized Acne Treatment Tool.
Limitations: Recommendations are based on expert opinion, which may differ from patients' perspectives. Regional variations in healthcare systems may not be represented.
Conclusions: The Personalizing Acne: Consensus of Experts panel provided practical recommendations to facilitate individualized management of acne, based on patient features, which can be implemented to improve treatment outcomes, adherence, and patient satisfaction.
Keywords: Delphi process; acne care tool; acne guidelines; acne sequelae; consensus; high burden of disease; individual patient features; personalized acne treatment; shared decision-making; truncal acne.
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Academy of Dermatology, Inc.