Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic skin condition. Its complexity and impact on patients highlight the need for multidisciplinary care that can address the physical, psychological, and social aspects. Centers of excellence can ideally provide the necessary infrastructure, resources, and expertise to effectively treat HS. However, there are still no consolidated models of centers of excellence in HS, and establishing their foundations is an intricate research challenge. Purposely, design and co-creation as innovation techniques are helpful approaches to this type of research.
Methods: In this study, we conducted a co-creation with consensus among HS specialists to propose the criteria and requirements to establish outpatient centers of excellence of HS in Brazil. We followed a linear process with mixed methods in 6 stages.
Results: The process resulted in 10 categories for establishing outpatient centers, including their respective requirements, rationale, and classification. The categories include onboarding and welcoming; infrastructure and procedures; infusion therapy; flows and referrals; staffing; disease management; metrics during diagnosis; metrics during treatment; awareness and advocacy; research and education.
Discussion: The idealized outpatient centers can play a role in the complete multidisciplinary treatment for HS and advancing the science of healthcare services by providing a focus for research, training, and translation of findings into practice.
Keywords: centers of excellence; co-design; community-based participatory research; consensus; health services research; healthcare innovation; hidradenitis suppurativa; patient-centered care.
© 2023 Bellei et al.