A chronic skin condition doesn’t stick to hospital appointments
The pressure on dermatology departments is high, and patients sometimes have to wait a long time for an appointment. This is particularly difficult for people with eczema or psoriasis: symptoms can flare up suddenly, or a treatment may become less effective.
But how does a doctor know what is happening at home, particularly when symptoms change? Bram de Kinderen is investigating this as a Reggeborgh Research Fellow at ZGT and MST.
Patients regularly take photos of their skin at home and answer short questions about, for example, itching, pain and sleep. Not just when their condition worsens, but especially when it is improving. This reveals how the disease develops over the long term. Bram is investigating how this can be reliably monitored at home and how AI might help in the future to assess the severity of skin symptoms.
The aim: care at home where possible, in hospital where necessary. And to identify sooner when additional care is required.