InSensitive Content: the impact on dermatologists

The dermatology community thrives on visual knowledge sharing. When a disease is as underrecognized as generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP), the ability to share images with peers and the public around the globe is vital.

Understanding generalized pustular psoriasis

Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a chronic, neutrophilic inflammatory disease associated with the skin. As a rare disease, prevalence is low and varies considerably across regions, ranging from 1.76 to 124 patients per million persons.

More than 70% of people living with GPP experience underlying inflammation and chronic skin legions including pustules, skin scaling, crusting and erythema. GPP flares are characterized by an acute onset of painful skin manifestations (also known as flares), which are accompanied by systemic symptoms such as:

Pain

Fever

Fatigue

The chronic skin symptoms may occur with or without the systemic symptoms. Alongside this, people living with GPP experience fear and anxiety due to the unpredictable nature of the disease.

There is a need for management strategies that address the chronic nature of GPP.

How can visibility on social media help?

Listen as Dr. Joel Gelfand explains the impact of social media algorithms blocking GPP and skin disease-related visual content.

Social media has a huge impact on the dermatology world, both in how knowledge is disseminated and how care is delivered. Dermatologists also leverage their platforms to connect with and educate the public to increase disease awareness. Many current social media algorithms limit the images that can be shared.

Dermatologists would benefit from sharing and consuming content related to their field of work on social media. This is particularly true for a disease like GPP, which is often misdiagnosed as plaque psoriasis. While GPP and plaque psoriasis share a name, they are distinct diseases recognized as separate clinical entities. The frequent misdiagnosis of GPP leads to longer times to diagnosis, and people living with the disease needing to visit multiple doctors.

GPP is not ‘sensitive’ content.