HealthCert Insights – A Podcast for Doctors, Nurses and Healthcare Professionals
Jun 5, 2026 · 52 min · 9 segments
Are you confident diagnosing and managing eczema in patients with skin of colour (SOC)? Atopic dermatitis is one of the most common skin conditions in Australia, yet it often goes unrecognised or is…
Stephanie ReaGuestCampbellHost
I'm now predominantly Brisbane based, but still doing some rural outreach work.

And really, atopic dermatitis and skin of colour is an incredibly important topic.

Our goals today are really to understand the prevalence and the presentation and quality of life impact.

of atopic dermatitis in patients with skin of color and to recognize the critical role that ceramides play in the repair of the skin barrier function.

Hopefully, after this lecture today, you can confidently recommend appropriate skincare to improve these patients' outcomes.

And on a personal note, this is my little boy, my baby Flynn, and he is an eczema and allergy baby.

And so I very much understand both on a professional and personal level, the impact that atopic dermatitis can have, not just for the patient, but for families as well.

So what is atopy? So it's a genetic predisposition to immune responses to allergens that ultimately results in this Th2 shift.

And by comparison, conditions like psoriasis, we refer to as having a Th1 shift with our immune system.

There are genetic factors, and these differ quite broadly with patients who have skin of color, which we'll review very briefly.

We know that these genetic factors increase the risk of transepidermal water loss, which leads to dry xerotic skin and an impaired skin barrier.

And as a result, they're more prone to environmental triggers, so allergens and irritants.

They often flare with climate variations, so extreme weather, like very, very hot days and very cold days, as well as pollution.

And so broadly speaking, how does atopic dermatitis differ in skin of colour? Well, these are the main sort of categories that we will try and review, and that is genetics.

the morphology, so how it's presenting in the skin, the complications that they experience, cultural influences and practices that also impact on their eczema, their atopic dermatitis, and how they access treatment and diagnosis.

And I think an additional one would be that it is often underrepresented in our clinical trials and our research as well.

So approximately one in 10 people will develop atopic dermatitis during their lifetime.

And by the age of five, 90% of patients who are going to develop atopic dermatitis do.

I'm now predominantly Brisbane based, but still doing some rural outreach work.

And really, atopic dermatitis and skin of colour is an incredibly important topic.

Our goals today are really to understand the prevalence and the presentation and quality of life impact.

of atopic dermatitis in patients with skin of color and to recognize the critical role that ceramides play in the repair of the skin barrier function.

Hopefully, after this lecture today, you can confidently recommend appropriate skincare to improve these patients' outcomes.

And on a personal note, this is my little boy, my baby Flynn, and he is an eczema and allergy baby.

And so I very much understand both on a professional and personal level, the impact that atopic dermatitis can have, not just for the patient, but for families as well.

So what is atopy? So it's a genetic predisposition to immune responses to allergens that ultimately results in this Th2 shift.

And by comparison, conditions like psoriasis, we refer to as having a Th1 shift with our immune system.

There are genetic factors, and these differ quite broadly with patients who have skin of color, which we'll review very briefly.

We know that these genetic factors increase the risk of transepidermal water loss, which leads to dry xerotic skin and an impaired skin barrier.

And as a result, they're more prone to environmental triggers, so allergens and irritants.

They often flare with climate variations, so extreme weather, like very, very hot days and very cold days, as well as pollution.

And so broadly speaking, how does atopic dermatitis differ in skin of colour? Well, these are the main sort of categories that we will try and review, and that is genetics.

the morphology, so how it's presenting in the skin, the complications that they experience, cultural influences and practices that also impact on their eczema, their atopic dermatitis, and how they access treatment and diagnosis.

And I think an additional one would be that it is often underrepresented in our clinical trials and our research as well.

So approximately one in 10 people will develop atopic dermatitis during their lifetime.

And by the age of five, 90% of patients who are going to develop atopic dermatitis do.
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