Julien Seneschal is professor of dermatology at the University Hospital of Bordeaux, National Reference Center for Rare Skin disorders. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University, focusing his research on skin immunology, he created an immuno-dermatology team with the goal to better understand the immune pathogenesis of inflammatory skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis and vitiligo. He is authors of several clinical and research articles related to skin inflammatory diseases published in Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Science Translational Medicine and Immunity, among others. He is an EADV member, a board member of the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) and the president of the French Society for Research in Dermatology.

Lecture summary: The discovery of Janus-Associated Kinase (JAK) and their roles in cytokine action represents a significant advance in the understanding in cell signaling. Since many cytokines are involved in the immune mechanisms of chronic inflammatory skin disorders, the strategy of targeting JAKs in order to treat skin diseases is now a reality. Several oral and topical JAK inhibitors are currently under development for diseases such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, vitiligo, alopecia areata and hidradenitis suppurativa. In addition, many other skin inflammatory diseases with high unmet needs could benefit from these drugs. However, since they are a relatively new treatment modality in dermatology, their safety still needs to be confirmed.

This talk will explore the mechanism of action of JAK inhibitors, on-label and off-label use of topical and systemic JAK inhibitors and, last but not least, the current knowledge on the efficacy and safety of JAK inhibitors in dermatology.

Chrys Schmults is an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard. She received her medical degree from Yale and did her residency at New York University. She was a part of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania before becoming the director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Mohs and Dermatologic Surgery Center in Boston. She founded the Dana Farber High-Risk Skin Cancer Clinic that cares for patients with multiple skin cancers, severe sun damage, or tumors at high risk for recurrence. 

Dr Schmults has developed new staging systems for SCC and BCC which identified the subset of patients in need of studies of staging and adjuvant treatment. She has served on the board of directors of the American College of Mohs Surgeons and the International Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and as president of the International Immunology and Transplant Skin Cancer Collaborative. She is currently the chair of the non-melanoma panel of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) which develops guidelines of care for cancer patients.

Lecture summary:

Dr. Schmults’ talk will provide information on how to design appropriate treatment strategies for patients with field cancerization/multiple actinic keratosis and in situ SCCs, how to produce accurate prognostic estimates based on available data for patients with multiple and high-risk SCC and how to design appropriate treatment and follow-up strategies for patients with high risk and advanced SCC.

Miguel Guimarães was born on January 22, 1962, in Oporto, Portugal. He is the Chairman of the Portuguese Medical Association since 2017, currently serving its second term. Between 2011 and 2016 he was the president of the North Section of Portuguese Medical Association. With a degree in Medicine and Surgery by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), he was director of the Urology Department of the Santa Luzia Hospital in Viana do Castelo from 1999 to 2005. Since then, he has been a Graduated Hospital Assistant in Urology from the Urology Department at São João Hospital in Oporto. 

Miguel Guimarães has more than one hundred published papers and was a main investigator and co-investigator in more than 25 clinical research studies in areas such as overactive bladder, prostate carcinoma or benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Lecture summary:

 “The Future of Dermatology” intends to present a real and updated portrait of the global evolution of medicine and Portuguese constraints in terms of health policy, due to a lack of specialists in the public health system, divestment and low budgets, especially evidenced during the pandemic. Science and medicine are experiencing a great and unique evolution. Smart algorithms and big data are changing the way we can store and analyze information, with great impact on diagnosis of several specialties, including dermatology. Medical doctors should be prepared in time for the technological changes even before they start swiping through the specialty. But this is also the right time to know how far we want (and can) go, to better understand the changes in medicine and to maintain a strong and valuable doctor/patient relationship.