Who: Atopic dermatitis (AD), also called atopic eczema, is a common chronic or recurrent inflammatory skin disease and affects 15-20% of children and 1-3% of adults worldwide. Patient organizations that serve people living with Atopic Eczema, provide essential services, support, access to information, opportunities to link with other patients and speak up for access to care and treatment. This is a disease where patient organizations are currently under-resourced and not well connected to each other.
What: GlobalSkin began working with this global community of leaders to significantly and measurably improve capacity building and coordination of a synchronized strategic approach to improve access to care, critical information, and treatment options for patients.
World Atopic Eczema Day - 2025 Campaign
World Atopic Eczema Day is coming up on September 14 and we’re thrilled to share that the World Atopic Eczema Day 2025 Toolkit and shareable graphics are now live!
This year's theme - "Our Skin, Our Journey" - shines a light on the lived experiences of patients navigating a disease that continuously evolves. It also highlights their daily struggles in the ongoing fight for better care.
Our new toolkit is filled with practical resources, ideas, and inspiration to help your organization plan meaningful activities and raise awareness in your community. This guide is designed to make your efforts more impactful and easier to execute.
Prepare for your 2025 "Our Skin, Our Journey" WAED campaign with our ready-to-use and customizable social media graphics!
Download the toolkit to start incorporating it into your WAED plans today!
Atopic Eczema Forum 2025: Advancing Policy for Impact
At the 2025 Atopic Eczema Forum, 51 participants came together to explore how policy can drive change for those living with atopic eczema. This event was co-hosted with GAAPP, and expertly facilitated by Neil Bertelsen.
Through thoughtful reflection and discussions, attendees identified their organization’s advocacy goals, mapped realistic progress to 2030, and discussed how the global community—through GlobalSkin and GAAPP—can provide the tools and support needed to succeed. The forum concluded with Members leaving with a five-year policy roadmap, concrete advocacy initiatives and renewed momentum for policy action worldwide, as patient leaders and the Atopic Eczema Community.
Atopic Eczema Forum 2023
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GlobalSkin hosted our third Atopic Eczema Forum on June 1 in Brussels, preceding the ELEVATE 2023 Conference. The forum gathered 28 Members from 20 countries for a day of learning and connection. Members began the day gaining insight about their colleagues’ success stories with presentations from Global Parents for Eczema Research, Cronicos do Dia a Dia, Allergy and Asthma Network, Israeli Association for Atopic Dermatitis and the Eczema Society of Canada. The topics of these presentations included survey findings on Topical Steroid Withdrawal, Atopic Eczema Day in Brazil and Patient-Centred Care in Israel. The morning continued with Dr. Yael Leshem and an introduction to the Harmonising Outcome Measure in Eczema (HOME) project outlining the possibilities of better measurement of disease for patients with atopic eczema. The morning presentations can be found on the GlobalSkin website in the Members Only section. The afternoon of the forum was led by Professor Chris Bundy and Rach Hewitt providing a workshop on Shared-Decision Making between doctors and patients with the support of patient organizations. Presentations from the Forum can be found by visitng the Members Only Area and loging into your profile. |
Atopic Eczema Treatment Care Guidelines: A Global Examination
During an Atopic Eczema Community workshop in 2022, it became clear that this community feels strongly about the need for better treatment and care for everyone living with atopic eczema, regardless of where they live. Based on the Community’s recommendation, GlobalSkin decided to investigate the possibility of a global standard of treatment care guidelines. This initiative seeks to understand 1) if it is possible to create a global standard of care and 2) could current treatment guidelines be adapted in other regions.
Summary of the development of this project
including ideation, goals, methodologies and key players.
A comprehensive audit aiming to understand
the strengths, weaknesses and gaps of current
treatment guidelines for atopic eczema across different geographies.
Knowledge experts discussed potential opportunities
for creating better guidelines, the adoption of existing guidelines and how to
best ensure that people living with atopic eczema attain better outcomes from
their care.
Get Involved! Now is your opportunity to share
your ideas, knowledge and expertise by joining the new Community of Practice
focused on building productive and collaborative working relationships with
HCPs.
Community Resources
World Atopic Eczema Day, an awareness day for atopic eczema, was launched by GlobalSkin and the global atopic eczema patient community in 2018.
Year over year, this awareness campaign has grown and brought to light to the many different aspects of this skin disease.
Participate in the WAED 2025 Campaign
To learn more about past campaigns, read the reports below:
Atopic Eczema Advisory Committee
Vanessa Jenkins - Eczema Association of New Zealand Inc., New Zealand
Angelika Thew - Eczema Association of Australasia Inc., Australia
Sabrina Ribau - Canadian Skin Patient Alliance, Canada
Spela Novak - Drustvo Atopijski Dermatitis, Slovenia
Kelly Barta - Coalition for Skin Diseases, USA
Rachel Ogola - Eczema Society of Kenya, Kenya
Tina Mesaric - Atopika, Slovenia
Wendy Smith Begolka - National Eczema Assc., USA
Melanie Funk - Eczema Support Australia, Australia
Thank you to our Partners:
