Meet the Board: Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD
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“It’s a very exciting time in inflammatory skin diseases,” Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, told Healio.
By dividing her time between clinical care, academic research and administrative duties as the Waldman Professor and System Chair of the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine, Guttman-Yassky has seen how biologics have transformed treatment.
“Now we have the drugs to treat patients safely based on the mechanism of action that we didn’t have even 10 years ago,” said Guttman-Yassky, who also is a member of Healio’s Allergy/Asthma Peer Perspective Board.
“Before, we would treat patients with nonspecific treatments, such as cyclosporine, steroids and immune suppressants,” she said. “Now we can treat them safely with medications that target only one molecule or a narrow pathway, allowing for better long-term disease control that is pathogenesis-driven.”
Additionally, Guttman-Yassky serves as the director of the Center of Excellence in Eczema and the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases, both also at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Healio spoke with Guttman-Yassky about this treatment evolution and the impact it has had on her patients, in addition to her career in dermatology, what she enjoys outside of the clinic and lab, and her hopes for the next breakthroughs in care.
Healio: How did you come to pursue dermatology as your specialty?
Guttman-Yassky: I had eczema growing up, and it is very interesting for me to be in a field that includes the treatment of eczema. I always wanted to be a dermatologist, for as long as I can remember. In terms of immunology, I also wanted to contribute to research, because it was close to home for me. I wanted to contribute to the research of this disease, because at the time there were no treatments that were specific for patients.
I didn’t have very severe disease, but I still had a disease that necessitated constant treatment, or chronic treatment. Eczema is a disease that interferes with sleep. You itch at night, so I found myself itching and needing to put creams all over my body. It interfered with my schooling and with my life at the time.
Healio: Do you have a particular area of dermatology that you enjoy the most?
Guttman-Yassky: I enjoy inflammatory skin diseases, including eczema and alopecia, and I like to treat patients with these diseases. This also is the area I am researching. I have a lab focusing on inflammatory skin diseases. I like the science. Recently, there has been an amazing revolution in these types of diseases in which we are starting to understand more about how different molecules contribute to their pathogenesis. We were able to develop specific treatments targeting these molecules, and now we have great treatments that are safe for inflammatory skin disease.
Healio: What challenges do you face regularly in practice that keep you up at night?
Guttman-Yassky: Our treatments need to be given all the time, whether they are biologics or oral medications. The challenge, and my wishful thinking, is that in the future, maybe we’ll find some treatments that will be taken for a while, and then people can stop taking them, and still the effects will hold.
Also, not all insurances cover treatment. Sometimes we need to deal with multiple appeals, and it shouldn’t be like that. People pay for insurance all their life. They should be getting these treatments. Patients may benefit from these new treatments that are available.
Patient education is a challenge as well. Some patients don’t understand that some of these diseases are systemic and require systemic treatments. So there needs to be a lot of education of patients — and also a lot of education for other physicians who are not necessarily in academic practices.
Healio: What do you like to do outside of clinical practice?
Guttman-Yassky: I am a foodie. My husband is an amazing cook. I enjoy good food, and I particularly like seafood and anything with lobster. I also like to travel in my spare time, particularly discovering new foods and new exotic destinations or markets. I like France, especially Paris. I also like Israel. I’m Israeli, so I like returning home. I also enjoy theater and musicals and suspense movies.
Healio: What would you say has been the most exciting development in dermatology treatment over the last decade?
Guttman-Yassky: For me, it was the development of targeted treatments for eczema. They have had a tremendous impact for patients who didn’t sleep at night and were withdrawn from society and who now have a full life. It’s amazing the impact that they have had, particularly on the quality of life of these patients, including children.
Healio: What advances are you most looking forward to over the next 10 years?
Guttman-Yassky: I’m looking forward to treatment that not only will be able to treat a disease safely and effectively, but also potentially induce tolerance so it will not need to be given all the time. This treatment would be given for a while, and then the disease would basically be resolved. It’s a matter of identifying the molecules and doing the clinical trials. There are some molecules that are already identified in the clinical trials that are ongoing. We just need to be patient.
For more information:
Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, can be reached at emma.guttman@mountsinai.org.