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Physician global assessment can effectively measure acne, psoriasis outcomes

Physician global assessment effectively measured outcomes in patients with acne and psoriasis over time, according to recently published study results.

Researchers studied physicians’ billing sheets that were modified to include physician global assessment (PGA) scores for 2,770 patients with acne and 1,516 patients with psoriasis who were seen from June 2011 to October 2012 at a tertiary care outpatient dermatology clinic. Thirty attending dermatologists were trained and instructed in completing the PGA scale after patient visits.

Patient global assessments (PtGAs) were completed by a subset of patients from five clinics between November 2011 and May 2012. PtGA scores were collected from 52 patients with acne and 103 patients with psoriasis.

Longitudinal PGA severity scores were collected and analyzed, and the PGA scores were compared with the PtGA scores to measure within-clinic reliability.

There was considerable improvement in new patient outcomes by 3-month follow-up, with 14.6% of the patients with acne graded as effectively clear, compared with 2.1% at baseline when stratified by PGA score (P< .001), according to the researchers. In patients with psoriasis, 22.3% were graded as effectively clear, compared with 3.1% at baseline (P< .001).

The researchers classified interobserver agreement between PGA and PtGA global assessment for acne and psoriasis as “good,” measured by weighted Cohen kappa (acne, kappa = 0.79; psoriasis, kappa = 0.70).

Disclosure: Pascoe has no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.