Sarah Buchanan is the Director of Federal Government Relations and Health Policy at the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF). George Gondo is the Director of Patient-Centered Research, also at NPF. In this article, they discuss work that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are doing on psoriatic disease, and the potential of this research to improve the quality of life for those living with systemic immune-mediated diseases.
Buchanan: It’s been so much fun working with you and learning about everything you’re doing to improve the care process, from diagnosis to treatment. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into this?
Gondo: My name is George Gondo. I work remotely from my home in Knoxville, Tennessee. I’ve been working in the patient advocacy space for more than 15 years and have led large, federally-funded cooperative agreements for about half of that time.
Working to improve the lives of individuals with chronic diseases or disabilities is very important to me. At some point in our lives, each of us will experience a chronic disease or a disability – or both. Yet, despite this, our health care system and our social life are not well adapted for individuals with chronic diseases or disabilities.
I’ve been working with the National Psoriasis Foundation since 2019, focusing on our patient-centered research. My work at NPF largely involves conducting our patient-facing surveys, analyzing data from those surveys, and disseminating the results through presentations at scientific meetings and publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Through this work, I get to collaborate with other staff at NPF, like you, Sarah, and members of our NPF Scientific Advisory Committee and Medical Board. Additionally, I serve as the Principal Investigator for our Chronic Disease Education and Awareness (CDEA) grant through the CDC.
Buchanan: What is ‘public health’ as it relates to psoriatic disease?
Gondo: That’s an interesting question. At its core, public health is about promoting well-being in communities by preventing people from getting sick or injured and promoting wellness through beneficial behaviors. Psoriasis is not a preventable disease, at least at present. But, it may be possible to prevent comorbidities associated with psoriasis – diseases like psoriatic arthritis (PsA), heart disease, obesity, and depression – through receiving an early diagnosis of psoriasis, making lifestyle changes if needed, and finding an appropriate treatment plan.
In this sense, public health as it relates to psoriatic disease is about developing the infrastructure to raise awareness about psoriasis as an immune-mediated, systemic inflammatory disease associated with other comorbidities. It also means enabling people with psoriatic disease and their providers to make informed choices about treatments and health screenings, as well as developing interventions that will promote optimal health outcomes for individuals with psoriasis. Without that infrastructure, efforts to develop new treatments may not actually improve the health and wellness of individuals with psoriatic disease.