AbbVie has launched an online educational campaign to improve awareness and understanding of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), a chronic inflammatory skin disease.
The initiative, called What’s Your Sore Spot?, seeks to connect people with resources designed to help them identify symptoms and obtain diagnosis quickly and easily.
On average, an accurate diagnosis for someone who suffers from HS is over eight years, according to the pharma firm. AbbVie’s campaign – which targets both HCPs and prospective patients – aims to accelerate this poor diagnosis rate.
Tools including a symptom checker and a printable guide for discussing HS with dermatologists are available on the website.
Dominik Hochli, vice president of global medical affair at AbbVie, commented: “Despite being a serious and painful chronic condition, HS is a relatively unknown and not well understood disease, which contributes to delays in patients receiving accurate diagnosis.”
“The What’s Your Sore Spot? campaign demonstrates AbbVie’s commitment to work with patients, advocates and healthcare professionals to increase awareness about this debilitating disease and facilitate open dialogue during all phases of the patient journey,” he added.
Created in tandem with HS advocates around the world and launched during HS Awareness Week in the UK, the campaign also aims to generate conversation around HS on social media, inviting people to share their frustrations and triumphs with the disease through hashtags #sorespot and #brightspot, respectively.
HS affects up to 1% of adults worldwide, with 600,000 people currently living with the condition in the UK. Most common in young women with an average onset of 21 years of age, HS is often subject to misdiagnosis due to a lack of motivation by patients to seek treatment and poor knowledge of HS in the medical community.