Masterclasses in Dermatology Saturday Morning Live

Dermatologists and rheumatologists may be the first clinicians to catch cardiovascular disease in patients with psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, and cutaneous lupus — but most aren't screening for it systematically. In this episode, Dr. Joseph Merola and Dr. Alice Gottlieb (dermatologist-rheumatologists, UT Southwestern Medical Center) are joined by Dr. Brittany Weber, one of the first cardiodermatologists in the United States, to lay out the clinical case for owning cardiovascular risk assessment in inflammatory skin disease.The discussion covers why standard CV risk calculators underestimate risk in this patient population, how the PREVENT calculator improves on the pooled cohort equation by incorporating lifetime risk and younger-age calibration, and what a practical screening workflow looks like across different practice settings — from academic medical centers to community dermatology. Dr. Weber also breaks down when to manage risk in-house, when to refer to primary care, and when to send directly to a preventive cardiologist.The episode closes with a forward-looking discussion on imaging: coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring, coronary CT angiography, cardiac MRI, and the emerging use of AI algorithms to identify unrecognized cardiovascular burden in CT scans already sitting in the medical record.Hosted by Masterclasses in Dermatology Saturday Morning Live — a free virtual education series for dermatologists, nurse practitioners, and physician associates produced by HMP Global.Thank you for listening.

The bar for treating psoriasis has moved dramatically — from PASI 50 to PASI 75 to complete clearance — and the field is now seriously asking whether remission is an achievable clinical goal, not just an aspirational one. In this episode, Dr. Joseph Merola and Dr. Alice Gottlieb break down how remission is currently defined in dermatology, where those definitions came from, and what they actually mean for patients in the clinic.The conversation covers the NPF's recently published on-treatment remission criteria for plaque psoriasis, the concept of the molecular scar — what's still happening under visibly clear skin — and why tissue-resident memory T cells may be the reason patients who stop therapy don't always get back to where they were. Dr. Merola also presents new AAD data applying remission definitions to real-world trial outcomes with bimekizumab and guselkumab, including how many patients sustained on-treatment remission at three and five years.From there, the discussion expands to atopic dermatitis, where Dr. Merola led the International Eczema Council consensus on low disease activity and remission — now in press at JAMA Dermatology — and to psoriatic arthritis, where a similar framework is actively in development. Dr. Gottlieb draws on her rheumatology background to examine what dermatology should borrow from RA and PsA remission models, and where the analogy breaks down.The episode closes on the question of cure — what it would actually require, what early-intervention data in guttate psoriasis suggests, and how far off a true immune reset really is.Hosted by Masterclasses in Dermatology Saturday Morning Live, a free virtual education series for dermatologists, nurse practitioners, and physician associates.Thank you for listening.