Eczema Awareness Month: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Care

During Eczema Awareness Month, clinicians have an opportunity not only to raise awareness of the chronic nature of eczema but also to consider how a rapidly expanding treatment landscape is reshaping its management.

For Adam Stratman, MD, the growing number of therapeutic options represents significant progress for patients with eczema. However, it also underscores the importance of individualized treatment selection, ongoing patient communication, and, looking ahead, precision medicine approaches that could help clinicians identify the most appropriate therapy earlier in the course of care.

Reinforcing the Chronic Nature of Eczema

One misconception Stratman continues to encounter is that eczema can be controlled solely through changes in skin care products or routines. Although gentle skin care remains an important component of management, he emphasized that eczema is a chronic condition that often requires consistent medical therapy.

“Eczema really is a condition that's intrinsically going on within you, and it does require something that's like regular maintenance,” Stratman told Dermatology Times.

That maintenance may include topical therapies or systemic medications, depending on the individual patient and severity of disease. Because eczema can fluctuate and flare at different points throughout the year, Stratman stressed the importance of adherence and an ongoing relationship between patients and their dermatology clinicians.

Patients may also become discouraged when they continue to experience symptoms despite following recommendations such as using fragrance-free soaps, detergents, and moisturizers.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, am I doing something wrong, or should I be doing something different?’” Stratman said.

Clinicians have an important role in reassuring patients that disease flares are not necessarily the result of something they have done incorrectly, he explained. Instead, maintaining an appropriate medical regimen and adjusting treatment when necessary are key components of long-term disease management.

More Treatments Bring More Opportunities for Individualized Care

The eczema treatment landscape has changed substantially in recent years, with clinicians now able to choose among topical, oral, and injectable therapies. Stratman described the growth in treatment options as an encouraging development but noted that it also makes patient counseling increasingly important.

Patients may hesitate to begin certain therapies because of concerns about medications or differences in administration. Clinicians therefore need to discuss the safety, benefits, and practical considerations associated with available options while considering factors such as disease severity, lifestyle, and patient preferences.

“It’s been so great to see so many different treatment options available for our patients in the last few years,” Stratman said.

The next generation of therapies could further improve convenience, he added, potentially through longer intervals between doses. Continued innovation in eczema could also provide lessons for the management of other inflammatory skin diseases.

“I feel like even eczema can kind of show us how it is that we can treat other inflammatory skin conditions...and what's actually possible for the future of other inflammatory skin conditions,” he said.

Precision Medicine Represents a Key Unmet Need

As the therapeutic armamentarium grows, Stratman sees precision medicine as one of the most significant opportunities to advance eczema care.

Rather than relying on sequential treatment attempts to determine which therapy works best for an individual patient, future approaches could potentially use genomic or transcriptomic profiling to help predict treatment response.

“There are so many medications that are available to us, and while that is a very good thing...I just want to choose the best one for my patient,” Stratman said.

Such an approach could allow clinicians to tailor treatment based on an individual patient's biological profile from the beginning of care, potentially reducing the time and resources spent identifying an effective regimen.

“I think precision medicine really is going to be one of the new frontiers as more and more treatments become available,” he said.

Until such tools become part of routine practice, individualization still depends heavily on clinical characteristics and conversations with patients. Stratman noted that he considers lifestyle and preferences, including whether a patient would rather take an oral medication or receive an injection, when selecting treatment.

Avoiding Misdiagnosis and Addressing Misconceptions

Another continuing challenge is recognizing the varied presentations of eczema. Patients may initially believe their symptoms are caused by an infection, while clinicians must consider other conditions that can resemble eczema.

“Eczema can look like a lot of different things,” Stratman said, adding that the condition can still be misdiagnosed.

Accurate diagnosis, appropriate counseling, and familiarity with the growing range of treatment options remain important as clinicians work to establish individualized management plans.

A Call for Continued Reassessment

For dermatology clinicians, Stratman said Eczema Awareness Month is also a reminder that eczema management should not be viewed as static.

“Eczema is different for everyone,” he said. “Eczema is not a one-size-fits-all diagnosis.”

A regimen that successfully controlled disease for an extended period may become less effective when seasons change, a patient's daily routine shifts, or other factors contribute to renewed disease activity.

Stratman encouraged clinicians to maintain open communication, ensure appropriate follow-up, and reassess whether patients remain on the right treatment plan. When flares occur, clinicians should be prepared to adjust management and discuss alternatives rather than assuming a previously successful approach will continue to provide adequate control.

As therapeutic options continue to expand, the challenge in eczema care may increasingly shift from simply having effective therapies available to determining which treatment is most appropriate for each individual patient.

For Stratman, that evolution could ultimately have implications extending beyond eczema itself. Advances in individualized eczema management may provide a framework for approaching psoraisis and other inflammatory skin diseases, making the condition a potential model for the future of precision dermatology.

References

1. Paller AS, et al. Systemic therapies for atopic dermatitis. J Am Acad Dermatol. Published online 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2026.01.075. PubMed
2. Hilger E, Chan K, Yip A, et al. Biomarkers for therapeutic response and adverse outcomes in atopic dermatitis: a systematic review. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2026;40(7):1173-1184. doi:10.1111/jdv.70330. PubMed
3. Chiricozzi A, Levi A, Palladino C, Girolomoni G. Enabling precision medicine with biomarkers of response to treatment in atopic dermatitis: where are we now? A narrative review. Front Med (Lausanne). 2025;12:1574697. doi:10.3389/fmed.2025.1574697.