Lisa A. Swanson, MD

Dermatology Education Foundation (DERM) 2025 NP/PA CME Conference

 in Las Vegas, Lisa A. Swanson, MD—a dual-board-certified dermatologist and pediatric dermatologist at Ada West Dermatology—discussed the challenges of dealing with parents of pediatric patients, emphasizing the need for adaptability and understanding parental priorities.

Swanson touched on this topic as part of a discussion of her presentation at the conference on speaking with parents. During her interview with 

, Swanson advocated for a technique called "gentle persistent persuasion," gradually introducing and discussing treatments like isotretinoin or dupilumab to parents who are initially hesitant.

Tips for Dealing with Parents as a Clinician in Dermatology, with Lisa Swanson, MD

“If I have a patient who has scarring acne, but the parents aren't ready to consider isotretinoin, I will, at each visit, talk about it, discuss it, answer questions about it, gently encourage, bring up points that I think are valid,” Swanson explained. “I hope that over time, eventually, they become more amenable to the therapy. The same could be said for the kiddo with severe atopic dermatitis, where I think dupilumab would be a nice fit, but the family's not ready for it yet. Understandable. We take it one day at a time, one visit at a time.”

The importance of empathy was highlighted by Swanson, especially when parents express opinions different from the physician’s advice, to avoid defensiveness and maintain a collaborative relationship. In cases of disagreement between parents and teenagers, finding a compromise is suggested to address both parties' concerns effectively.

“Sometimes, particularly in the teenage age group, you will encounter a situation where you've presented a list of options to a patient and their family, and the teenager vocalizes that they want to go one way, and the parent vocalizes very strongly that they would want to go another way,” Swanson said. “In these situations, I try to find a point of compromise. I try to agree with both sides. I'll say to the teen, ‘Of course, you are troubled by your acne. I understand that it poses a daily problem for you as you try to go to school, and you're feeling less confident and self-conscious about your acne. I completely understand that, and I think that can be a good reason to perhaps pursue a more aggressive choice like isotretinoin...I might say, ‘I also see your side’ [to the parents].

In many circumstances, Swanson pointed out, parents and their children have not tried a prescription medication yet and may be afraid that switching straight to isotretinoin is too abrupt. She emphasized that a good compromise would be to go with the parents' choice at first, but to decide later if the teen should be given their own choice in the matter after results are observed.

For more about the topics covered in Swanson’s session at the conference, view her full interview video above. To find out more from DERM 2025, view our 

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for clarity.

Swanson has served as a speaker and/or consultant for Abbvie, Almirall, Alphyn, Arcutis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Castle, Dermavant, Galderma, Incyte, Johnson & Johnson, Leo, Lilly, Novan, Pfizer, Sanofi-Regeneron, and Verrica.

Videos

Swanson speaks in this interview segment about her DERM 2025 session on speaking with parents and their children or teens as a clinician.

 in Las Vegas, Lisa A. Swanson, MD, spoke on-site at the meeting with the 

 team about her presentation titled ‘Systemic Therapy for the Pediatric Acne Patient.’

Swanson—a dual-board-certified dermatologist and pediatric dermatologist at Ada West Dermatology—discussed some of the main points highlighted in her session, including clinical pearls on the use of systemic therapy for 

 in young patients. She emphasized the importance of dermatologists being well-prepared to treat acne, which can consume a significant portion of a clinician’s time.

Advice on Systemic Therapy Use in Pediatric Acne, with Lisa Swanson, MD

“There's baby acne, which is harmless, and kids grow out of it, and it's no big deal,” Swanson said. “But then there's toddler acne, which is very important to treat because it can cause scarring. Toddler acne starts between the ages of 18 months and 3 years of age. Then there's what we call mid-childhood acne, which starts between the ages of 3 and 7. It's important to do a little bit of an endocrine workup for those kids because acne that starts during those ages is considered abnormal. You want to do a bit of a deeper dive to determine if there's anything else going on. You either want to send them to a [pediatric endocrinologist], or you want to do a little bit of blood work.”

Notably, Swanson highlighted that teenage acne is now appearing in children at younger ages. It used to be abnormal to have acne before the age of 9 years, she explained, but it is now only abnormal before the age of 7.

“One of the most common theories for why we're seeing acne younger is that it stems from hormones that are given to animals on farms, and then we might consume their animal products, so their meat or their eggs, or their milk,” Swanson explained.

Swanson was later asked if there were any clinical pearls for clinicians viewing her session or this interview that could help them in managing acne among patients with acne. Tips for addressing acne included:

Providing oral contraceptive pills both to treat acne and when one is starting a patient on a medicine for which they should not be getting pregnant

Demystifying isotretinoin by discussing its benefits and addressing the stigma associated with it

“I think all of us should feel comfortable prescribing oral contraceptive pills,” Swanson said. “During my talk, I shared the counseling that I give to patients and send their parents when I'm first starting those therapies, and hopefully, people left empowered to go ahead and prescribe those therapies themselves. The other thing I hope I trained the people to do is to have a good, solid discussion of the pros and cons of isotretinoin treatment. Isotretinoin has a little bit of baggage with it because of the iPLEDGE program, and it kind of has this big deal feel to patients and their families.”

To find out more about the topics covered in Swanson’s talk at the conference, view her full interview posted above. For more from DERM 2025, view our 

Swanson L. Systemic Therapy for the Pediatric Acne Patient. Presented at DERM 2025 NP PA CME Conference; July 23-26, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada.

In this interview, Swanson highlights her DERM 2025 session ‘Systemic Therapy for the Pediatric Acne Patient’ and its takeaways.

Credit: American Osteopathic College of Dermatology

2025 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) Conference

 editorial team spoke to a variety of leading experts in the field of dermatology regarding their presentations at the atopic dermatitis-focused conference.

One such presenter was Lisa A. Swanson, MD, a dual board-certified clinician in dermatology and pediatric dermatology, who presented a talk alongside Anne Marie Singh, MD, on the topic of managing 

 and on allergy’s connection to the disease. Swanson was asked in her Q&A interview about what she believes are the most notable takeaways from the session, and the transcript of her discussion is included here:

During your session on pediatric atopic dermatitis, what would you say were some of the most notable take-home points for attending healthcare providers?

: I think the biggest take-home point is that patients with eczema have increased rates of food allergies, but it's actually quite rare. Dr. Singh shared that it happens only 2% of the time where the food allergy is actually triggering the atopic dermatitis, so most of the time these are coexisting conditions, rather than a cause and effect relationship. She also shared something that was quite new for me.

She said that in patients with food-triggered eczema, 2% of patients with eczema are in a situation where food is triggering it. If you avoid that food completely, you actually have a greater chance of developing an IGE hypersensitivity response to that food, so much so that if a patient has food driven atopic dermatitis, Dr. Singh will continue to have them introduce little bits of it into their diet in order to prevent them from developing an IGE hypersensitivity.

Outside of this session and its topic, is there any research or pipeline news that you are looking forward to learning more about?

 I am looking forward to developments in the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa and vitiligo. We need more for both of these conditions. Does any condition stink as bad as hidradenitis suppurativa? No, it is the worst. It is very painful, with a huge impact on quality of life, and we haven't had enough really good therapeutic advances in treating hidradenitis suppurativa. I'm hoping for that to change sometime soon. In addition, with vitiligo, we have noticed really great improvement in our patients using topical ruxolitinib, but we're limited to 10% [body surface area]. We need the approval of some systemic agents, allowing us to help patients repigment more body surface area.

What would you say is the value of disease-centric conferences like RAD 2025?

I'm a first timer here at RAD, and I'm loving it. I think most of the reason I love it is because, as a pediatric dermatologist, I spend 25% of my day talking about atopic dermatitis. I live and breathe atopic dermatitis, all day, every day, and so coming to a meeting devoted to that topic has been very educational for me and very informative for me. I'm really soaking it all up and living the dream. I love it because atopic dermatitis is what I do.

For any additional information on Swanson’s presentation at RAD, or related topics in the field of dermatology covered at the meeting, view our 

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.

Articles

The 2025 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) Conference featured insights from experts like Dr. Lisa A. Swanson, who discussed pediatric atopic dermatitis and its link to allergies. A key takeaway was that food allergies rarely trigger atopic dermatitis, occurring in only 2% of cases. Introducing small amounts of the allergenic food may prevent IGE hypersensitivity. Dr. Swanson also expressed interest in advancements for hidradenitis suppurativa and vitiligo treatments. She emphasized the educational value of disease-centric conferences, particularly for specialists deeply involved in specific conditions.

This Q&A interview with Lisa Swanson, MD, features a discussion of the highlights of Swanson’s talk at RAD 2025 regarding pediatric atopic dermatitis.