Complex Cases in Atopic Dermatitis and Hair Loss, with Tiffany Mayo, MD

During the 2025 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Tiffany Mayo, MD, provided a Q&A interview to the HCPLive editorial team regarding takeaways from her conference talk, ‘Complex Cases: AD & Hair Loss.’

Mayo is known for her work as both a board-certified dermatologist and assistant professor of Dermatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Regarding her presentation on hair loss and atopic dermatitis, Mayo was asked to go over some of the most notable points made during the talk. The following is her Q&A interview:

HCPLive: In light of your talk regarding complex cases in atopic dermatitis and hair loss, would you go over some of the specifics that you shared during the session?

Mayo: Some of the things that I think are key takeaways [such as the fact] that the severity of alopecia is not necessarily measured by the amount of disease, but it can really be more the impact of the disease on the patient. That should really drive our treatment, because places like the scalp or other small body surface areas can actually give intense pruritus and cause sleep loss. So we really want to make sure that we're adequately managing our patients, even if they seem to have a small amount of [impacted] body surface area.

Also, it's really important to note that there is an association between alopecia areata and atopic dermatitis, so we should be asking our patients about scalp involvement. But even when it's not alopecia areata, there is an association between alopecia and atopic dermatitis that can be very bothersome to our patients. For these patients, we should not miss the opportunity to let them know that we understand that this is impactful for them, and to help them understand how adequately treating their atopic dermatitis may also help deal with alopecia.

HCPLive: Outside of atopic dermatitis, are there any other areas in dermatology that you're looking forward to in the research space?

Mayo: Absolutely. I love treating atopic dermatitis and love alopecia, particularly scarring alopecia. I would love to see more research done in that area, as well as hidradenitis suppurativa. Thankfully, over the past few years, hidradenitis has seen a lot more research than it ever had, so that's super exciting. But I hope that continues, because still, there are still a lot of unknowns in hidradenitis suppurativa and a ton of unknowns in scarring alopecia. I am really hoping to see more there.

HCPLive: What would you say is the value of a disease-specific meeting such as RAD 2025?

Mayo: That's an excellent question. I think there are so many new treatments coming out that we're often left with questions: When do I treat certain patients? When do I choose certain medications? But the more we understand about treatment, we start to understand more about the disease and the nuances of the disease. So even though I've been to several meetings over the past month, being at this meeting talking specifically about atopic dermatitis, talking about all the treatments for atopic dermatitis, talking about the different phenotypes patient populations all in one, all really help us start to understand who we should be selecting for certain treatments and things we should be considering for our different patient populations to make sure we're actually managing and counseling them adequately. [Also] just making sure that we're giving better, complete care for our patients, and that we have a more complete understanding of the disease state.

HCPLive: Is there any other research that you're working on that you would like to highlight?

Mayo: I'm always working on projects. I think there still needs to be more disease state awareness, particularly in certain patient populations. So I'm always in the community hoping to better educate patients about the signs of different disease states, such as atopic dermatitis, alopecia, and hidradenitis. I think there can't be enough education related to the different disease states in patients of all skin tones, so that there can be full understanding of what the different nuances may look like. I'm working on quality improvement projects, research in that area, always, but always looking at scarring alopecia as well better understanding the impact of disease and whether or not the current treatments for alopecia and atopic dermatitis, will also have a double duty in helping us out with scarring alopecia.

For any additional information on this topic or related data, view our latest conference coverage from RAD 2025.

The quotes used in this summary were edited for clarity.