Discussing Allergy and Pediatric Atopic Dermatitis, with Lisa Swanson, MD

During the 2025 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the HCPLive 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 pediatric atopic dermatitis 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:

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

Swanson: 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.

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

Swanson: 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.

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

Swanson: 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 latest conference coverage.

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