DREAM TO TREAT AD

This is a research collaboration between five European Atopic Dermatitis (AD) patient registers, all part of the TREAT Registry Taskforce, and Pfizer. Deep insights into the effectiveness of novel medications can potentially be gained by the aggregation of register data across country borders.

Such action may facilitate the analysis of data on large numbers of patients with a long duration of follow‐up, which is necessary to inform treatment guidelines. Abrocitinib is a Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) selective inhibitor licenced in the UK and European Union for the treatment of moderate to severe AD who are candidates for systemic treatment. Patterns of abrocitinib and conventional systemic treatment use in clinical practice are currently unknown. This observational study will seek to characterise the profile of abrocitinib and conventional systemic treatment patients with moderate and severe atopic dermatitis in clinical practice in Europe and describe the short- and long-term effectiveness of abrocitinib and conventional systemic therapies in a three-year follow-up period. The aggregated analysis of data from independent registries using a predefined core data set is the first of its kind, particularly in AD. Additionally, this study is a proof of concept of making this type of scientific collaboration possible.

This study utilises a novel approach for federated data analysis, DataSHIELD. DataSHIELD helps to avoid physical pooling of the data, but provides a secure environment for data analysis in a statistical analysis hub, to where the data securely flows from the local data nodes, individual for each registry. This way no direct sharing of data is needed, and the statistical analysis conducted in the analysis hub will produce a combined meta-analysis results as well as results for each individual registry.