Dr Corinne Maiolo’s pilot study will look at nurse-led patient education on outcomes, including quality of life.
A South Australian dermatologist with a passion for patient education has been awarded more than $40,000 to advance her research aimed at improving the quality of life for patients with eczema.
Dr Corinne Maiolo will use the grant from La Foundation La Roche-Posay for a pilot study on integrating one-on-one nurse-led eczema education into dermatology outpatient consultations.
She is particularly interested to know more about how this education enables patient outcomes, self-efficacy skills and patient/carer satisfaction.
Dr Maiolo was one of four research grant winners announced by the company at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress 2024, held in Amsterdam last month.
The three others are dermatologists in the Netherlands, Brazil and Nigeria. The grants program is specifically aimed at young dermatologists.
Dr Maiolo told Dermatology Republic that extensive patient education was vital in eczema treatment programs, particularly to improve self-management.
However, the current healthcare model struggled to provide sufficient time for this education, especially in regional areas where access to a dermatologist was limited.
“What we are looking at is essentially allowing those patients a bit of extra time and a bit of one-on-one care, so that we can really go through their plan individually, how it applies to them, what they need to do for their own skin, so that we can essentially build that confidence and that understanding of their skin condition,” said Dr Maiolo.
“Therefore they can then take control of their skin and that means they’re less reliant on needing to come in for appointments, because they can understand their skin and how to look after it, what to do for skin flare-ups, and it’s applicable to them.
“That’s really what we’re trying to show in our research project – that over time, with a bit of extra time and with a bit of one-on-one, that these people can actually build their own self efficacy and self-management, and it leads to better outcomes for them and less burden on the healthcare system.”
Dr Maiolo said she was “really thrilled” to have been chosen for the grant and the fact that the pilot study would take place in her “little town of Renmark”, about 250km northeast of Adelaide. The town has a population of about 4700.
“It’s a really lovely part of South Australia, but it’s very dry there, very sunny, and so we do see a lot of skin conditions there,” she said.
“It is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive to Adelaide, so for people to come and seek care in Adelaide, it’s a whole day for them to take off from school or work or anything else to actually get care.”
Dr Maiolo sees patients out of rooms in Renmark, the Adelaide CBD and Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills. She also uses telehealth where possible to help patients overcome the tyranny of distance.
She told DR she hoped the pilot study would provide the data and evidence to show that this type of patient education program had major merit and should be funded accordingly.
“That’s why we we’re super excited to have been selected because we are really strongly enthusiastic about this project, and we think it’s really important for not just the cohort of people we’re seeing, but across Australia where there are lots of small communities and larger communities,” she said.
“Even metropolitan areas would still benefit from the same service. There’s a lot of people who still don’t have the necessary health literacy, regardless of them living in the city, so this approach really does help those individuals as well.
“We were just really thrilled to be able to bring this project to life and actually get it going.”
Since 1995, La Foundation La Roche-Posay has awarded more than 200 research grants and prizes to advance the work of investigative dermatologists around the world.
