key: cord-0758725-3q6idrmz
authors: Freeman, Esther E.; McMahon, Devon E.; Fitzgerald, Matthew E.; Fox, Lindy P.; Rosenbach, Misha; Takeshita, Junko; French, Lars E.; Thiers, Bruce H.; Hruza, George J.
title: The AAD COVID-19 Registry: Crowdsourcing Dermatology in the Age of COVID-19
date: 2020-04-17
journal: J Am Acad Dermatol
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2020.04.045
sha: b2aef9bcd1a7b70237ed02ef4004c94f86017151
doc_id: 758725
cord_uid: 3q6idrmz

nan

There have been increasing reports of dermatologic manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 . The first case series of dermatologic manifestations included 18 Italian patients with erythematous, urticarial, and vesicular rashes, often on the trunk. 1 Other reports include drug hypersensitivity, 2 urticaria, 2 a petechial rash mimicking dengue, 3 and acro-ischemia. 4 It is important to further characterize dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19 in order to understand the relationship between the virus and skin, and determine whether cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19 may assist with early disease detection. To date, collecting cases of dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19 has been challenging given their relative infrequency and the rapid spread of COVID-19. Dermatologists are relying on informal networks, including social media, to share cutaneous manifestations of the disease. In order to rapidly and centrally collate these cases from a global network and inform colleagues on the front line combatting the virus, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) COVID-19 Task Force has launched an online COVID-19 dermatology registry. This registry was inspired by a similar registry created by the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance. 5 The registry's primary purpose is to rapidly collect COVID-19 cutaneous manifestations in order to enable prompt dissemination of the findings to the dermatology community and front line healthcare workers. Given early reports of COVID-19 disparities across racial and socioeconomic groups in the United States, we encourage submission of COVID-19 cases across all ages, races and socioeconomic statuses. A secondary objective is to report how COVID-19 affects patients with pre-existing dermatologic conditions, particularly those on immunosuppressive therapies. We expect that these results will generate ideas for further epidemiologic studies on COVID-19 in dermatology.

The registry is available online through the AAD website at www.aad.org/covidregistry. The We recognize the limitations of such a registry, including selective reporting, duplicate case entries, and lack of a denominator which preclude us from accurately estimating incidence or prevalence.

This registry does not replace rigorous epidemiologic studies. However, we believe this registry will allow the global community to rapidly share observations without the institutional or national boundaries that often limit scientific collaboration.

Ultimately, the success of this international effort depends on the active participation of all health-workers caring for patients with COVID-19. Together, we hope to use this registry to compile a more complete and representative case series of potential dermatologic manifestations of COVID-19 and outcomes of established dermatology patients who develop COVID-19.

The authors would like to thank the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance for sharing their experience with registry development. We would also like to thank staff at the American Academy of Dermatology for their logistical and administrative support. We also appreciate comments from Drs. Kenneth Katz, Matthew Mansh, and Adewole Adamson regarding collecting demographic information in the registry.

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COVID-19 can present with a rash and be mistaken for Dengue

The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance: collecting data in a pandemic