Cutaneous Lupus across Skin Tones

“Cutaneous Lupus across Skin Tones” is an online, case-based, interactive module that teaches graduate medical trainees an approach to assessing cutaneous lupus in patients of all skin color.

Lisa Zickuhr, MD, MHPE from the Washington University School of Medicine Division of Rheumatology and Sarah Goglin, MD from the University of California – San Francisco Division of Rheumatology delivered a Teaching Pearl Presentation at the American College of Rheumatology’s Education Exchange 2022 in Orlando, FL.  Drs. Zickuhr and Goglin partnered with eight educators from rheumatology and dermatology to create an online, case-based, interactive module that teaches graduate medical trainees an approach to assessing cutaneous lupus rashes.  The module is called “Cutaneous Lupus across Skin Tones” and outlines the main forms of cutaneous lupus, distinguishes them from common mimicking rashes, correlates their risk with systemic disease, and introduces best practices for photographing rashes.  In response to the need to better represent patients with skin of color in the images of educational materials, the educational group intentionally – and successfully – incorporated images of light, medium, and dark skin tones equally in the module.  The module celebrates the success and accomplishments of collaborations in medical education across disciplines and geographic regions and, thus far, has been piloted among rheumatology fellows and internal medicine residents at a variety of academic centers.