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Acne Workgroup

Workgroup Chairs

  • JOHN BARBIERI

    MD, MBA

  • ALISON LAYTON

    MD

  • JERRY TAN

    MD

Acne is a skin condition that occurs when your hair follicles become plugged with oil and dead skin cells. It often causes whiteheads, blackheads or pimples, and usually appears on the face, forehead, chest, upper back and shoulders. Acne is most common among teenagers, though it affects people of all ages.

Effective treatments are available, but acne can be persistent. The pimples and bumps heal slowly, and when one begins to go away, others seem to crop up.

Depending on its severity, acne can cause emotional distress and scar the skin. The earlier you start treatment, the lower your risk of such problems.

Source: Mayoclinic.org

ACORN Workgroup synopsis

Progress toward workgroup objectives

Core outcome domains:

  • Signs & Symptoms: Dermatologists and/or patients assess active acne signs.
    • Recommended outcomes: Lesion counts and Investigator Global Assessment. ACORN Patient Global Assessment.
  • Extent of Scars & Dark Marks: Encompasses post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and acne scarring.
    • Have completed concept elicitation and content validity for new ACNE-Q Dyspigmentation scale. Currently working on field testing for this novel patient-reported outcome
  • Satisfaction with Appearance: Captures patient-perceived aesthetic self-satisfaction.
    • In preparation: Systematic review for PROMS capturing appearance related concerns in acne
  • Satisfaction with Treatment Received: Measures patient satisfaction with their therapy (e.g., via willingness to continue/recommend).
    • Recommended outcomes: DermSat-7
  • Long-Term Control of Acne: Assesses sustained remission or recurrence post-treatment.
  • Health‑Related Quality of Life (HRQoL): Patient-reported measures of psychosocial impact, quality of life, self-esteem, and emotional wellbeing.
    • Recommended outcomes: ACNE-Q, CompAQ
  • Patient engagement: development of new website, https://acorn.bwh.harvard.edu/

Presentations

  • Oral presentation: Tan, J et al. ACORN activities, IDEOM adjacent to WCD, Milan Italy, June 9, 2019.
  • Poster presentation: Layton A. The impact of acne on patients' lives: insights from a systematic review. World Congress of Dermatology, Milan Italy, June 10-15, 2019
  • Oral presentation: Layton A. Core outcome domains for use in clinical trials for acne World Congress of Dermatology, Milan Italy, June 10-15, 2019
  • Oral presentation "Update on ACORN activities" Diane Thiboutot at CS-COUSIN meeting at the AAD March 19, 2020.

Publications

  1. Tan et al. Developing a Core Outcome Set for Acne Clinical Trials: Towards standardization and harmonization. Acne - Current Concepts and Management; In review November 2019.
  2. Tan et al. Identifying the impacts of acne: a Delphi survey of patients and clinicians. Journal of Cutaneous Medicine & Surgery. Accepted Jan 2020.
  3. Eady et al. A systematic literature review to identify impacts of acne and usage of questionnaires to detect them (due for submission)
  4. AM Layton, H Smith, DM Thiboutot, A Smith, H Whitehouse, W Ghumra, M Verma, J Tan, G Jones, K Gilliland, M Patel, E Otchere, EA Eady, A Systematic Literature Review to Identify the Impacts of Acne and the Use of Questionnaires to Detect These Impacts. American Journal of Clinical Dermatology; DOI 10.1007/s40257-020-00564-6; In press
  5. AM Layton, DM Thiboutot, J Tan. Reviewing the Global Burden of acne: how could we improve care to reduce the burden? BJD-2020-1723.R2 ; Early view
  6. Tan J, Miklas M. Developing a Core Outcome Set for Acne Clinical Trials: Towards standardization and harmonization. In Acne - Current Concepts and Management; in press Nov 2020
  7. van Zuuren EJ, Arents BWM, Miklas M, Schoones JW, Tan J. Patient reported satisfaction with acne treatment: a systematic review. In revision post-submission Br Jour Derm. Sep 2020.
  8. Tan J, Frey M, Thiboutot D, Layton A, Eady A. Identifying the impacts of acne: a Delphi survey of patients and clinicians. Journal of Cutaneous Medicine & Surgery. May/Jun 2020;24(3):259-266
  9. Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Acne Vulgaris: A Systematic Review of Measure Development and Measurement Properties. Read More
  10. Urbonas R, Shields A, Ly S, et al. Quality of patient-reported outcome measures for grading acne scars and dark marks: a COSMIN review. Arch Dermatol Res. 2024;316(2):70. Published 2024 Jan 10. doi:10.1007/s00403-024-02815-6
  11. Choe J, Urbonas R, Xia E, et al. An Assessment of Current Clinician- and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Acne Scarring and Dyspigmentation: A Scoping Review. J Invest Dermatol. 2025;145(9):2203-2209. doi:10.1016/j.jid.2025.02.135 Griffiths D, Shields A, Choe J, et al. Validation of the Acne Core Outcomes Research Network Patient Global Assessment for Acne. JAMA Dermatol. 2025;161(3):332-334. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2024.5679
  12. Griffiths D, Shields A, Choe J, et al. Validation of the Acne Core Outcomes Research Network Patient Global Assessment for Acne. JAMA Dermatol. 2025;161(3):332-334. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2024.5679
  13. Nock MR, Griffiths D, Shields A, et al. Severity strata and minimally important differences of CompAQ and Skindex-16 for patients with acne. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2026;40:e108–e111. doi:10.1111/jdv.20799
  14. Nock MR, Griffiths D, Shields A, et al. Measurement properties of the Comprehensive Quality-of-Life Measure for Acne (CompAQ): a cohort study at three international sites. Br J Dermatol. 2025;193(2):267-275. doi:10.1093/bjd/ljaf127