Developing a questionnaire for assessing clinician- and patient-reported outcomes in actinic keratosis: Results from an expert panel

Background: Current assessments on topical treatment attributes in actinic keratosis (AK) do not evaluate safety, effectiveness, and satisfaction from both clinician and patient perspectives, creating an unmet need for more comprehensive AK-specific measures that fully capture the patient experience. Objective: To develop an actinic keratosis–specific expert panel questionnaire (AK-EPQ) of patient-reported outcomes and clinician-reported outcomes for use in research studies. Methods: Using interviews of patients with AK and targeted literature reviews, a 9-person consensus panel of dermatologists with expertise in AK treatment was convened to develop the AK-EPQ to assess AK-specific patient-reported outcomes and clinician-reported outcomes. Results: Nine expert advisers achieved consensus on 11 AK-EPQ items that encompass patient and clinician perspectives of treatment-related local skin reactions, clinical and cosmetic outcomes associated with AK, and satisfaction with treatment; the AK-EPQ will be first implemented in the Patient-Reported Outcomes for Actinic Keratosis study (NCT05260073). Limitations: The AK-EPQ does not directly measure quality of life, although it can be used with validated quality of life instruments. Conclusion: The newly developed AK-EPQ elicits insights into the patient and clinician experience with AK treatments. Comparative probing of these perspectives may help optimize precision medicine in AK treatment.