Review of patient registries in dermatology.

Abstract

Patient registries are datasets containing information on patients with a particular disease or patients who are undergoing a specific treatment. Our objective was to search for and catalog the types of registries being used in dermatology and investigate their characteristics and uses. We searched Google, the Registry of Patient Registries, Orphanet, and ClinicalTrials.gov to compile a list of dermatology disease registries. We also conducted a literature review on the uses of dermatology registries using PubMed. We identified 48 dermatology patient registries, with 23 distinct diseases represented. We also identified 11 registries used for postmarketing surveillance of skin disease. Our search was limited to registries in English. Registries are commonly used for the study of rare dermatologic diseases and for postsurveillance monitoring of systemic therapies in more common dermatologic diseases, such as psoriasis.