Clinical and societal implications
The gamechanger of NGID is a revolutionary transformation of Dutch dermatology: a nationwide network for high-level research and implementation of personalized care via individual biomarker signatures using four Stepping Stones: Technology, Patients, Biomarkers and Implementation. In each Stepping Stone, stakeholders and their actions play a critical role. Of our six initial diseases, we expect one or two (e.g. psoriasis, atopic dermatitis) to reach the early adopter ‘Implementation’ phase for small-scale use in daily practice and socio-economic validation. Other diseases will be in ‘Biomarkers’ at the end of the project and individual signatures need to be further developed and implemented after the project, this responsibility lies with the NGID-consortium. In addition, disease experts are actively encouraged to add additional (immuno)dermatological diseases to the NGID-infrastructure after project end. Implementation data from practice is added to the NGID-RWE registry for continuous improvement.
Stepping Stone 1: Technology
NGID will customize state-of-the-art technologies specifically for this project to obtain individual signatures. This way, we gain insights into the value of novel technologies for dermatological research, daily practice and telehealth. For these technologies to then be used in daily practice or the patient’s home, industry needs to synergize with our project and further develop or optimize high-potential technologies.
Stepping Stone 2: Patients
Patient cooperation and support are central to NGID. To keep our project patient-centered, patient associations continuously involved to provide their input. Through our research we obtain new insights into the care needs and wishes of patients. In addition, NGID sheds new light on the role of psychological factors affecting disease outcomes.
Stepping Stone 3: Biomarkers
The Stepping Stone provides new animal-free translational human (disease) models and insights into disease-specific biomarkers, mechanisms and pathways. This knowledge is essential to identify and validate individual signatures, to optimize use of existing targeted medicines, and for the development of new targeted drugs by pharmacologists.
Stepping Stone 4: Implementation
NGID provides evidence and insights for successful implementation of our approach regarding patient acceptance, feasibility in academic care settings, business case, professional adoption, policy, reimbursement and guideline adaptation. Early adopters (clinicians/patients) will be actively selected and trained in using the NGID-approach.