Charles Institute Seminar Series 2022-23: Sarah Walsh
Date of Talk: Wednesday 21st June 2023 @12PM
Location: Charles Seminar Room / Online Via Zoom
Talk Title: Severe Cutaneous Drug Reactions: clinical perspectives and future directions
Speaker Details: Dr Sarah Walsh MB BCh
BAO BMedSci MRCP(Edin)
Consultant Dermatologist
King’s College Hospital, London
Short Biography: Sarah Walsh is a consultant dermatologist and head of department at King’s College Hospital in London. She completed her undergraduate training in Ireland at University College Cork, and post-graduate training in Edinburgh and Glasgow, before migrating to the south east of England, for a consultant position in 2010. King’s College Hospital is a major site for acute, emergency dermatology, and complex medical dermatology. There is a comprehensive liaison medical dermatology service to inpatients within the acute hospital site.
Sarah’s principle clinical and academic interest is severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR), and she is a contributing member of the European severe drug reaction research group, ToxiTEN. She has authored several book chapters on the topic of SCAR, including for the Rook Textbook of Dermatology.She served as a Section Editor of the British Journal of Dermatology from 2011 – 2018, and will shortly join the Journal of European Academy of Dermatovenereology as an Associate Editor. She is the UK representative to the Board of the European Academy of Dermatovenereology. Dr Walsh has a keen interest in literacy training for the dermatologist, a novel training method using fine art to hone observational and descriptive skills. She has organised courses, seminars and informal teaching in this domain for registrar and consultant colleagues across Europe. She is the course chair of the EADV Visual Literacy course.
Dr Walsh has a keen interest in literacy training for the dermatologist, a novel training method using fine art to hone observational and descriptive skills. She has organised courses, seminars and informal teaching in this domain for registrar and consultant colleagues across Europe. She is the course chair of the EADV Visual Literacy course.
Abstract for talk: Severe Cutaneous Adverse Reactions (SCAR syndromes) are drug-induced, largely iatrogenic diseases which have considerable associated morbidity and mortality. I will discuss the two most serious SCAR syndromes, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (SJS/TEN) and Drug Reaction with Eosinophils and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS) from the perspective of epidemiology, pathogenesis, and how the latter informs current treatment and future directions. I will also present the implications of these disease for the patient in the acute phase, and the chronic sequelae these disorders may provoke.
