Message from the President

Dear ACDS Members and Friends,

Every year, the annual meeting wows me with cutting edge research, innovative ideas, unusual cases, and excellent speakers. This year was no different. We had over 230 attendees in the audience ranging from medical students looking to explore contact dermatitis to advanced patch testers coming to learn more about what’s new in the field. A special highlight this year was the Contact Allergen Bee where we had 19 contestants, the largest field ever. We went through 15 rounds of questions (contrast with 2-3 rounds in some years), and crowned our next Queen Bee, Jenna Ruggiero from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

I would like to express gratitude to our outgoing ACDS board members: Paul Lorenz Bigliardi, Marjorie Montanez-Wiscovich, and Rabina Walsh who have given their time and energy to advancing the mission of the society over the last 3 years. I would like to welcome our new board members: Emily Milam, Jamie Schlarbaum, and Peggy Wu. More information about the leadership of the ACDS can be found here.
 

FDA Update

We continue to be actively engaged with the FDA on finding a best path forward for regulation of patch test allergens here in the United States. We are working with the AADA and allergists in the AAAAI and ACAAI to send a unified message to the FDA on preserving access to patch testing for our clinicians and our patients. We will keep you all, the stakeholders, apprised of any new information as they come.
 

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Please mark your calendars for the 2026 European Society of Contact Dermatitis meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 24th-26th. There will be several sessions run by our colleagues during this event. More information can be found here: www.contactderm.org/events/escd2026
 

ACDS CAMP Update

ACDS CAMP 2.0 continues to be a resounding success led by Dr. Amber Atwater. We have an average of 5,000 daily users and this number continues to grow. We have purchase links for 28 different brands available in CAMP with product numbers steadily climbing. We have been successful in getting sponsorship for the program from various cosmeceutical and industry partners. Thank you for your continued support of CAMP and the ACDS so we can best serve you and our patients.

We look forward to seeing you all in Copenhagen or next year in San Francisco for the 2027 ACDS Annual Meeting.

Please do not hesitate to email us at info@contactderm.org if you have any new ideas for the society to work on, concerns, member news, or information you would like highlighted in a future ACDS Newsletter.

Sincerely,

JiaDe (Jeff) Yu, MD, MS
ACDS President

American Contact Dermatitis Society
555 E. Wells Street, Suite 1100 | Milwaukee, WI 53202
Phone: (414) 918-9805 | Fax: (414) 276-3349 | Email: info@contactderm.org
www.contactderm.org

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ACDS 2026 Leadership Updates

We are excited to announce the results of the 2026 Board of Directors election. Congratulations to the below board members who have taken their position effective March 27, 2026. Please join us in congratulating them on this great honor!
 

2026 Board of Directors

Emily Milam, MD New York, NY

Jamie Schlarbaum, MD Salt Lake City, UT

Peggy Wu, MD, MPH Sacramento, CA

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Thank you to the following for their leadership over the past few years. We appreciate your service!

Paul Lorenz Bigliardi, MD Minneapolis, MN

Marjorie Montanez-Wiscovich, MD, PhD Gainesville, FL

Rabina Walsh, MD Chapel Hill, NC

Click HERE for the complete list of the Board of Directors

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The American Contact Dermatitis Society is committed to advancing the care and understanding of dermatology and allergy through the promotion of education, research and advocacy. As part of this initiative, ACDS offers the following educational awards to help encourage research in these areas:
 

Clinical Research Award

The American Contact Dermatitis Society offers awards for the purpose of relevant clinical studies directed toward the subject of contact dermatitis. Studies that focus on clinical problems or have applications to clinical problems will receive preferential consideration.

Click here to see a list of past Clinical Research Award recipients.
 

Mentoring Award

ACDS Mentoring Awards are granted for the purpose of assisting young dermatologists including dermatology residents, dermatology fellows, or dermatologist up to 5 years out of residency to become leaders/experts in the field of contact dermatitis by acquiring additional academic skills which may not be available at their training institutions.

Click here to see a list of past Mentoring Award recipients.
 

Mid-Career Award

The ACDS Mid-Career Development Award provides financial support for ACDS members to defray the cost of acquiring specific skills and knowledge to enhance their professional development in some aspect of contact dermatitis and/or occupational dermatology.

Click here to see a list of past Mid-Career Award recipients.
 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Healthcare Disparities Award

The ACDS Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Healthcare Disparities Award provides financial support for studies dedicated to the study of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and healthcare disparities within dermatitis.

Click here to see a list of past Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Healthcare Disparities Award recipients.
 

Outcomes Research Award

The ACDS Outcomes Research Award provides financial support for study of outcomes of dermatitis evaluation and management.

Click here to see a list of past Outcomes Research Award recipients.

For more information on any of these opportunities,
please visit our website here.

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CAMP Update

Spanish Resources Now Available!

We are pleased to announce that educational resources in CAMP are now available in Spanish. Please read below to learn more about which resources are available and how to access them. 

Which resources are available in Spanish?

1. 101 Fully revised Allergen Narratives
2. 8 New Diet Sheets
3. Patient Allergen Handout (Template)
4. CAMP Patient Toolkit

Key Points:

1. CAMP automatically shows assigned allergen narratives and diet sheets to the patient in English and Spanish. You do not need to select Spanish separately. 
2. You can print handouts in English, Spanish, or both (default is English).
3. A full library of Allergen narratives and diet sheets are available to the provider when logged in to CAMP as a provider. The Patient Allergen Handout and Toolkit can be found in the Learning Center on the ACDS website at
   www.contactderm.org/resources/acds-camp/camp-for-acds-members/learning-center

Click below to access this handy Spanish reference guide. It contains more information about how to access Spanish resources, as well as a full index of all available narratives and diet sheets, and printable samples of the Patient Handout and Toolkit in Spanish.

Access Resource Guide

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Research with CAMP

We are now accepting data requests under the newly developed CAMP Research Program. This exciting new program was developed by the ACDS as part of its commitment to advancing the care and understanding of dermatitis and allergy and is intended to be a formal platform for accessing CAMP data for approved research projects. 

As a reminder, all research projects involving CAMP data must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate committee in advance. Access to and use of the platform is limited to personal, educational, and approved research purposes only. Any use of CAMP data for research activities requires prior review and explicit authorization from the Society. CAMP and ACDS logos may not be used or reproduced without prior written consent from the Society. CAMP Terms and Conditions.

Please click below to learn more about project eligibility and how to submit a data request.

 Learn More

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Updating Allergen Search Codes 

It is possible that you will need to adjust to your patient’s allergen list after they have registered an account with the initial set of search codes you gave them. 

CAMP is programmed so that the settings associated with a set of codes can be easily changed through the Update feature. It is not necessary to issue new codes each time you need to make changes to a patient’s safe list. 

Remember to modify Allergen Search Codes when: 

• There are new allergens after a late read or additional patch testing has been completed.
• You want to modify cross-reactor settings to be more or less restrictive
• You want to add handouts to your patient’s account, like a diet sheet

Click below to watch this quick video about how to update allergen search codes:

Visit the Learning Center in your ACDS member account for more information about CAMP and for helpful resources on how the CAMP system works:

Learning Center 

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Questions? Contact the CAMP team at:
campinfo@contactderm.org 
(414) 918-9805 

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Abstracts of the 2026 Annual Meeting

Those members who attended the annual ACDS meeting in Denver, Colorado on March 26, 2026 will agree that the program was truly outstanding. Congratulations to the program committee and the administrative support team for assembling a great program.

The abstracts for all of the presentations from the 2026 annual meeting will be published in Dermatitis in the July/August issue (online only).  As such, these abstracts will be citable for those presenters who desire to update their curriculum vitae.
 

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Call for submissions: Dermatitis Logo

Dermatitis is calling for submissions for creating a unique Logo for our journal, which is different and distinct from the American Contact Dermatitis Society Logo.  The editorial board can potentially enlist the services of a professional design team, but we determined that it is preferable that a logo design be created by a member of the ACDS, who understands its mission and that of the journal.

Our goal is to develop a ‘Brand Image’ for Dermatitis to be used on the journal cover, website and Scholar One submission platform, social media and journal communications. We look forward to seeing your submissions!

Here are our guidelines for creating a Dermatitis Logo:

1. The logo can be hand drawn or created with a software program.
2. Generative AI is permitted to create a logo.
3. The Logo can be Black & White or Color.
4. The final logo will be used on the static cover of Dermatitis in 2027.
5. Submission deadline is September 1, 2026.
6. The Editorial office, along with the new section editor for journal artwork, Ponciano Cruz, will select the top candidates.
7. The ACDS membership will vote to select the final Logo for the journal.
8. Submit candidate images to the Editorial Office of Dermatitis (ju.dermatitis@outlook.com). The submissions can be in the form of a JPEG, PICT or PDF format.
9. Contact the journal if there are questions about this initiative.
    

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Call for Submissions: Chronic Hand Eczema (Hand Dermatitis)

Submit your study, review, case report, letter, Pearls & Zebras, Images related to Chronic Hand Eczema by Jan 1, 2027

Coordinating Editor: Anthony Gaspari, MD

The editor of Dermatitis is excited to bring to its readership a state-of-the art comprehensive collection of reviews, studies, letters and Pearls and Zebras on Chronic Hand Eczema and its mechanisms. We especially encourage submissions of original studies in this topic although other types of manuscripts will be considered.

Areas of interest include: clinical trials, treatment modalities, epidemiology/population studies, health care disparities, skin of color, allergy/patch testing, basic science studies, and immunobiology as it relates to chronic hand eczema. Case series or case reports will also be considered.

For further questions, please contact the Editor at: aagaspari@gmail.com, Professor, Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.
 

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Dr. Alison Ehrlich is our section editor who will oversee a new journal program: The manuscript review mentoring program. 

The editorial board of Dermatitis is creating an initiative to expand our panel of reviewers for the journal and to increase the involvement of senior members of the ACDS with the review process.  The program will match dermatology residents, research fellows and junior faculty with  volunteer senior members of the ACDS for the review of selected manuscripts that are submitted to Dermatitis for consideration for publication in our journal.  The idea for this program is to teach trainees and junior faculty critical analytic skills for reviewing manuscripts.

The editorial office of Dermatitis is delighted to announce that one of the accomplished members of the ACDS, Dr. Alison Ehrlich, has agreed to be the section editor to oversee this “match program”.  To summarize, this program will pair a volunteer, senior ACDS member with a junior “mentee”.  The journal will assign the junior mentee an article to review, and the mentor-mentee team will co-review the article (all types of manuscripts, from letters, pearls and zebras to review articles and studies across all five domains of the journal) and submit the review to the journal for an editorial decision related to publication.  The responsibilities of the section editor will be to manage the match program and pair mentors and mentees.

More information about this program will be disseminated to the ACDS membership as well as dermatology training programs to recruit interested parties. Stay tuned!
 

Submitted by:
Anthony Gaspari, MD
Dermatitis Editor-in-Chief

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American Academy of Dermatology

Annual Election Results: April 8, 2026

The Academy’s new officers and board members will lead the world’s largest dermatologic society, representing more than 21,500 physicians who specialize in the diagnosis and medical, surgical, and cosmetic treatment of skin, hair, and nail conditions. These officers and board members, all of whom are board-certified dermatologists, will also hold the same position for the American Academy of Dermatology Association, a sister organization to the AAD that focuses on government affairs, health policy, and practice information.

ACDS member, Alexandra Flamm, MD, FAAD, was elected to the Academy’s Board of Directors; Dr. Flamm will serve a four-year term beginning in March 2027.

Alexandra Flamm, MD, FAAD, is a board-certified dermatologist who is an associate professor of dermatology and the residency program director at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Flamm earned her medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed her dermatology residency at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, both in New York City, and completed a dermatopathology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She has served on a variety of AAD committees and as a past vice president and president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Dermatology.

Congratulations, Dr. Flamm!

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ACDS 37^th Annual Meeting Highlights

The 37^th Annual Meeting of the American Contact Dermatitis Society (ACDS) was held on March 26 in Denver, Colorado. The meeting featured an outstanding lineup of speakers and a wide range of engaging topics. The planning committee was led by Chair Dr. Walter Liszewski and included Deputy Chair, Dr. Alison Erlich, and committee members Drs. Cory Dunnick, Nicole Burkemper, James Cox, Emily Gurnee, Salma de la Feld, Marjorie Montanez-Wiscovitch, and Jon Kibbie.

The program began with a morning sponsored session by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., during which Dr. Jason Hawkes spoke on Th2 inflammation. ACDS President Dr. Jeff Yu then delivered opening remarks, followed by a warm welcome from meeting chair Dr. Walter Liszewski. Dr. Don Belsito then announced benzyl alcohol as the 2026 ACDS Allergen of the Year.

The first Hot Topics session followed, featuring presentations on CAMP cross-reactors by Dr. Cory Dunnick, CAMP updates by Dr. Amber Atwater, and sunscreen and photopatch testing updates by Dr. Brandon Adler. Fisher presentations then covered a broad range of subjects within atopic, contact, and occupational dermatitis.

Before lunch, Leo Pharma sponsored a session on chronic hand eczema presented by Drs. Jeff Yu and Amber Atwater. During the lunch hour, sponsored by Dormer Laboratories, Inc./Chemotechnique Diagnostics, Dr. Yu led the ACDS Annual Business Meeting, where he recognized meeting sponsors, thanked outgoing board members, acknowledged current board members, and welcomed incoming board members.

The afternoon began with the Alexander Fisher Lecture, delivered by Dr. Mark Davis and titled Lessons Learned and Challenges Remaining in Patch Testing. Dr. Davis reviewed memorable cases and discussed the development of a patch testing database across Mayo Clinic sites.

Another Hot Topics session followed, with Dr. Nicole Burkemper speaking on dermatopathology findings in contact dermatitis, Dr. Walter Liszewski presenting on dental implant materials and allergies, and Dr. Jenny Stitt, an allergist/immunologist, discussing new therapies for chronic urticaria. This was followed by a Hot Topics panel on inpatient ACD cases, led by Drs. Nicole Burkemper, Emily Gurnee, and Sara Hylwa.

General Session lectures then addressed testing with expired haptens by Dr. Rosemary Nixon, the development of microneedle patches for patch testing by Dr. Dara Bakar, updates on NACDG clinical data by Dr. Margo Reeder, and acrylate cross-reactivity presented by JennaKay Colquitt.

The meeting concluded with the annual Contact Allergen Bee, moderated by Drs. Nicole Burkemper and Jeff Yu, followed by the cocktail reception.

Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s meeting. We look forward to seeing you next year at the 38^th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Submitted by:
Walter Liszewski, MD
37^th Annual Meeting Committee Chair

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Fisher Lectures:
Available Online for ACDS Members

The Alexander Fisher Lectureship is awarded in honor of Alexander Fisher, MD honoring his contributions to the field of contact dermatitis. The lecturer is selected based on his or her contributions to contact dermatitis, reflection of the spirit of Dr. Fisher's enthusiasm for the subject of contact dermatitis, and for sharing knowledge and experience in evaluating patients.

Dr. Mark Davis was selected as the ACDS Alexander Fisher keynote speaker for the 2026 ACDS Annual Meeting. Dr. Davis' presentation, "Lessons Learned and Challenges Remaining in Patch Testing," is now available for ACDS members to view alongside past Alexander Fisher lectures on the ACDS website here.

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Congratulations to all Award Recipients!

2026 Alexander A. Fisher Resident Award

The Alexander A. Fisher Resident Award is presented to the best oral presentation by a resident or medical student at the Scientific Session of the ACDS Annual Meeting.

2026 Fran Storrs Poster Award

The Fran Storrs Poster Award is presented to the top three research/review posters at the Scientific Session of the ACDS Annual Meeting.

2026 Howard I. Maibach Travel Award

The Howard I. Maibach Travel Award provides travel grants to the American Contact Dermatitis Society's Annual Meeting for the presentation of work (either an oral presentation or poster presentation) by investigators outside of the U.S. and Canada.

2026 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Travel Award

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Travel Award provides travel grants to the American Contact Dermatitis Society's Annual Meeting for the presentation of work (either an oral presentation or poster presentation) which focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion, or healthcare disparities within dermatitis.

2026 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Healthcare Disparities Poster Award

In recognition of a new initiative surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion, The American Contact Dermatitis Society is pleased to announce the availability of the new DEI Poster Award. This award will recognize work focused around diversity, equity, inclusion and health disparities within dermatitis.

2026 Contact Allergen Bee Winners

All ACDS Annual Meeting resident attendees had an opportunity to participate in the popular Contact Allergen Bee sponsored by the ACDS Dermatitis Journal. Congrats to our winners!

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The following members/entities were recognized at the ACDS 37^th Annual Meeting for their various contributions within/to ACDS:

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ACDS wishes to thank the following sponsors for their support of the ACDS 37^th Annual Meeting:

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American Contact Dermatitis Society^®
555 East Wells Street, Suite 1100 | Milwaukee, WI 53202
P: (414) 918-9805 | F: (414) 276-3349 | info@contactderm.org

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