Editor-in-Chief Message
November 26, 2025
Retirement of Dr. Lisa Garner
Lisa A. Garner was a board-certified dermatologist with close to 40 years of experience practicing in Garland, Texas and Belleair, Florida. She earned her MD degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed her residency in Dermatology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, where she served as chief resident.
She was a clinical professor of Dermatology at UTSW, and held numerous leadership positions in professional societies, including Board of Directors and as Vice President of the AAD from 2008-12 and 2013-14, respectively. She served as president of the national Women’s Dermatologic Society. She was honored by the Dermatology Foundation as the 2017 Practitioner of the Year for her service as a practitioner and teacher.
She served as an Associate Editor and then as a Section Editor for Dermatitis since 1999, when Ponciano “Chito” Cruz became Editor-in-Chief of the journal. With her recently announced retirement from clinical practice, she announced that she is stepping away from the Editorial Board of DERMATITIS.
Lisa, congratulations for a very successful career in Dermatology, and for your many years of outstanding service to DERMATITIS and ACDS! We are grateful to you for your role in the growth of DERMATITIS.
Practical Techniques in Dermatology
In our Sept/Oct issue of DERMATITIS, we published a notable manuscript under the category of Practical Techniques in Dermatology: “Updates to the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, Inc. Confirmation of No Induction in Human Test Standard Protocol”, with Anne Marie Api, PhD as the senior author. This manuscript addressed advances in the protocol to identify sensitization potential of fragrance materials in pre-clinical testing of human volunteers.
DERMATITIS continues to seek manuscripts that will provide practical techniques about procedures used to evaluate or manage cutaneous allergy including contact dermatitis, type I allergic reactions, reactions to environmental agents or systemic reactions to medications. Examples may include, but are not limited to: novel methods for open or closed patch testing, scoring systems, clinical research methods, repeat open application tests, repeat insult patch tests, allergy alert tests, intradermal challenges, oral challenges, ocular challenges, extemporaneous formulations of patient-supplied materials for patch testing (such as personal care products, work-related products, materials derived from plants clothing, gloves, or other ‘non-standard’ allergens), skin prick testing, photo-patch testing, photo-testing, opportunities to increase the efficiency of patch testing, and novel patient counseling materials. As appropriate, the articles may include commercial sources of materials needed to perform the techniques discussed, provided any author(s) conflicts of interest are disclosed.
Manuscripts can be up to 3000 words in length, include up to three figures or tables (additional supplemental on-line only figures, tables and videos are permitted).
Coming in 2026
Toxin of the Year
In 2022, DERMATITIS added a fifth “Domain” of interest for the readership of our journal. That is, Environmental Dermatitis. With the assistance of a task force and newly recruited associate editors, we defined the scope of this Domain. Briefly, the scope of the Environmental Dermatitis Domain is defined by allergic (both delayed and immediate) and irritant skin reactions to aeroallergens (house dust mite, molds, pollen, plants animal and insect dander), foods and protein contact dermatitis. It also includes dermatitis resulting from compromised skin barrier function. It includes immediate and delayed skin tests to confirm these diagnoses caused numerous triggers. This includes prick, patch (including atopy patch tests and pollution patch tests) and intradermal tests as well as blood tests to diagnose such reactions. Main areas covered include basic biological mechanisms, diagnostic methods, experimental investigations and clinical aspects, including therapy.
Importantly, the role of exposomal factors (whether indoors or outdoors) in inducing or modifying the course of such dermatitis is of interest. This includes dust, smoke, pollutants, microbes, chemicals, ultraviolet radiation, climatic and nutritional factors. It also includes reactions to dermatitis induced by bites, stings and evenomations from insects, reptiles and animals.
Our Associate Editor, Dr. Jean Krutmann and his team have written a ‘State of the Art’ review on the Toxin of the Year as a new feature of the journal to support the Environmental Dermatitis initiative. This feature has been modeled after the popular, long-standing feature of the journal “Allergen of the Year”. The Toxin of the Year will be unveiled in one of the early issues in 2026.
FDA Public Workshop on Approval of New Patch Tests for the Diagnosis of Allergic Contact Dermatitis
On October 23, 2025 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Vaccines Research and Review hosted a full-day, virtual public workshop related to the approval of new patch tests for the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis. Members of the FDA, the ACDS, American Association of Asthma Allergy and Immunology (AAAAI), as well as Canadian and European Dermatologists presented information about patch testing and how patch tests are approved by regulatory agencies. The participants of this workshop have agreed to work collaboratively to author a single “Whitepaper” related to the proceedings of this important meeting. Some time in late 2026, Dermatitis will publish this whitepaper in our journal, so those of the ACDS who were not able to attend this important workshop will have the benefit of a summary of the proceedings, and thus learn about the administrative processes involved in patch test approval by regulatory bodies in the USA and abroad.
Submitted by:
Anthony Gaspari, MD
Dermatitis Editor-in-Chief
Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and led by Anthony Gaspari, MD, Dermatitis® is the leading peer-reviewed scientific journal in contact dermatitis, and the only journal in its field that publishes leading research in atopic, contact, occupational, environmental, and drug dermatitis.
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