DermWorld Academy Insider: New course on hidradenitis suppurativa offers 7 CME credits

Oct. 15, 2026

The AAD Learning Center recently released a new course, Practical Management of Hidradenitis Suppurativa, which offers 7 CME credit hours included as a benefit of your membership.

In this exclusive DermWorld Academy Insider interview, Jonathan Rick, MD, FAAD, who planned and helped develop the course, discusses the new course, what members can expect to learn, and why members should take it.

DermWorld: What is the Practical Management of Hidradenitis Suppurativa course and why was it created?

Dr. Rick: The main purpose is point-of-care reference. People might have questions about managing HS, and it’s nice to be able to have a quick reference you can jump to that contains the most up-to-date information about practical management. Textbooks are a great resource, but by default they tend to get out of date quickly. By being a member of the AAD, you can hear from many experts on how to tackle this condition and what new treatments might be available.

DermWorld: What can members expect to learn in this course?

Dr. Rick: Everybody can take away something. I’ve been doing HS care for a while, and I like to think I’m on top of things, and even I still learned a lot just putting this course together. The challenge is that HS management has changed dramatically in the past few years, so many dermatologists who had limited HS exposure during their residency training or haven’t been exposed to the currently available treatments for HS. For those people, this course will allow them to lay the foundation and get some good tips from talented people. For people who frequently deal with HS, there’s still an opportunity to refine some of your practice techniques. I hope every dermatologist can learn something from this course.

DermWorld: Why should members take this new course?

Dr. Rick: More HS patients are coming into our practices. That means that even if you haven’t seen many HS cases, it’s finally making its way toward dermatologists. As it should — we are the physicians most able to take care of these patients. If you’re not seeing a lot already, you probably soon will, and this course will allow you to be able to take on the tide of patients that are coming in. HS has been described as “the worst disease in dermatology.” HS patients need extensive care and support, and treating them requires a broad insight to be able to navigate the nuance of the condition and help patients improve.

We are very excited to have this course out there and hope it will help HS patients get the care they need while helping dermatologists feel empowered to take on these cases. I encourage members to come talk with us at AAD meetings and get involved in HS research endeavors so we can keep pushing toward better treatments and better care for our patients.

I also want to quickly recognize the huge efforts from our superstar faculty! We are lucky to hear from Drs. Afsaneh Alavi, Alexandra Charrow, Iltefat Hamzavi, Steven Daveluy, Drew Saylor, Christopher Sayed, Vivian Shi, Hadar Lev-Tov, Lauren Orenstein, Robert Micheletti, Jennifer Hsiao, Colleen Cotton, and Katrina Lee in this series.