The long-term objective of the ACORN group is to use a team-based approach to develop a tool box of validated instruments to measure acne outcomes that are important to patients, clinicians and researchers for use in ALL clinical trials and which are also suitable for use in everyday clinical practice.

The long-term objective will be reached via a series of key stages:

i) identification of items/constructs of interest using at least a Delphi exercise and one or more systematic reviews

(ii) assessment of the relative importance of each using a second Delphi exercise and possibly web-based surveys

(iii) grouping of items/constructs into separate domains using qualitative analysis and possible consensus determinations for individual scales

(iv) develop and validate new measurement methods or, where appropriate, modify existing validated methods and standardize their use

The short-term objectives are to provide tools and set standards to improve the reliability of acne lesion counting, to assess the impact of both facial and truncal acne on quality of life and to generate pilot data on novel photographic techniques to evaluate acne while working to achieve consensus on the content and desirable features of global severity scales used to evaluate acne on the face, chest and back.

The ACORN project began in July 2013 and is funded in part by a 3 year NIH grant (1U01AR065109).