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Eczema Coaching Certification Program
The WeDerm Eczema Coaching Certification Program is a unique, evidence-based and practical training program designed to help modern clinicians leverage integrated care to help eczema patients overcome the disease.
Read more and learn how you can become a WeDerm certified health coach.
Why Eczema?
Conventional medicine, and in certain parts of the world, aka. western medicine, rooted in biomedical science and the scientific method, has worked well to alleviate most human diseases. However, the system is not perfect, especially in chronic diseases like eczema which affects 300 million people globally and growing.
The global prevalence of eczema for adults is around 3%, but up to 40% for primary one students, and 20% for first-year secondary school students. Eczema affects developed and developing economies alike.
Eczema causes a severe disruption in the quality of life of the patient. Eczema patients suffer tremendous physical pain from frequent scratch wounds and sore, cracked skin, in addition to psychological impact including social stigma, isolation, sleep deprivation, depression and suicidal thoughts. Finally, lifelong eczema harbors financial burden due to costs on moisturizers, functional foods and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Conventional medicine treats eczema on a symptom-driven approach where pharmaceutical interventions are often prioritized as first-line treatment. This paradigm has not changed since the introduction of corticosteroid for eczema in the 1950s, offering instant but temporary relief.
Unfortunately, most eczema patients experience rebound effects upon ceasing steroid treatment. These patients will up their steroid potency as suggested by the conventionally-trained doctor, and soon enough experience worsened symptoms (aka. rebound effects), suffering the condition lifelong. Such a vicious cycle of pharmaceutical reliance and lifelong disease is also observed in chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
Eczema is a highly underrated disease that receives inadequate funding and attention compared to other (legitimately) important conditions like cancer and diabetes. However, this does not negate its pain and suffering among the patients.
To address the significant gaps in conventional medicine, a root-cause driven approach is necessary. At WeDerm we advocate this concept as ‘integrated care’.
What is integrated care?
Definitions are important because there are various models of care in the world that claim to treat eczema. One must exercise diligence in differentiating between the highly restrictive, unsustainable yet evidence-based conventional care on one end, to the pseudoscientific realms of ambiguous, unstructured, subjective ‘natural or holistic therapies’ on the other extreme.
There are two main broad categories of medicine:
Conventional care is the status quo biomedical science-based treatment, aka. acute care, western care, or symptom-driven approach.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a broad category of non-western care that includes everything from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Ayurvedic medicine, to practices like homeopathy.
What is missing in conventional medicine is the emphasis on lifestyle modification. Modifiable behavioral risk factors like nutrition, stress management, exercise are simple concepts to grasp but challenging to implement sustainably, yet these are the elements that provide tangible recovery in eczema patients.
At WeDerm, integrated care is designed to include three domains:
Conventional medicine.
WeDerm does not entirely discourage or ‘ban’ pharmaceutical intervention as certain patient segments have preferences to maintain a drug-inclusive approach instead of a completely drug-free approach to live with eczema. Hence, integrated care is not against conventional medicine, but to highlight how relying on medications alone as sole treatment is unsustainable, and thus require additional intervention like lifestyle modifications.
CAM.
Alternative treatments are diverse and need to be evaluated on a per-case basis. There are treatments like TCM which have existed for thousands of years yet challenging to demonstrate efficacy through the scientific method, yet generating clinical improvements in some patient segments. There are also other therapies like energy healing or certain sects of naturopathy (with an over-emphasis of supplementation) that can be harmful, pseudoscientific or expensive. Hence, WeDerm’s approach is to understand the patient’s CAM preferences and guide them through given there is no harm.
Lifestyle medicine.
Protective factors like nutrition management (e.g., allergen avoidance, restriction diet), stress management, exercise regimens, are all evidence-based interventions that aid eczema recovery. These modifications are also grounded in ‘western’ biomedical science.
In essence, integrated care is selecting the evidence-based interventions in each domain and applying it comprehensively to each patient in a personalized approach.
Why was this program developed?
Misinformation, malpractices in the market, and the conventional medicine paradigm failing to treat eczema patients sustainably are the core reasons for developing this training program. This program intends to certify healthcare clinicians to leverage their existing professional knowledge to help eczema patients overcome the disease.
It is hoped that in the next few decades, the world will have an increasing medical workforce fluent in integrated care, and thus decreasing prevalence of eczema.
How was this program developed?
This program is authored by the clinical team of WeDerm, with members specialized in nutrition, pharmacy, medicine, and mental health.
The program comprises three aspects:
1. The Eczema Coaching Manual
the clinician guide to coaching eczema patients, substantiated with strong theoretical background, knowledge check questions, and practical coaching guidance.
2. The Written Examination
a two-hour examination testing the practical elements of the manual, including multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and case analysis questions.
3. The Clinical Examination
an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) with live practical assessments on realistic coaching questions and scenarios.
The Eczema Coaching Manual is structured in ten chapters, each domain professionally reviewed by the relevant healthcare specialist:
- Conventional Medicine
- Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Integrated Care
- Skincare
- Nutrition
- Mental Health
- Sleep
- Exercise
- Environment
- Coaching Skills
Each chapter includes a dedicated knowledge check section designed to test understanding against the chapter’s key messages, and also a coaching guidance section which highlights coaching best practices based on WeDerm clinical experience working with eczema patients.
Who are the professional training reviewers?
Since 2013, Harrison has embarked on a mission to promote the power of lifestyle medicine for eczema management. His website CureEczemaSlowly.com and book ‘The Eczema Manual’ have reached 1 million readers worldwide.
Keshia is a practising pharmacist at a local private hospital. Previously, she worked in the corporate, community, and research. Having had eczema since a young age, Keshia is passionate in eczema patient counselling.
Michelle is a registered medical doctor practising in Hong Kong. Armed with a rigorous medical training, Michelle is passionate in promoting the power of integrated care through evidence-based interventions for eczema management.
Ryan is passionate about combining Chinese medicine and western concepts into a holistic approach for health. He is currently pursuing further qualifications in Functional Medicine in the USA.
A driven dietitian, Valerie is a passionate and interested in working environments dedicated to helping others to optimise health and well-being, in the prevention of chronic diseases.
Margaret is a veteran in education and communication, certified to teach MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) to adults and MiSP (Mindfulness in Schools Project) to children.
Brian is an avid academic researcher, interested in translating the latest science and helping individuals develop sustainable exercise regimens and other lifestyle modifications to improve their health and quality of life.
Finally, WeDerm’s lifestyle medicine emphasis is advocated by our clinical advisor, who is a prominent pediatrician and author of several books on the topic, based in Hong Kong.
Dr. Leung is a practising paediatrician and professor in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Having treated numerous complex eczema cases with dietary interventions, Dr. Leung continues to advocate the power of food as medicine.
What the program is and is not?
What the program is
- An innovative model of care with a root-cause driven approach to eczema management.
- An evidence-based set of interventions with substantial research support (the coaching manual is entirely backed by medical literature).
- A practical manual for clinicians to upskill in a niche but significantly growing disease in the world, focusing on practical coaching skills.
What the program is not
- Designed for patients as audience given its depth and prerequisite knowledge in healthcare sciences.
- A replacement for conventional care, as integrated care emphasizes on selecting the effective interventions among different models of care including conventional, CAM and lifestyle medicine.
- A magic solution or treatment miracle that works for all patients, as based on WeDerm’s clinical experience integrated care works for the majority but not a minor segment of patients (e.g., various complex cases).
- A guarantee of your coaching skills, as the program provides a groundwork for such, but clinicians will require hands-on experience.
What are the benefits of taking this training program?
Completing this training program will:
- Elevate your expertise as a healthcare clinician with a root cause-driven lens to health.
- Complement your traditional healthcare education with an innovative model of care.
- Learn the coaching model of health communication with clients as equal partners, instead of the traditional doctor-centric one-way communication (underscored by its treatment non-compliance).
- Kick off your journey in helping chronic patients manage disease beyond traditional care largely reliant on pharmaceutical and short-term alleviation.
- Enlist your profile into the WeDerm provider directory and potentially receive client opportunities as a WeDerm certified eczema health coach.
- Broaden your service scope for working with eczema patients which represent a 300 million population in the world as a market for service.
Finally, it should be noted that this training program at the time of writing does not exist anywhere else in the world.
Eligibility criteria and training details
Eligibility Criteria
There are two types of applicants, you must either be:
- A tertiary undergraduate/postgraduate with a relevant healthcare degree (e.g., nutrition, nursing, pharmacy, medicine, social work, counseling), or certified in a healthcare-related diploma evaluated on a per-case basis (e.g., functional medicine).
- A first-hand eczema patient with significant experience overcoming moderate to severe eczema through a primarily integrated care approach, evaluated on a per-case basis.
Applicants may be invited to an online interview to assess fit to the training (e.g., motivation, competency).
Training Details
The entire training is delivered online, including the digital coaching manual and the written and clinical examinations.
The training period is approximately one month, where a candidate should allot at least 10 hours per week to study the coaching manual. After the one-month manual study period, the written and clinical assessments will be arranged. Individual feedback will be provided for each candidate.
Total time commitment is around 50 hours.
Pricing
The program requires an investment fee of 300 USD, paid in advance of the training and non-refundable once paid. Successful applicants will be sent an invoice if accepted after the entrance interview, to be paid through the Stripe PayPal gateway which allows the use of most credit cards through bank-level security.
This price is designed to cover the expenses of developing the training program and is significantly subsidized by WeDerm, given the social impact-driven spirit of our organization. It is our intention for as many healthcare professionals to become certified as possible, which can translate into more eczema patients served.
Next Steps for Application
Are you interested in becoming a WeDerm certified eczema health coach?
Email us at team@wederm.hk including your:
- Resume
- Location & timezone
- Preferred training start month (e.g., start on March 1st 2023)
- Motivation for the training
We will be in touch shortly upon receiving your application.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us through the same email.