Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory disease affecting roughly 2-3% of U.S. adults (over 7.5 million people) making it one of the most prevalent immune-mediated conditions in the country.1 While its presentation is visible on the skin, the disease is driven by a complex immune response involving both innate and adaptive mechanisms. Recent insights point to the key roles of cytokines such as IL-17 and IL-23, along with immune cells like Th17 and ILC3, in triggering and sustaining psoriatic inflammation.1 These immune circuits are also linked to broader systemic risks, including cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and other inflammatory conditions.
Beyond its visible skin lesions, psoriasis carries a profound burden on patients’ health and quality of life. Many individuals develop serious comorbidities such as psoriatic arthritis, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and depression. Moderate to severe cases often require systemic therapy, yet patients can face a long journey of trial-and-error treatments and unmet needs. In fact, nearly one-quarter of people with psoriasis have moderate-to-severe disease, but over 40% of those are not receiving the systemic therapies recommended by clinical guidelines, pointing to significant treatment gaps in real-world practice.2
Such gaps in care, combined with the lifelong nature of psoriasis, result in substantial healthcare and economic burdens – with annual U.S. healthcare costs for psoriasis estimated in the tens of billions of dollars (over $100 billion by some analyses).3 These realities underscore the importance of robust outcomes research in psoriasis and the need for comprehensive real-world data to inform that research.
Real-world data (RWD) offers essential insight into the complexities of psoriasis beyond what clinical trials can capture. In a large U.S. electronic health record study, patients with more severe psoriasis were far more likely to develop psoriatic arthritis, with incidence rates rising from 2.1 to 17.6 cases per 100 patient-years depending on treatment severity. a signal that integrating claims with EHR can surface critical predictors like comorbidities and preclinical symptoms.4
Similarly, a claims-based analysis of more than 25,000 patients revealed wide variation in treatment adherence and persistence across biologics, with ustekinumab and guselkumab showing the strongest durability over nine months.5 Together, these studies demonstrate how RWD supports a more accurate picture of disease progression, treatment performance and unmet needs in the real world.
Real-world evidence is becoming increasingly important as it informs regulatory, clinical, and commercial strategy across the product lifecycle.6 One researcher from Pfizer notes that real-world data can drive decisions around label expansions, safety monitoring, and payer value demonstration when trials fall short of capturing long-term outcomes or broad populations.6 For chronic conditions like psoriasis, where disease burden and treatment dynamics vary widely, these insights are increasingly essential.
Psoriasis is a complex inflammatory disease with variable symptoms, comorbidities, and treatment responses that evolve over time and taXonomy Pathways enables researchers to ask and answer key questions about these research topics with better data:
While claims can show when a patient initiated or switched therapy, they often miss the clinical context that matters most. For health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) and epidemiology, claims-only studies leave key evidence gaps, including:
These are essential metrics for identifying disease progression, treatment response, and emerging comorbidities. Claims may confirm a filled prescription for a psoriasis biologic, but they won’t show that a patient’s pain increased, RAPID3 score worsened, or joint symptoms emerged in the months that followed (Figure 1). Without structured EHR and physician notes, these warning signs go unmeasured.
Figure 1: A typical psoriasis patient pathway including data not available in closed claims alone.
taXonomy Pathways bridges this gap by integrating closed payer claims with EHR data, labs, and more than 3.6 billion de-identified physician notes (Figure 2). This longitudinal view allows researchers to build precise psoriasis cohorts, track symptom and lab-based outcomes, and surface the real reasons why patients switch, stop, or escalate treatment. Whether for HEOR, safety, or real-world effectiveness studies, taXonomy Pathways gives you a comprehensive context.
Figure 2: the taXonomy Pathways solution integrating closed claims with structured EHR, lab results and physician notes
If you’re exploring real-world outcomes for therapies like Skyrizi®, Tremfya®, or other psoriasis treatments, we can help design a study that goes beyond claims. Tell us your population of interest and endpoints. With taXonomy Pathways, we’ll deliver a custom-tailored dataset and analysis framework you won’t find in claims data alone.