TY - JOUR T1 - Differing commissioning arrangements may contribute to geographic variation in clinical management of digital ulcers in systemic sclerosis JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - 343 LP - 345 DO - 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0031 VL - 20 IS - 3 AU - Elizabeth Reilly AU - Randa Alshakh AU - Celia Beynon AU - Matthew Cates AU - Dhivya Das AU - Shuja Majeed AU - Ahsan Memon AU - Patrick O’Beirn AU - James Ritchie AU - John D Pauling Y1 - 2020/05/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/20/3/343.abstract N2 - Phosphodiesterase inhibitors (such as sildenafil) and endothelin receptor antagonist, bosentan, are effective for digital ulcer disease in systemic sclerosis (SSc-DU) and are endorsed in international treatment recommendations. Commissioning of high-cost drugs, such as bosentan, however, differs across devolved nations of the UK. We report a multicentre service evaluation project to examine ‘real world’ management of SSc-DU before and following the 2015 UK Scleroderma Study Group (UKSSG) guidance, across south-west (SW) England and Wales. Results showed that iloprost and sildenafil use for SSc-DU was higher in patients in Wales prior to 2015. Between 2015–2017, sildenafil use for SSc-DU increased in SW England while remaining stable in Wales. Bosentan use for SSc-DU after 2015 in SW England increased, while remaining stable and proportionately lower in Wales. These findings demonstrate that differing commissioning guidance across devolved nations of the UK seems to contribute to geographic variation in patient care. ER -