“When they turn the pages of history / When these
days have passed long ago / Will they read of us with
sadness / For the seeds that we let grow?”
—Rush, “A Farewell To Kings”
It seems only fitting to launch my new role at
Practical Dermatology® with a
quote from one of my favorite
songs, and yet it conveys a sad
prophecy as we look at the current
state of dermatology. There
is an air of concern among dermatologists
that the glory days
are behind us. That we have
become our own worst enemies
in the house of medicine. That
we have become sellouts when
it comes to relationships with
industry. And that the great
creators and “giants” of the specialty
are now mythical legends;
“slide readers” have replaced “thought leaders.”
Why settle for that despair? Why should we be
complacent and let ourselves become sloppy and
lose our creative drive? Dermatologists are the
smart ones—remember? We are the ones who use
one clue to postulate 10 possible diagnoses, who
take the mechanism of one medication and apply
it to 10 diseases, and even cure patients rather
than just treat them. In that case, shouldn't we
share our thoughts, publish our visions and our
observations, and let our creative juices flow so
that others can learn? Why create a new generation of colleagues who are so afraid of their own
shadows that patients are left hanging? Or even
worse, why turn our back on the innovations of
vehicles, novel therapeutics, and even the dreaded
concept of “off-label” applications that our previous
generation of “giants” used to create our current
doctrines?
As my good friend Joe
Bikowski and I say to each
other: “Look at you, and look at
me looking at you.” So to follow
his lead, I implore my colleagues
to become “teachers”
and not just “healers.” There
are so many of our colleagues
who might be shy about standing
at a podium but have a
lot to teach us, so even one
written page from them can
make a difference. For all of
us waiting for a clinical trial to
change our prescribing habits: Spend time reading
about our colleagues' experiences and treatment
protocols instead. Let's publish our thoughts, our
observations, and our ideas so that dermatologists
down the street and across the country can learn.
Let's make Practical Dermatology® our forum for
professional growth, for sharing what makes us
special, and most importantly, to make us proud
of ourselves. I am looking forward to seeing how
we do, so that the pages of history will remember
us not with sadness but with pride that we made
our specialty great.
—Neal Bhatia, MD, FAAD
Co-Chief Medical Editor