Dr. Abramovits was born in 1949 in Caracas, Venezuela, to immigrants escaping the atrocities of Communism and Nazism. He attended primary school, high school and the equivalent of pre-med at the Colegio Santiago de Leon de Caracas. He attended medical school at Venezuela Central University, and he did his internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Texas in Houston between 1973 and 1976. His dermatology residency was at UCLA from 1976 to 1979.
Dr. Abramovits then practiced for 10 years back in Venezuela, but the political climate made his wife uncomfortable and she convinced him to return to the United States. He initially practiced in a small southern Texas town called McAllen, but, after 6 years, his pruritus for a more cosmopolitan environment persuaded him to take an offer to work at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas.
In 2006, Dr. Abramovits opened a private practice and research institute, which is where he is today.
Q. What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A. From a professional angle, it is medical dermatology. I did both residencies (Internal Medicine and Dermatology) in full and spent what I feel was the most rewarding educational year at MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, learning to respect difficult drugs and to use them wisely, appreciating the benefits they can provide, from curing to ameliorating disease, to prolonging life, to affecting quality of life.
Today I use that knowledge to do clinical research and practice using biologics, chemotherapeutic agents and immunosuppressive medications and investigational drugs with some degree of confidence.
From a personal view, it is the relationship that I develop with my patients, many of whom feel more like friends and family on a short visit than on a professional or business-like encounter.
Q. Are an understanding and appreciation of the humanities important in dermatology and why?
A. I think so. I teach my medical students and residents that they will often be called upon to take leadership positions and that they should represent the profession with the dignity that a well-rounded culture brings.
As an immigrant from a country with a different language, I’m keenly aware of linguistic shortcomings, yet I dare to function as editor of a few trade publications. As I result, I stress to them the relevance of proper English.
Support of finer arts is highly recommended, but which to choose is optional. I like theater, photography, painting and sculpture, and frequent those museums.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. I have many regrets: I wish I’d paid more attention to dermatopathology and, before that, to math, because I’d like to figure out statistics and the mechanisms of action of photobiology. On a personal level, I regret not spending more time with my kids as they grew up. Though they are fine men now and the family remains close, I’m trying to make up for that nowadays and I’m enjoying it.
Q. Who was your hero/mentor and why?
A. I’ve had many mentors to whom I owe gratitude. In my time of training, there are four I recall with particular fondness: Alfredo Planchart, MD who made pharmacology fun; Pedro Graces, MD, a pathologist who invited a select group of senior students weekly to his home to discuss humanities or unique hospital cases throughout the course of a school year; Melvin Samuels, MD, an oncologist at MD Anderson who gave me the spine to confront difficult diseases; and Victor Newcomer, MD, a superb clinician who welcomed me into his practice one afternoon a week to learn how a master in dermatology thinks.
On a personal level, my dad and mom are my heroes, whom I saw struggle and succeed repeatedly during tough economies, always with a smile, integrity and altruism.
Q. Which medical figure in history would you want to have a drink with and why?
A. I don’t know, I don’t drink much; maybe Galen, I’d like to find out what compelled a curious mind to taste another person’s urine for the sake of science. Of my contemporaries, Kimberly “Dawn” Vincent, MD, recent President of the Tennessee Dermatological Society, who is smart and beautiful at all levels, but it would have to be water.
Q. Which patient had the most effect on your work and why?
A. The patient who says “You gave me my life back.” This is a generic patient, one with psoriasis or eczema, who responded to a biologic or cyclosporine or who had a melanoma that was successfully diagnosed and treated. Happily, such patients come frequently to my office, as they surely do for most of my colleagues.
ONLINE EXTRA
Visit www.the-dermatologist.com to read about the best piece of advice Dr. Abramovits has received and more.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of six books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.
He is also co-editor of Dermanities (dermanities.com), an online journal devoted to the humanities as they relate to dermatology.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received and from whom?
A. Walter Kirkendall, MD, the Chief of Medicine who saw me agonizing over a girl with SLE who died under my care as a Resident at UT Houston. He told me: “William, it was not you who killed her, it was lupus. Learn to put things under the right perspective or medicine will eat you alive.”
Also, Arturo Tapia, MD, told me: “Never waste money on alcoholic beverages, but, if they are free, drink all you can.” Surely I have been given better advice, but that last came to mind at the spur of the moment.
Q. What is the greatest political danger in the field of dermatology?
A. Greed; the desire to increase incomes at the expense of patient’s optimal care by allowing lesser trained professionals, say extenders, to practice unsupervised directly and at each visit.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of six books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.
He is also co-editor of Dermanities (dermanities.com), an online journal devoted to the humanities as they relate to dermatology.
Dr. Abramovits was born in 1949 in Caracas, Venezuela, to immigrants escaping the atrocities of Communism and Nazism. He attended primary school, high school and the equivalent of pre-med at the Colegio Santiago de Leon de Caracas. He attended medical school at Venezuela Central University, and he did his internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Texas in Houston between 1973 and 1976. His dermatology residency was at UCLA from 1976 to 1979.
Dr. Abramovits then practiced for 10 years back in Venezuela, but the political climate made his wife uncomfortable and she convinced him to return to the United States. He initially practiced in a small southern Texas town called McAllen, but, after 6 years, his pruritus for a more cosmopolitan environment persuaded him to take an offer to work at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas.
In 2006, Dr. Abramovits opened a private practice and research institute, which is where he is today.
Q. What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A. From a professional angle, it is medical dermatology. I did both residencies (Internal Medicine and Dermatology) in full and spent what I feel was the most rewarding educational year at MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, learning to respect difficult drugs and to use them wisely, appreciating the benefits they can provide, from curing to ameliorating disease, to prolonging life, to affecting quality of life.
Today I use that knowledge to do clinical research and practice using biologics, chemotherapeutic agents and immunosuppressive medications and investigational drugs with some degree of confidence.
From a personal view, it is the relationship that I develop with my patients, many of whom feel more like friends and family on a short visit than on a professional or business-like encounter.
Q. Are an understanding and appreciation of the humanities important in dermatology and why?
A. I think so. I teach my medical students and residents that they will often be called upon to take leadership positions and that they should represent the profession with the dignity that a well-rounded culture brings.
As an immigrant from a country with a different language, I’m keenly aware of linguistic shortcomings, yet I dare to function as editor of a few trade publications. As I result, I stress to them the relevance of proper English.
Support of finer arts is highly recommended, but which to choose is optional. I like theater, photography, painting and sculpture, and frequent those museums.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. I have many regrets: I wish I’d paid more attention to dermatopathology and, before that, to math, because I’d like to figure out statistics and the mechanisms of action of photobiology. On a personal level, I regret not spending more time with my kids as they grew up. Though they are fine men now and the family remains close, I’m trying to make up for that nowadays and I’m enjoying it.
Q. Who was your hero/mentor and why?
A. I’ve had many mentors to whom I owe gratitude. In my time of training, there are four I recall with particular fondness: Alfredo Planchart, MD who made pharmacology fun; Pedro Graces, MD, a pathologist who invited a select group of senior students weekly to his home to discuss humanities or unique hospital cases throughout the course of a school year; Melvin Samuels, MD, an oncologist at MD Anderson who gave me the spine to confront difficult diseases; and Victor Newcomer, MD, a superb clinician who welcomed me into his practice one afternoon a week to learn how a master in dermatology thinks.
On a personal level, my dad and mom are my heroes, whom I saw struggle and succeed repeatedly during tough economies, always with a smile, integrity and altruism.
Q. Which medical figure in history would you want to have a drink with and why?
A. I don’t know, I don’t drink much; maybe Galen, I’d like to find out what compelled a curious mind to taste another person’s urine for the sake of science. Of my contemporaries, Kimberly “Dawn” Vincent, MD, recent President of the Tennessee Dermatological Society, who is smart and beautiful at all levels, but it would have to be water.
Q. Which patient had the most effect on your work and why?
A. The patient who says “You gave me my life back.” This is a generic patient, one with psoriasis or eczema, who responded to a biologic or cyclosporine or who had a melanoma that was successfully diagnosed and treated. Happily, such patients come frequently to my office, as they surely do for most of my colleagues.
ONLINE EXTRA
Visit www.the-dermatologist.com to read about the best piece of advice Dr. Abramovits has received and more.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of six books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.
He is also co-editor of Dermanities (dermanities.com), an online journal devoted to the humanities as they relate to dermatology.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received and from whom?
A. Walter Kirkendall, MD, the Chief of Medicine who saw me agonizing over a girl with SLE who died under my care as a Resident at UT Houston. He told me: “William, it was not you who killed her, it was lupus. Learn to put things under the right perspective or medicine will eat you alive.”
Also, Arturo Tapia, MD, told me: “Never waste money on alcoholic beverages, but, if they are free, drink all you can.” Surely I have been given better advice, but that last came to mind at the spur of the moment.
Q. What is the greatest political danger in the field of dermatology?
A. Greed; the desire to increase incomes at the expense of patient’s optimal care by allowing lesser trained professionals, say extenders, to practice unsupervised directly and at each visit.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of six books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.
He is also co-editor of Dermanities (dermanities.com), an online journal devoted to the humanities as they relate to dermatology.
Dr. Abramovits was born in 1949 in Caracas, Venezuela, to immigrants escaping the atrocities of Communism and Nazism. He attended primary school, high school and the equivalent of pre-med at the Colegio Santiago de Leon de Caracas. He attended medical school at Venezuela Central University, and he did his internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Texas in Houston between 1973 and 1976. His dermatology residency was at UCLA from 1976 to 1979.
Dr. Abramovits then practiced for 10 years back in Venezuela, but the political climate made his wife uncomfortable and she convinced him to return to the United States. He initially practiced in a small southern Texas town called McAllen, but, after 6 years, his pruritus for a more cosmopolitan environment persuaded him to take an offer to work at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas.
In 2006, Dr. Abramovits opened a private practice and research institute, which is where he is today.
Q. What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A. From a professional angle, it is medical dermatology. I did both residencies (Internal Medicine and Dermatology) in full and spent what I feel was the most rewarding educational year at MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, learning to respect difficult drugs and to use them wisely, appreciating the benefits they can provide, from curing to ameliorating disease, to prolonging life, to affecting quality of life.
Today I use that knowledge to do clinical research and practice using biologics, chemotherapeutic agents and immunosuppressive medications and investigational drugs with some degree of confidence.
From a personal view, it is the relationship that I develop with my patients, many of whom feel more like friends and family on a short visit than on a professional or business-like encounter.
Q. Are an understanding and appreciation of the humanities important in dermatology and why?
A. I think so. I teach my medical students and residents that they will often be called upon to take leadership positions and that they should represent the profession with the dignity that a well-rounded culture brings.
As an immigrant from a country with a different language, I’m keenly aware of linguistic shortcomings, yet I dare to function as editor of a few trade publications. As I result, I stress to them the relevance of proper English.
Support of finer arts is highly recommended, but which to choose is optional. I like theater, photography, painting and sculpture, and frequent those museums.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. I have many regrets: I wish I’d paid more attention to dermatopathology and, before that, to math, because I’d like to figure out statistics and the mechanisms of action of photobiology. On a personal level, I regret not spending more time with my kids as they grew up. Though they are fine men now and the family remains close, I’m trying to make up for that nowadays and I’m enjoying it.
Q. Who was your hero/mentor and why?
A. I’ve had many mentors to whom I owe gratitude. In my time of training, there are four I recall with particular fondness: Alfredo Planchart, MD who made pharmacology fun; Pedro Graces, MD, a pathologist who invited a select group of senior students weekly to his home to discuss humanities or unique hospital cases throughout the course of a school year; Melvin Samuels, MD, an oncologist at MD Anderson who gave me the spine to confront difficult diseases; and Victor Newcomer, MD, a superb clinician who welcomed me into his practice one afternoon a week to learn how a master in dermatology thinks.
On a personal level, my dad and mom are my heroes, whom I saw struggle and succeed repeatedly during tough economies, always with a smile, integrity and altruism.
Q. Which medical figure in history would you want to have a drink with and why?
A. I don’t know, I don’t drink much; maybe Galen, I’d like to find out what compelled a curious mind to taste another person’s urine for the sake of science. Of my contemporaries, Kimberly “Dawn” Vincent, MD, recent President of the Tennessee Dermatological Society, who is smart and beautiful at all levels, but it would have to be water.
Q. Which patient had the most effect on your work and why?
A. The patient who says “You gave me my life back.” This is a generic patient, one with psoriasis or eczema, who responded to a biologic or cyclosporine or who had a melanoma that was successfully diagnosed and treated. Happily, such patients come frequently to my office, as they surely do for most of my colleagues.
ONLINE EXTRA
Visit www.the-dermatologist.com to read about the best piece of advice Dr. Abramovits has received and more.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of six books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.
He is also co-editor of Dermanities (dermanities.com), an online journal devoted to the humanities as they relate to dermatology.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received and from whom?
A. Walter Kirkendall, MD, the Chief of Medicine who saw me agonizing over a girl with SLE who died under my care as a Resident at UT Houston. He told me: “William, it was not you who killed her, it was lupus. Learn to put things under the right perspective or medicine will eat you alive.”
Also, Arturo Tapia, MD, told me: “Never waste money on alcoholic beverages, but, if they are free, drink all you can.” Surely I have been given better advice, but that last came to mind at the spur of the moment.
Q. What is the greatest political danger in the field of dermatology?
A. Greed; the desire to increase incomes at the expense of patient’s optimal care by allowing lesser trained professionals, say extenders, to practice unsupervised directly and at each visit.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of six books in dermatology and is widely published in the dermatology and humanities literature.
He is also co-editor of Dermanities (dermanities.com), an online journal devoted to the humanities as they relate to dermatology.
Dr. Abramovits was born in 1949 in Caracas, Venezuela, to immigrants escaping the atrocities of Communism and Nazism. He attended primary school, high school and the equivalent of pre-med at the Colegio Santiago de Leon de Caracas. He attended medical school at Venezuela Central University, and he did his internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Texas in Houston between 1973 and 1976. His dermatology residency was at UCLA from 1976 to 1979.
