WHY DERMATOLOGY: After developing hepatitis and having a splenectomy in medical school, he was advised to seek a “less stressful” specialty. The irony is that as a dermatologist, he “has worked harder than he might have had as an internist.”
PROVIDENCE: Boston, Mass.
MEDICAL SCHOOL; DERMATOLOGY RESIDENCY: Harvard; Massachusetts General Hospital.
MAJOR INFLUENCES: His parents taught him to be giving and dedicated; his father was a clothing manufacturer. An uncle, a cardiologist, was a role model who taught him how to write grants. Tom Fitzpatrick, his chair of dermatology at Harvard, was a major influence; their first encounter was at a grand rounds conference in which they elbowed each other to see a patient (each not knowing who the other was).