From 1986-1994, Dr. Steinhoff studied Medicine and Human Biology at the University of Marburg, Germany. After a short residency in Internal Medicine, he started his residency in Dermatology/Venerology (1995-1996). From 1997-1999, he was post-doctoral fellow at UCSF in San Francisco working on protease-activated and neuropeptide receptors. Since that time, his primary interest has been to understand the skin as a neuro-immune organ and its relevance in atopic dermatitis, itch and rosacea. From 1999-2001, he completed his residency at the University of Muenster (T. Luger). In 2003, he finished his board certificate in allergy and in 2004 in phlebology. His clinical interests are general dermatology, rosacea, pruritus, atopic dermatitis, wound healing, phlebology/sclerotherapy and non-melanoma skin cancer.
Since 2009, he has been full professor of dermatology at the departments of dermatology and surgery at University of Southern California, San Francisco. He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 book chapters discussing a broad field within dermatology from inflammation (Rook’s Textbook of Dermatology) to skin neurobiology (Fitzpatrick’s) to skin cancer (Cancer Encyclopedia).
His research highlights include discovering that proteases activate protease-activated receptors on sensory neurons to control inflammation and itch, and the discovery that sensory nerves express a functional interleukin-31 receptor that induces T-cell mediated itch. His list of major awards is long, and most notably the most prestigious award in German dermatology, the Oscar Gans Research Award from the German Society of Dermatology.
Q. What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A. To discuss the potential pathophysiology of poorly understood diseases with other enthusiastic colleagues, as well as discussing novel therapies to help desperate patients. To play a part when patients are happy because the treatment worked and their quality of life has significantly improved.
Q. Are an understanding and appreciation of the humanities important in dermatology and why?
A. The appreciation that humanity is a central part of medicine is critical for my understanding of being a physician; this cannot be separated. Humanity is the heart of the physician’s “body,” as deep knowledge is the brain and enthusiasm to heal is the muscle. The attitude to break barriers by healing despite a war, racial separations, social or genetic predispositions is a key to understanding that the world can be a better place, and that prejudices are inhuman.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. That I did and do not have more time with my children, wife and family. Otherwise, I am very happy because professionally I can do what I always dreamed about, to work as a dermatologist combining neurosciences and immunology.
Q. Who was your hero/mentor and why?
A. First, Gerd Aumueller, director of the anatomy department, in Marburg, Germany, the mentor of my MD and PhD thesis. He was one of the few classical “universally educated” physicians of our time that I have ever met, always gentle, honest and polite. He was an outstanding scientist, passionate teacher and constructive mentor. He gave music concerts without training, wrote important books about history of medicine, built a museum of history in medicine, was active to improve the relationship between German and Jewish physicians and citizens and he was a caring family man and father. This gave me the hope that you can have the energy as a physician-scientist to combine several interests in life with passion, and to be capable of making a contribution on many levels in life.
Second is Thomas Luger, chair of dermatology in Muenster, Germany. He is one of the few representatives in dermatology who can integrate in an optimal way, compassion for patients, enthusiasm for science, organization and communication skills that are necessary to create the optimal environment for a modern, knowledgeable, independent thinking and compassionate dermatologist.
Q. Which patient had the most effect on your work and why?
A. During my early residency, I was responsible for the oncology inpatient unit in Muenster, Germany. A 31-year old father of 3 children with stage IV melanoma was about to fall into a coma. Somehow, he knew he was going to die that day. I promised to sit with him until his wife and children could come from 100 miles away, so that he could see them one more time, and they could say goodbye to him. We talked or held hands for 3 hours until his family arrived. He could speak to them and one hour later he died. His wife said they would never forget this grace that he could die with peace and his loved ones around him.
Beside all medications and diagnostics, we should never forget what the patients really or additionally need: compassion and hope. As physicians, we should preserve the capability to sense the current need of a patient. Medicine is not about ourselves, it is about healing and helping patients.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received and from whom?
A. I received my best piece of advice from the chair of pediatrics, Professor Rieger, in Marburg in 1988. Instead of hiring me for an MD thesis, when he desperately needed someone, he recommended that I should finish my biology school as MSc, and to improve my skills and thinking as a physician scientist with deep insights into biology as well as medicine, in order to become a knowledgeable and skillful physician scientist.
Q. Which medical figure in history would you want to have a drink with and why?
A. I frequently read the outstanding book Pantheon of Dermatology by Gerd Plewig. You can learn so much from the life of so many compassionate, intelligent, visionary dermatologists that make it hard to choose. I would get very drunk, because there are so many. I would drink my way up from the Greek physicians, to the Arabic medicine of the Middle Ages, to Robert Koch, Neisser and Oscar Gans.
Q. What is the greatest political danger in the field of dermatology?
A. There are multiple dangers to the field of dermatology in a broad or narrow sense of being political:
1). To preserve the work of a dermatologist with a deep knowledge of internal medicine, surgery, allergy, skin pathophysiology, oncology and autoimmunity. The diversity of the many skin diseases makes this specialty so fascinating.
2). To preserve academic dermatology with its important contributions in oncology, immunology, inflammation, neurosciences and infection. Cosmetic dermatology is only a small part of dermatology and the medical need of dermatological patients.
3). To strengthen dermatology as a medically important specialty in politics and insurance issues.
Q. Why did you choose dermatology?
A. My decision to choose dermatology was 2-fold. I experienced the outstanding positive teaching atmosphere among the dermatologists during my internship. In addition, I liked the challenging circumstance of the field. For example, in the Textbook of Dermatology, most chapter sentences started with: etiology of the disease is unknown.
Online Extra
Visit The Dermatologist website at: www.the-dermatologist.com to read more Perspectives columns, which shine a spotlight on the lives and thoughts of fellow dermatology practitioners.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of 6 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.
From 1986-1994, Dr. Steinhoff studied Medicine and Human Biology at the University of Marburg, Germany. After a short residency in Internal Medicine, he started his residency in Dermatology/Venerology (1995-1996). From 1997-1999, he was post-doctoral fellow at UCSF in San Francisco working on protease-activated and neuropeptide receptors. Since that time, his primary interest has been to understand the skin as a neuro-immune organ and its relevance in atopic dermatitis, itch and rosacea. From 1999-2001, he completed his residency at the University of Muenster (T. Luger). In 2003, he finished his board certificate in allergy and in 2004 in phlebology. His clinical interests are general dermatology, rosacea, pruritus, atopic dermatitis, wound healing, phlebology/sclerotherapy and non-melanoma skin cancer.
Since 2009, he has been full professor of dermatology at the departments of dermatology and surgery at University of Southern California, San Francisco. He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 book chapters discussing a broad field within dermatology from inflammation (Rook’s Textbook of Dermatology) to skin neurobiology (Fitzpatrick’s) to skin cancer (Cancer Encyclopedia).
His research highlights include discovering that proteases activate protease-activated receptors on sensory neurons to control inflammation and itch, and the discovery that sensory nerves express a functional interleukin-31 receptor that induces T-cell mediated itch. His list of major awards is long, and most notably the most prestigious award in German dermatology, the Oscar Gans Research Award from the German Society of Dermatology.
Q. What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A. To discuss the potential pathophysiology of poorly understood diseases with other enthusiastic colleagues, as well as discussing novel therapies to help desperate patients. To play a part when patients are happy because the treatment worked and their quality of life has significantly improved.
Q. Are an understanding and appreciation of the humanities important in dermatology and why?
A. The appreciation that humanity is a central part of medicine is critical for my understanding of being a physician; this cannot be separated. Humanity is the heart of the physician’s “body,” as deep knowledge is the brain and enthusiasm to heal is the muscle. The attitude to break barriers by healing despite a war, racial separations, social or genetic predispositions is a key to understanding that the world can be a better place, and that prejudices are inhuman.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. That I did and do not have more time with my children, wife and family. Otherwise, I am very happy because professionally I can do what I always dreamed about, to work as a dermatologist combining neurosciences and immunology.
Q. Who was your hero/mentor and why?
A. First, Gerd Aumueller, director of the anatomy department, in Marburg, Germany, the mentor of my MD and PhD thesis. He was one of the few classical “universally educated” physicians of our time that I have ever met, always gentle, honest and polite. He was an outstanding scientist, passionate teacher and constructive mentor. He gave music concerts without training, wrote important books about history of medicine, built a museum of history in medicine, was active to improve the relationship between German and Jewish physicians and citizens and he was a caring family man and father. This gave me the hope that you can have the energy as a physician-scientist to combine several interests in life with passion, and to be capable of making a contribution on many levels in life.
Second is Thomas Luger, chair of dermatology in Muenster, Germany. He is one of the few representatives in dermatology who can integrate in an optimal way, compassion for patients, enthusiasm for science, organization and communication skills that are necessary to create the optimal environment for a modern, knowledgeable, independent thinking and compassionate dermatologist.
Q. Which patient had the most effect on your work and why?
A. During my early residency, I was responsible for the oncology inpatient unit in Muenster, Germany. A 31-year old father of 3 children with stage IV melanoma was about to fall into a coma. Somehow, he knew he was going to die that day. I promised to sit with him until his wife and children could come from 100 miles away, so that he could see them one more time, and they could say goodbye to him. We talked or held hands for 3 hours until his family arrived. He could speak to them and one hour later he died. His wife said they would never forget this grace that he could die with peace and his loved ones around him.
Beside all medications and diagnostics, we should never forget what the patients really or additionally need: compassion and hope. As physicians, we should preserve the capability to sense the current need of a patient. Medicine is not about ourselves, it is about healing and helping patients.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received and from whom?
A. I received my best piece of advice from the chair of pediatrics, Professor Rieger, in Marburg in 1988. Instead of hiring me for an MD thesis, when he desperately needed someone, he recommended that I should finish my biology school as MSc, and to improve my skills and thinking as a physician scientist with deep insights into biology as well as medicine, in order to become a knowledgeable and skillful physician scientist.
Q. Which medical figure in history would you want to have a drink with and why?
A. I frequently read the outstanding book Pantheon of Dermatology by Gerd Plewig. You can learn so much from the life of so many compassionate, intelligent, visionary dermatologists that make it hard to choose. I would get very drunk, because there are so many. I would drink my way up from the Greek physicians, to the Arabic medicine of the Middle Ages, to Robert Koch, Neisser and Oscar Gans.
Q. What is the greatest political danger in the field of dermatology?
A. There are multiple dangers to the field of dermatology in a broad or narrow sense of being political:
1). To preserve the work of a dermatologist with a deep knowledge of internal medicine, surgery, allergy, skin pathophysiology, oncology and autoimmunity. The diversity of the many skin diseases makes this specialty so fascinating.
2). To preserve academic dermatology with its important contributions in oncology, immunology, inflammation, neurosciences and infection. Cosmetic dermatology is only a small part of dermatology and the medical need of dermatological patients.
3). To strengthen dermatology as a medically important specialty in politics and insurance issues.
Q. Why did you choose dermatology?
A. My decision to choose dermatology was 2-fold. I experienced the outstanding positive teaching atmosphere among the dermatologists during my internship. In addition, I liked the challenging circumstance of the field. For example, in the Textbook of Dermatology, most chapter sentences started with: etiology of the disease is unknown.
Online Extra
Visit The Dermatologist website at: www.the-dermatologist.com to read more Perspectives columns, which shine a spotlight on the lives and thoughts of fellow dermatology practitioners.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of 6 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.
From 1986-1994, Dr. Steinhoff studied Medicine and Human Biology at the University of Marburg, Germany. After a short residency in Internal Medicine, he started his residency in Dermatology/Venerology (1995-1996). From 1997-1999, he was post-doctoral fellow at UCSF in San Francisco working on protease-activated and neuropeptide receptors. Since that time, his primary interest has been to understand the skin as a neuro-immune organ and its relevance in atopic dermatitis, itch and rosacea. From 1999-2001, he completed his residency at the University of Muenster (T. Luger). In 2003, he finished his board certificate in allergy and in 2004 in phlebology. His clinical interests are general dermatology, rosacea, pruritus, atopic dermatitis, wound healing, phlebology/sclerotherapy and non-melanoma skin cancer.
Since 2009, he has been full professor of dermatology at the departments of dermatology and surgery at University of Southern California, San Francisco. He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 book chapters discussing a broad field within dermatology from inflammation (Rook’s Textbook of Dermatology) to skin neurobiology (Fitzpatrick’s) to skin cancer (Cancer Encyclopedia).
His research highlights include discovering that proteases activate protease-activated receptors on sensory neurons to control inflammation and itch, and the discovery that sensory nerves express a functional interleukin-31 receptor that induces T-cell mediated itch. His list of major awards is long, and most notably the most prestigious award in German dermatology, the Oscar Gans Research Award from the German Society of Dermatology.
Q. What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A. To discuss the potential pathophysiology of poorly understood diseases with other enthusiastic colleagues, as well as discussing novel therapies to help desperate patients. To play a part when patients are happy because the treatment worked and their quality of life has significantly improved.
Q. Are an understanding and appreciation of the humanities important in dermatology and why?
A. The appreciation that humanity is a central part of medicine is critical for my understanding of being a physician; this cannot be separated. Humanity is the heart of the physician’s “body,” as deep knowledge is the brain and enthusiasm to heal is the muscle. The attitude to break barriers by healing despite a war, racial separations, social or genetic predispositions is a key to understanding that the world can be a better place, and that prejudices are inhuman.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. That I did and do not have more time with my children, wife and family. Otherwise, I am very happy because professionally I can do what I always dreamed about, to work as a dermatologist combining neurosciences and immunology.
Q. Who was your hero/mentor and why?
A. First, Gerd Aumueller, director of the anatomy department, in Marburg, Germany, the mentor of my MD and PhD thesis. He was one of the few classical “universally educated” physicians of our time that I have ever met, always gentle, honest and polite. He was an outstanding scientist, passionate teacher and constructive mentor. He gave music concerts without training, wrote important books about history of medicine, built a museum of history in medicine, was active to improve the relationship between German and Jewish physicians and citizens and he was a caring family man and father. This gave me the hope that you can have the energy as a physician-scientist to combine several interests in life with passion, and to be capable of making a contribution on many levels in life.
Second is Thomas Luger, chair of dermatology in Muenster, Germany. He is one of the few representatives in dermatology who can integrate in an optimal way, compassion for patients, enthusiasm for science, organization and communication skills that are necessary to create the optimal environment for a modern, knowledgeable, independent thinking and compassionate dermatologist.
Q. Which patient had the most effect on your work and why?
A. During my early residency, I was responsible for the oncology inpatient unit in Muenster, Germany. A 31-year old father of 3 children with stage IV melanoma was about to fall into a coma. Somehow, he knew he was going to die that day. I promised to sit with him until his wife and children could come from 100 miles away, so that he could see them one more time, and they could say goodbye to him. We talked or held hands for 3 hours until his family arrived. He could speak to them and one hour later he died. His wife said they would never forget this grace that he could die with peace and his loved ones around him.
Beside all medications and diagnostics, we should never forget what the patients really or additionally need: compassion and hope. As physicians, we should preserve the capability to sense the current need of a patient. Medicine is not about ourselves, it is about healing and helping patients.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received and from whom?
A. I received my best piece of advice from the chair of pediatrics, Professor Rieger, in Marburg in 1988. Instead of hiring me for an MD thesis, when he desperately needed someone, he recommended that I should finish my biology school as MSc, and to improve my skills and thinking as a physician scientist with deep insights into biology as well as medicine, in order to become a knowledgeable and skillful physician scientist.
Q. Which medical figure in history would you want to have a drink with and why?
A. I frequently read the outstanding book Pantheon of Dermatology by Gerd Plewig. You can learn so much from the life of so many compassionate, intelligent, visionary dermatologists that make it hard to choose. I would get very drunk, because there are so many. I would drink my way up from the Greek physicians, to the Arabic medicine of the Middle Ages, to Robert Koch, Neisser and Oscar Gans.
Q. What is the greatest political danger in the field of dermatology?
A. There are multiple dangers to the field of dermatology in a broad or narrow sense of being political:
1). To preserve the work of a dermatologist with a deep knowledge of internal medicine, surgery, allergy, skin pathophysiology, oncology and autoimmunity. The diversity of the many skin diseases makes this specialty so fascinating.
2). To preserve academic dermatology with its important contributions in oncology, immunology, inflammation, neurosciences and infection. Cosmetic dermatology is only a small part of dermatology and the medical need of dermatological patients.
3). To strengthen dermatology as a medically important specialty in politics and insurance issues.
Q. Why did you choose dermatology?
A. My decision to choose dermatology was 2-fold. I experienced the outstanding positive teaching atmosphere among the dermatologists during my internship. In addition, I liked the challenging circumstance of the field. For example, in the Textbook of Dermatology, most chapter sentences started with: etiology of the disease is unknown.
Online Extra
Visit The Dermatologist website at: www.the-dermatologist.com to read more Perspectives columns, which shine a spotlight on the lives and thoughts of fellow dermatology practitioners.
Dr. Barankin is a dermatologist in Toronto, Canada. He is author-editor of 6 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.
