Dr. Jorizzo was born in 1951 in Rochester, New York. His father was an Italian physician who came to the United States after World War II, and his mother was an Italian-American who worked as a social worker for 65 years.
Dr. Jorizzo completed his A.D. and M.D. degrees between 1969 and 1975 at the Boston University School of Medicine. He assumed his first faculty position as an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, under the direction of Dr. Edgar Smith in 1980. Then in 1986, he became professor and chair of the then new department of Dermatology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
His career highlights include founding the department and residency program at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He is an adjunct professor at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine and at the University of Genova in Italy. He was also asked by Jeff Callen to co-edit the textbook Dermatological Signs of Internal Disease and by Jean Bolognia and Ron Rapini to be a lead editor with them on the textbook Dermatology. He is also proud to be on the editorial boards of The Archives of Dermatology, The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and The Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. Dr. Jorizzo has published more than 150 articles.
Q. Why did you choose dermatology?
A. The scientific answer would be that I was an intern in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at the time when there were very strong mentors in dermatology who influenced me to consider dermatology after my internal medicine residency. In the course of discussing this issue with the faculty in dermatology, I was convinced that I might proceed to get my dermatology training early.
Subliminally, my father, who died in 1970 when I was a college freshman, may have influenced me to select his chosen specialty in Italy, which was dermatology. He had begun a dermatology residency there but could not pursue it in the United States because he was a foreign medical graduate. We never discussed his career choice, but I suspect that it may have influenced my decision to go into dermatology.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. My greatest regret professionally is that academic health science centers are going through a faze of “circling the wagons” around the hospital-based disciplines at the expense of ambulatory specialty medicine and that we as a society have created a healthcare system that does not create incentives for taking care of sick patients.
My greatest regret on a personal basis is that I am 55 years old — as opposed to 35.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received, and from whom?
A. A number of bits of advice stand out:
My father told me to try to see the good in people and have as best as possible a “no enemies policy.”
W. Mitchell Sams said that academics should always allow “contemplative time.”
Clayton Wheeler said that there will always be difficult people, but you have to function for the good of the greater group.
Richard Dobson from Charleston said it would be very important to recruit young faculty full of idealism and create a family-like atmosphere in the department.
Ben Smith suggested learning to practice occasional “creative incompetence” to avoid the risk of being put in charge of every medical center committee.
My wife has encouraged me to relax.
My mother told me not to smash pumpkins on Halloween because they mean a lot to the child who carved them.
My kids have all told me that I am the “least mature father at their school,” which I think is a good thing.
Q. What is the greatest political danger to the field of dermatology?
A. The greatest political danger to the field of dermatology would be neglecting to keep a balance between medical and pediatric dermatology, surgical oncology and cosmetic dermatology.
The price of cosmetic dermatology will come down because of competition — especially when large businesses become involved. Surgical oncology is at risk if insurers choose to place a set price on basal cell carcinoma regardless of the procedure used. Medical dermatology is in danger because as a society we have created a healthcare system that does not incentivize taking care of sick people.
The opportunity to integrate these three elements, however, creates a specialty that should be very strong. It should strengthen and not weaken over the next 10 years.
Unfortunately, dermatologists may have a much smaller list of medical therapeutic choices due to our specialty’s existence at the fringe of the pharmaceutical economic hierarchy. Of late, dermatologists have not adapted to therapeutic innovation because we seem to have a vulnerability to pharmaceutical negative marketing of toxicity, and we have a fear of litigation — even though medical dermatology is a very safe medical legal arena compared to most other areas of medicine.
Dr. Jorizzo was born in 1951 in Rochester, New York. His father was an Italian physician who came to the United States after World War II, and his mother was an Italian-American who worked as a social worker for 65 years.
Dr. Jorizzo completed his A.D. and M.D. degrees between 1969 and 1975 at the Boston University School of Medicine. He assumed his first faculty position as an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, under the direction of Dr. Edgar Smith in 1980. Then in 1986, he became professor and chair of the then new department of Dermatology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
His career highlights include founding the department and residency program at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He is an adjunct professor at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine and at the University of Genova in Italy. He was also asked by Jeff Callen to co-edit the textbook Dermatological Signs of Internal Disease and by Jean Bolognia and Ron Rapini to be a lead editor with them on the textbook Dermatology. He is also proud to be on the editorial boards of The Archives of Dermatology, The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and The Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. Dr. Jorizzo has published more than 150 articles.
Q. Why did you choose dermatology?
A. The scientific answer would be that I was an intern in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at the time when there were very strong mentors in dermatology who influenced me to consider dermatology after my internal medicine residency. In the course of discussing this issue with the faculty in dermatology, I was convinced that I might proceed to get my dermatology training early.
Subliminally, my father, who died in 1970 when I was a college freshman, may have influenced me to select his chosen specialty in Italy, which was dermatology. He had begun a dermatology residency there but could not pursue it in the United States because he was a foreign medical graduate. We never discussed his career choice, but I suspect that it may have influenced my decision to go into dermatology.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. My greatest regret professionally is that academic health science centers are going through a faze of “circling the wagons” around the hospital-based disciplines at the expense of ambulatory specialty medicine and that we as a society have created a healthcare system that does not create incentives for taking care of sick patients.
My greatest regret on a personal basis is that I am 55 years old — as opposed to 35.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received, and from whom?
A. A number of bits of advice stand out:
My father told me to try to see the good in people and have as best as possible a “no enemies policy.”
W. Mitchell Sams said that academics should always allow “contemplative time.”
Clayton Wheeler said that there will always be difficult people, but you have to function for the good of the greater group.
Richard Dobson from Charleston said it would be very important to recruit young faculty full of idealism and create a family-like atmosphere in the department.
Ben Smith suggested learning to practice occasional “creative incompetence” to avoid the risk of being put in charge of every medical center committee.
My wife has encouraged me to relax.
My mother told me not to smash pumpkins on Halloween because they mean a lot to the child who carved them.
My kids have all told me that I am the “least mature father at their school,” which I think is a good thing.
Q. What is the greatest political danger to the field of dermatology?
A. The greatest political danger to the field of dermatology would be neglecting to keep a balance between medical and pediatric dermatology, surgical oncology and cosmetic dermatology.
The price of cosmetic dermatology will come down because of competition — especially when large businesses become involved. Surgical oncology is at risk if insurers choose to place a set price on basal cell carcinoma regardless of the procedure used. Medical dermatology is in danger because as a society we have created a healthcare system that does not incentivize taking care of sick people.
The opportunity to integrate these three elements, however, creates a specialty that should be very strong. It should strengthen and not weaken over the next 10 years.
Unfortunately, dermatologists may have a much smaller list of medical therapeutic choices due to our specialty’s existence at the fringe of the pharmaceutical economic hierarchy. Of late, dermatologists have not adapted to therapeutic innovation because we seem to have a vulnerability to pharmaceutical negative marketing of toxicity, and we have a fear of litigation — even though medical dermatology is a very safe medical legal arena compared to most other areas of medicine.
Dr. Jorizzo was born in 1951 in Rochester, New York. His father was an Italian physician who came to the United States after World War II, and his mother was an Italian-American who worked as a social worker for 65 years.
Dr. Jorizzo completed his A.D. and M.D. degrees between 1969 and 1975 at the Boston University School of Medicine. He assumed his first faculty position as an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, under the direction of Dr. Edgar Smith in 1980. Then in 1986, he became professor and chair of the then new department of Dermatology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
His career highlights include founding the department and residency program at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He is an adjunct professor at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine and at the University of Genova in Italy. He was also asked by Jeff Callen to co-edit the textbook Dermatological Signs of Internal Disease and by Jean Bolognia and Ron Rapini to be a lead editor with them on the textbook Dermatology. He is also proud to be on the editorial boards of The Archives of Dermatology, The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and The Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. Dr. Jorizzo has published more than 150 articles.
Q. Why did you choose dermatology?
A. The scientific answer would be that I was an intern in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at the time when there were very strong mentors in dermatology who influenced me to consider dermatology after my internal medicine residency. In the course of discussing this issue with the faculty in dermatology, I was convinced that I might proceed to get my dermatology training early.
Subliminally, my father, who died in 1970 when I was a college freshman, may have influenced me to select his chosen specialty in Italy, which was dermatology. He had begun a dermatology residency there but could not pursue it in the United States because he was a foreign medical graduate. We never discussed his career choice, but I suspect that it may have influenced my decision to go into dermatology.
Q. What is your greatest regret?
A. My greatest regret professionally is that academic health science centers are going through a faze of “circling the wagons” around the hospital-based disciplines at the expense of ambulatory specialty medicine and that we as a society have created a healthcare system that does not create incentives for taking care of sick patients.
My greatest regret on a personal basis is that I am 55 years old — as opposed to 35.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received, and from whom?
A. A number of bits of advice stand out:
My father told me to try to see the good in people and have as best as possible a “no enemies policy.”
W. Mitchell Sams said that academics should always allow “contemplative time.”
Clayton Wheeler said that there will always be difficult people, but you have to function for the good of the greater group.
Richard Dobson from Charleston said it would be very important to recruit young faculty full of idealism and create a family-like atmosphere in the department.
Ben Smith suggested learning to practice occasional “creative incompetence” to avoid the risk of being put in charge of every medical center committee.
My wife has encouraged me to relax.
My mother told me not to smash pumpkins on Halloween because they mean a lot to the child who carved them.
My kids have all told me that I am the “least mature father at their school,” which I think is a good thing.
Q. What is the greatest political danger to the field of dermatology?
A. The greatest political danger to the field of dermatology would be neglecting to keep a balance between medical and pediatric dermatology, surgical oncology and cosmetic dermatology.
The price of cosmetic dermatology will come down because of competition — especially when large businesses become involved. Surgical oncology is at risk if insurers choose to place a set price on basal cell carcinoma regardless of the procedure used. Medical dermatology is in danger because as a society we have created a healthcare system that does not incentivize taking care of sick people.
The opportunity to integrate these three elements, however, creates a specialty that should be very strong. It should strengthen and not weaken over the next 10 years.
Unfortunately, dermatologists may have a much smaller list of medical therapeutic choices due to our specialty’s existence at the fringe of the pharmaceutical economic hierarchy. Of late, dermatologists have not adapted to therapeutic innovation because we seem to have a vulnerability to pharmaceutical negative marketing of toxicity, and we have a fear of litigation — even though medical dermatology is a very safe medical legal arena compared to most other areas of medicine.
