Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD: Current Disease States and Early Career Controversies

Following his presentations at the 44th annual Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 24 to 27, Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, spoke with Dermatology Times on his presentations titled, “Chronic Hand Eczema: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Disease
Management” and “Early Career Controversies”.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi there. My name is Dr Raj Chovatiya. I'm a clinical associate professor at the Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School and founder and director of the Center for Medical Dermatology and Immunology Research in Chicago, Illinois. I'm also one of the editors in chief for Dermatology Times. Now this year at Fall Clinical, I have the opportunity and privilege to talk all about chronic hand eczema.I know what you're thinking, chronic hand eczema? Don't you mean atopic dermatitis or allergic current topic dermatitis or irritant contact dermatitis? Is that even a disease? The short answer is yes, but the long answer is that really, it's an entity that we all see every day, creates a huge burden for patients, and frankly, is quite common. But it'sone we don't really give much thought to, other than the fact that we really wish that we had better understandingof the pathophysiology and potentially what types of therapeutics might cause relief for patients. In my presentation, we had a chance to go over everything from prevalence, epidemiology, pathophysiology and what's missing as far as our treatment toolbox goes with a view towards the future of hopefully upcoming treatments that are really give our patients the relief they so sorely need.

One of the most fun sessions this year at Fall Clinical that I had a chance to take part in was early career controversies, a back and forth spirited debate between individuals who are in earlier stages of their career or even middle stages, about the types of challenges and solutions they found for a lot of roadblocks they may have faced or confusion along the way, in terms of really making their career. One tip I really want to share that I think is salient for anybody out there: Honestly, no matter what stage you're at, it's hard to know what the future holds. I think if you had asked maybe medical studentRaj or residentRaj what the future looks like, even early attending, Raj, I probably couldn't have told you that I'd be talking to you here right now. What I want to say is that at the end of the day, be open. Opportunities come and opportunities go, and overall thought processes shift. You can grow exactly with the times and what you think you're going to be doing, it may not be flexible. Be loose and just ride the wave.

Another important pearl to consider when you're in the early part of your career is conferences. So dermatology is no stranger to conferences. We got a lot of that. Really, what is in your favor is to figure out exactly what does a specific educational opportunity that's relevant to you look like, whether it's a big conference, small conference, national, regional, international, understand exactly what you may want to contribute, or maybe you just want to go for educational purposes. Really try to tailor your experiencecustom. And what I mean is, when you go to a conference, it's okay; I know you want to try to hit every single thing. Make a list, go through stuff that's relevant, not relevant, and things you want to know more about, try to network.That's half of the opportunity as well. Honestly, it's a little bit of time away from clinic, soit's okay to enjoy yourself a little bit too. Bottom line, there's so much choice out there a conference is really unlock an opportunity for all young physicians out there to really see the bigger picture of the world around them, to understand what the gaps in their own care and practice might be, and really meet other people who are on the same wavelength as them.

[This transcript has been edited for clarity.]

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