Jun 30, 2019

Dermatology: Specialty Clinic Update - Ricky Kanee Schachter (RKS) Dermatology Centre

Division of Dermatology
Dr Marissa Joseph
By

Dr. Marissa Joseph, Medical Director, RKS Centre

The Ricky Kanee Schachter (RKS) Dermatology Centre at Women’s College Hospital provides excellence in clinical care, medical education and research. Our full time staff includes both clinician scientists and clinician teachers (Drs. Vincent Piguet, Marissa Joseph, Trevor Champagne, Phil Doiron, and Aaron Drucker). We have 7 dedicated part time staff (Drs. Adam Natsheh, Renita Ahluwalia, Jennifer Salsberg, Renee Beach, Afsaneh Alavi and Erin Dahlke). Our clinical program is busy with general dermatology and specialty interests including inflammatory skin diseases, hair disorders, vulvar/genital diseases, autoimmune diseases, genodermatoses, cutaneous oncology, ethnic dermatology and pediatric dermatology/transitional care. The first academic specialized Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinic in Canada launched at the RKS Dermatology Centre to improve access to expert clinical care for this condition. Drs. Afsaneh Alavi, Vincent Piguet, Marissa Joseph and Raed Alhusayen run this program, which has been a great success. We have also supported international CME events for Hidradenitis Suppurativa.
 
Dr. Phil Doiron, the new incoming postgraduate Dermatology Program Director also serves as education site director for our program. Under this portfolio we support undergraduate and postgraduate Dermatology education at the University of Toronto. We have pre-clerkship, and clerkship students attend our clinics for direct clinical teaching, and also numerous specialties as part of their postgraduate training programs including the large primary care training program at Women’s College Hospital. We recently have started a Fellowship in Inflammatory Skin Diseases and welcome Dr. Myrela Machado to our clinical program. She will be involved in projects around Hidradenitis Suppurativa as part of her fellowship.
 
Although our clinical program is broad, our patients also benefit from our depth of expertise in very specialized areas. We foster important relationships with other clinical areas such as Wound Care, Phototherapy, and Mohs surgery. Our strategic vision is to continue to build and expand these successes for ongoing excellence in clinical care, research and education.