TRISH: 

Hello listeners. It’s Trish Hammond here from the Transforming Bodies podcast. And today, I’m joined with Dr Michael Lee, Now Dr Lee is a specialist dermatologist at Laye Dermatology in Queens Park in Sydney. And today, we’re gonna have a bit of a chat about what he does and the fact that he is basically, his focus clinic is mainly focused on medical dermatology, but I’ll run through that with you now.

So welcome doctor Lee.

DR. MICHAEL: 

Thank you, Trish. Thanks for the invitation.

TRISH:

Thank you so much for joining me. So tell me, first of all, before we start, so what got you into the dermatology aspect of medicine? So you’re obviously trained to be a doctor, then you’ve had those additional million years to train to be a dermatologist as well. So what took you down that path? What was the inspiration?

DR. MICHAEL: 

So that’s a really good question. And that I can answer that with several reasons. The first of which is personal experience. So we’re often affected by illnesses in the family. And in my case, we have a whole suite of dermatological problems in the family.

And as a teenager and as a medical student, I really wanted to make a difference. In improving people’s skin health. And that inspired me to go into dermatology. The other reason is because it’s a very visual special approach to problem solving, which is very me. Very visual spatial in my approach to problem solving, and dermatology lends itself well to that type of approach to problem solving.

TRISH:

 Okay. So how long have you actually been a dermatologist?

DR. MICHAEL: 

So I finished in 2010, and I worked as a dermatologist for 1 or 2 years in private practice. And then I retrained as I went into further training, into Mohs surgery, which is a type of skin cancer surgery in the management of head and neck skin cancers. And with that fellowship, I also did a laser fellowship So I took a year off to do a fellowship in procedural dermatology encompassing skin cancer surgery and laser surgery.

TRISH:

Okay. Amazing. Because I have vaguely heard about Mohs Surgeon. I remember when I heard about it, I was like, oh my god. This sounds like it’s game changing, but I’m also very not addicted to it, but I’ve seen the profound, phenomenal things that can happen with laser surgery.

So tell us a little bit more about that, like, training in laser surgery, really?

DR. MICHAEL: 

Yes. So with part of the fellowship I trained under an esteemed colleague who actually trained in the United States and brought back most of the fellowship program. And he also trained in lasers. So we spent several days doing most surgical cases during the week, and we also trained. He trained me in laser surgery.

And lasers and energy based devices, you know, on the surface, they look fun, but they’re really quite complex machines to get your head around. And it’s taken me, you know, a good, you know, 13, 14, 15 years coming up now. To be really confident, I’m still learning, but to actually get to know these machines. So on the surface, it looks all fun in games with lasers and all the technology, but it really is complex physics that you really have to get your head around.

TRISH: 

That’s so true. And I find that in my travels and in my Facebook groups and stuff like that, people say, I’ll just go and have a laser, but then you’ve got a laser and you’ve got a laser if that makes sense. And and and then you’ve got a laser in the hands of someone who may have just had, you know, minimal training if at all in a quote, a laser. But then you’ve got like, you know, quarterly lasers. Can you kind of give us a little bit of a like, a kind of run down or, you know, just for consumers that are out there or maybe looking for something like, you know, it it so I kinda gotta be careful with the stuff that you get done because I’ve seen some more life changing and irreparable damage done in the hands of people that don’t know what they’re doing with crap lasers, basically.

Can you tell us a bit about that? A bit of insight?

DR. MICHAEL: 

Yes. So my advice for the consumer would be do your research. Find out the qualifications of the person you’re seeing. As a dermatologist, we’ve done many years of training in medical school. We’ve done training as junior doctors, and we’ve done additional training in specialist dermatology.

And I’ve done additional subspecialist training in Mohs Micrographic and Laser Surgery. So for me, it took almost 15 years to get those qualifications. And knowing the skin takes, you know, 15 years to know the skin. And I think for this consumer, you really have to know who you’re seeing and who’s doing your treatment so that they’re fully qualified. They’re qualified, whether it be a doctor or dermatologist.

I think that’s very important for the consumer to know

TRISH: 

That’s true. And so say for example, if you do your research, how do you know what they’re going to use on you? Is it qualities like lasers? Because I’ve seen lasers that you can like, that are like, I’m a great believer of, you know, you get what you kind of pay for if that makes any sense. And I’ve seen people say, oh, yeah, this is a great quality laser, but yet a quality laser can cost ten times the price of what they’ve said is a quality laser when it’s not.

So how can we even determine ourselves as consumers or even practitioners?

DR. MICHAEL:

That’s a really good question because with specialists, as dermatologists, we obviously work closely with these energy based device companies. And we choose we’re very discerning in our choice of machine that can deliver results that will be safe for our patients. So I think choosing the person that’s going to do your treatment by association with that energy based device will give you some indication as to whether it’s a quality laser.

TRISH: 

Okay. That makes so much sense. And I know for a fact that you like it, you don’t just buy a laser and have your practice. But it is you continuously improving on that technology. Can you tell us a little bit about well, number one, why you do that, you know, just to update or or whatever?

And also, like, what you’re using at the moment?

DR. MICHAEL: 

So When I did my laser fellowship, I trained under a dermatologist who used multiple platforms and multiple energy based devices. And one of them was Sciton, So when I finished the fellowship, I became an associate at different practices. And they used multiple energy based devices, including Candela, Cutera, Cryomed, all these other devices on the market. And it was a great experience to use all of them. They’re all great products.

But when I decided to open my own practice, I collated all that information I’d learned over the decade as an associate working with all those different laser companies. And I decided to buy a site on a platform machine. And It was because I’d used at least five to ten other devices, and I found that I was most comfortable with the machine. But first, they also have the technology that Sciton has continuously tried to improve, and that resonated well with me as a dermatologist. Mhmm.

TRISH: 

And so what technology do you have insight on your clinic? Because I’ve had a few treatments with you know, like I. I’m actually a little bit addicted to BBL HALO treatments. So what do you use in your clinic? Because I know that you’re not really like you’re more along the medical path because we’ve got, you know, you’ve got people that do medical and people do cosmetic, people do both, but you’re more focused on the medical like I’m saying. Can you tell us how that translates for us to still wanna look good?

Yes.

DR. MICHAEL: 

So I’m predominantly a procedural dermatologist. Focusing on medical concerns such as skin cancers, rosacea, and acne. So I’ll do someone’s skin check for example. I’ll detect the skin cancer. I will excise it under Mohs micrographic surgery.

And then I create them a scar. And then they’ll come back to me and we can approve that scar. And for a patient, when they look at their scar, it reminds them of their cancer. So I try to help them with that by using technologies that will soften this scar. So with the Sciton technologies, they have the Profractional Erbium Laser, which is a fantastic Laser.

To help soften scarring. Other medical problems that patients will present to me with acne and rosacea, we’ve got the fantastic broadband light platform, which now has come in the HEROic form. The high energy rapid output with intelligent control. And sounds very cliche. It’s a game changer for management with patients living with rosacea and acne.

And it’s a phenomenal energy based device.

TRISH:

There’s so many things I had a girlfriend years ago, and she had rosacea, and I remember saying to her, you know, you know, what are you using for it? Because I know you can’t do anything. So a lot of people don’t actually know that you can actually permanently fix rosacea. Is that right? Like, or do you have to like, is it a maintenance thing as well?

You have to Yeah. It would make sense, it would be, but is it?

DR. MICHAEL: 

That’s a very common remark I have with patients. Patients will be referred to me for management of rosacea. And These patients don’t realise we can manage it. We can’t cure it, but we can help manage your symptoms. And symptoms of generalised redness, the little bumps on the face.

We can manage that with creams. We also can manage it with energy based devices such as the vasculature, and the BBL. And it’s all about maintenance. We can’t cure it, but we do maintenance treatment. And the results that we get are pretty amazing with the current technologies that we can use with the Sciton platform.

TRISH:

Okay. And just one last question. So when it comes to skin, we’re not just talking about face. Are we? We’re talking about the whole body, hey, like, there’s this, like, this face is not the only place that we need to fix stuff.

Although it’s what we see.

DR. MICHAEL: 

The skin is the biggest organ in the body. It covers the face in every aspect of our body. So you’re absolutely right. The skin is everywhere. And it’s about promoting skin health at our practice, you know, promoting the best skin that you can potentially present with.

TRISH: 

Yep. And I know I said that was the last question, but let me ask you one more. So as a just a normal I don’t know if I’m normal, but as a normal person, would you recommend that, like, in Australia, we need to go and see someone on a regular basis for our skin because even me, like, I’m a Fitzpatrick IV. And I like to go and see a skin doctor every year. I know a lot of people that don’t even go and I’m actually quite dark and I don’t burn and you wouldn’t think I would get skin cancer, but I possibly could.

What would you recommend to someone who seems to have like as to what you should do to sort of like make sure that you’re, you know, that you’re keeping yourself safe because because I mean, I had an auntie years ago who was young and she died from a skin cancer and she didn’t even know she had it because she never ever had a check-in her life and she wasn’t even dark. Oh, sorry. She was fair, but she’d never even thought of it when, of course, it was too late. So but the average person, what would you say we need to do? Like, you need to go and align with someone and etcetera, etcetera.

Can you tell us about that?

DR. MICHAEL: 

Yeah. Unfortunately, we have the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world, Australia and New Zealand. And I would recommend having a skin check with the dermatologist, a qualified dermatologist, particularly if you have a family history. If there’s a family history of melanoma or non melanoma skin cancers, unfortunately, you’re at risk if you’ve inherited the skin type that puts you at risk. So having a skin check by a qualified dermatologist one to two years depending on how high risk you are, would be recommended.

TRISH: 

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And I know I said that that was my last question, but I’m gonna ask you one more. And so on that same point as well, like because I know a lot of people go to their GP for a skin check, and I’m a great believer that, you know, like, you do skin all day, so it just makes sense to go to a dermatologist in my mind. So you would say is that once a year or every six months?

Or does that depend or you would tell me as your dermatologist says?

DR. MICHAEL: 

So it depends on your risk. So your risk profile as to how often I would see you. So high risk patients would be seen more frequently, so if you’ve had multiple melanomas or non melanoma skin cancers, or if you’ve got a strong family history, I’d be seeing you more frequently than someone else who would not be as high risk.

TRISH: 

Amazing. And just to finish off off, tell us how we can find you. So if someone wants to come and see you, how can we find you? I know you’re at Queen’s Park, but what’s your website?

DR. MICHAEL:

Yes. So we’re located in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Our website is  layedermatology.com.au, and you can find us on that webpage.

TRISH: 

Wonderful. And that’s layedermatology.com.au

DR. MICHAEL:

layedermatology.com.au

TRISH: 

Oops. layedermatology.com.au .  Thank you so much for joining us today.

DR. MICHAEL: 

Perfect. Thanks for inviting me, Trish.