"Speaking of Vitiligo..."

The Vitiligo Clinic at the UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) is growing, with more and more patients calling to schedule appointments with us from all over the country, and all over the world. With only my single vitiligo clinic on Tuesday afternoons, the wait to get an appointment in our Clinic is 6 months or more. In addition, we are now officially offering the Melanocyte Keratinocyte Transplant Procedure (MKTP) for patients with stable vitiligo, and represent one of only 3 or 4 centers in the country that offers this treatment. We also added excimer laser treatment for our patients, so we knew we needed to expand the clinic to accommodate all of the vitiligo patients who wanted our help. And so I am excited to formally announce the addition of three new doctors to the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center!

Dr. Laura Houk, MD will be seeing patients with vitiligo on Mondays, eventually increasing the number of dedicated vitiligo clinics for our patients from 1 to 3. In these clinics Dr. Houk will be offering treatment with excimer laser in addition to standard medical treatments. Dr. Houk graduated with a BA in French from Williams College, and then attended medical school at Drexel University College of Medicine, graduating as Valedictorian of her class. She completed her dermatology residency, serving as Chief Resident in her senior year, as well as a fellowship in dermatopathology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. She has been treating dermatology patients for over 7 years, and takes great care of them! We are excited to add Dr. Houk to our Center, and thus triple the number of dedicated clinic appointments for vitiligo patients.

Dr. Dori Goldberg, MD is not completely new to the Center, as she started treating vitiligo patients using MKTP about 2 years ago. Now after many successful procedures, Dr. Goldberg will be formally offering MKTP through the Procedural Vitiligo Clinic in the Vitiligo Center at UMass Chan. Dr. Goldberg obtained a BS in neuroscience at Brandeis University, received her MD and finished her dermatology residency right here at UMass Chan, and then completed a surgical fellowship here as well. When she’s not performing MKTP on vitiligo patients, she is removing skin cancers through Mohs micrographic surgery and performing cosmetic procedures. She has been taking care of surgical dermatology patients at UMass Chan for almost 15 years.

Dr. Bassel Mahmoud, MD, PhD recently joined the Dermatology Department at UMass Chan, and will also be offering MKTP for vitiligo patients in the Procedural Vitiligo Clinic. Dr. Mahmoud obtained his undergraduate, masters degree, and PhD at Ain-Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. He completed a 2-year photodermatology fellowship and then his dermatology residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI, and his surgical dermatology fellowship at Lahey Clinic, part of Harvard Medical School. He recently returned to the US after 2 years in Cairo, where he rose through the ranks to full Professor of Dermatology at Ain-Shams University. Like Dr. Goldberg, he also surgically treats patients with skin cancers.

With the addition of Dr. Houk, Dr. Goldberg, and Dr. Mahmoud to the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Chan, we will triple the number of dedicated clinic appointment for patients with vitiligo, open new spots for excimer laser therapy, and more than double the number of MKTP treatment opportunities for patients with stable vitiligo. We’re growing fast, and doing so will allow us to help even more patients with vitiligo!