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My View

Hiroshi Shimizu, MD, PhD
From the Department of Dermatology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.

Arch Dermatol. 2004;140:801-802.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

When I was a final-year medical student, in 1978, I told my mother that I had made the decision to become a dermatologist. She was very surprised and asked me to confirm what I had just said. "A dermatologist? Hiroshi, why a dermatologist? Dermatologists are doctors who just treat pimples and athlete's foot! Is there anything more that they do?" This good old memory led me to think about what dermatology was, and what changes it was undergoing. Over the last 25 years, dermatology has made dramatic and groundbreaking changes as treatment improved and greater understanding of basic research was gained.

My mother recently passed away and, incidentally, my first official work after her funeral was to give a specially invited lecture entitled "The Role of Dermatologists in the 21st Century." Its aim was to encourage young Japanese dermatologists to keep pursuing skin science and take . . . [Full Text of this Article]