Skin disease specialist Kirsi Isoherranen is an expert in wound care and skin cancers, but also treats a variety of other skin diseases. Kirsi is a doctor whose heart lies in helping people; together with the encouragement of people close to her, this sense of calling made her want to study medicine. On the other hand, her doctorate on the effects of UV radiation on the skin got her interested in skin diseases.
“Skin diseases are extremely interesting as a field, because there are a huge number of diagnoses and the patient must be treated holistically. I like the fact that patients are genuinely treated, with visible results. I like the visual aspects of my work and working with my hands, in fact surgery is a kind of art form. A doctor is never ‘ready’, you can always get better.”
Kirsi’s day job is at the Skin and Allergy Hospital, where she works as a chief specialist in dermatology in the recently established Wound Centre. She is known as a calm and empathic doctor whose patients have the chance to explain in detail what their problem is. Her guiding principle is the idea of lifelong learning: the field of dermatology is developing all the time and it is important to keep up with the latest changes. This is the only way of becoming a better doctor and learning to provide better help for patients.
