DR MELISSA K LEVIN

Standing Voice Skin Cancer Advisory Committee Member

By Standing Voice

February 14^th, 2020

Dr Melissa Kanchanapoomi Levin grew up in a house dedicated to medicine, so it’s no wonder she is now a leading, board-certified dermatologist with her own private practice, Entière Dermatology, in New York City. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, a clinical instructor at New York University (NYU) Langone in the Department of Dermatology, and a member of Standing Voice’s Skin Cancer Advisory Committee.

With a commitment to the education and training of dermatologists, Dr Levin trains resident dermatologists weekly, serves as a reviewer for numerous medical journals, performs clinical research trials, and regularly lectures at national and international professional meetings. She plays a leading role in Standing Voice’s contributions to research and training in skin cancer prevention for people with albinism.

Discover her story below.

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I’ve been around medicine all my life. I grew up with parents who are both physicians, working with them in the practice they started together and volunteering my afternoons assisting patients and doing paperwork. Medicine was more than a job for my parents. It was a calling of service to our community, which I was privileged enough to witness at a young age. Every summer, we would return to Thailand, my parents’ home country, to do medical mission work, and eventually we moved there when I was 9. That’s when I first experienced what medical missions can really do for a community. I spent my formative years being exposed to global health work and working with patients who were HIV positive. I always knew that medicine would ultimately be the route I would take.

During my research in a dermatology focused immunology lab during my premedical studies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), I began to develop an interest in dermatology. My medical mentor invited me to volunteer at a camp she had developed in Northern California for children with skin conditions, such as the extremely rare genetic condition epidermolysis bullosa. The main purpose of the camp was to give these children a chance at a ‘normal’ childhood experience. Volunteering there demonstrated how severe skin conditions can have a lasting impact on a child’s life, especially those at such a young age.

After completing my clinical year of medical school at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), I decided to take a year off to perform clinical research. I assumed I would go back to Southeast Asia and study infectious diseases in Thailand. Instead, fast-forward a year and I was working in Uganda, trialling treatment regimens for Kaposi’s Sarcoma. This was a pivotal year for me both personally and professionally, as it was a culmination of the global health work I had done growing up, during university, and at medical school. It was also while I was in Uganda that I was first exposed to patients with albinism in sub-Saharan Africa.

I encountered albinism in Africa once again when I was in my last year of dermatology residency, spending a month in Botswana working as a solo dermatologist in a public hospital. By the time I had completed my medical training and gone into private practice, I knew I wanted to do more than just practise medicine. I wanted to work with organisations focused on developing the capacity of local clinicians in low-resource settings. I reached out to Claire Fuller, the Chair of the International Foundation for Dermatology, who simply said “I have the perfect organisation for you”. From this conversation, my journey with Standing Voice began and I was soon visiting Tanzania, working with Drs Sharp and Mavura to conduct the first surgical training workshop in Standing Voice's Skin Cancer Prevention Programme. Sometimes it’s just meant to be with certain connections that you make!

As a member of the Standing Voice Skin Cancer Advisory Committee, my main focus is training local dermatologists to enforce and strengthen their clinical skills of diagnosis, in particular in recognising non-melanoma skin cancers. I’ve always loved training dermatologists, whether they’re residents at New York University or the local dermatologists in Tanzania: for me, when you focus your time on teaching, you’re able to convert your efforts into a larger impact for multiple patients. Whenever I return to Tanzania, it's exciting to witness the improvement in the clinicians’ skills, which in turn develops the clinicians' confidence and pride in their knowledge base and surgical skills. Ultimately, the improvement of patient care with patients continually returning to the clinics year after year is testament to the clinicians and to Standing Voice, who has invested so much in the development of these dermatologists’ careers. Seeing the transformative clinical practice and higher quality dermatologic care is incredibly special.

Two years ago, I started my dermatology practice in Manhattan. I now have the opportunity to build something I’ve always wanted to: to create a corporate social programme with a charity aligned to my philosophy and medical practice. There is a real lack of medical practices, particularly small boutique practices, that make sustainable relationships with charities for a social cause. For me, it is the responsibility of business owners, especially physician business owners, to make meaningful relationships with organisations working to drive social change for advancing healthcare. Involving our patients and the Entière Dermatology team in the fight to deliver high-quality dermatologic care for persons in albinism with Standing Voice is empowering and impactful.