Unity: Our guiding principle

By Seemal R. Desai, MD, FAAD, October 1, 2024

Dear members,

Last month, I attended — along with many of our fellow members —the AADA’s Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Fighting for our specialty and for our members is one of the Academy’s most important responsibilities, and I’m proud to lead our team of members and expert professionals who can speak directly to our nation’s lawmakers to ensure a bright future for dermatology.

I want to make it very clear: The single federal legislative priority for the Academy is Medicare physician payment. I know that this is an extremely important issue for our members, because it affects our livelihoods! As your president, I have been keenly focused on this issue. I advocated for it not just during the Legislative Conference, but also by giving direct testimony during a congressional hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee back in May, and during visits to the White House and to members of Congress in July.

I have taken the responsibility you have given me as your president to advocate and fight on behalf of every single one of you, and I will not stop doing so, even after my term has concluded.

This month, I’ll be meeting with the AAD’s Scientific Assembly Committee where we will plan the speakers and sessions for the 2025 Innovation Academy in Chicago in June. I will attend the Nevada Society for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, the American Dermatological Association, and several other meetings where I’ll provide an update on the Academy state of affairs. While the Academy is the largest dermatologic society in the country, there is still room to include smaller sister societies. I would go so far as to say that not doing so would be detrimental to our specialty. One of my many goals during my presidency is to ensure unity among dermatology, and that includes a working relationship with all smaller state and local societies, all of which have the same goal as the Academy: to foster the growth of dermatology into the future.

Finally, in October, I’ll be participating in the 2024 Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference, where I will be presenting a session on managing vitiligo, a condition that I have a personal connection to because my brother has it. I have specialized in vitiligo for the majority of my career, and I look forward to sharing ways it can be treated in 2024 and beyond. Please stop by if you’re able!

Let the unity of our specialty be our guiding principle! Until next time, all my best,

Seemal

Presidential spotlight

Every month I have the privilege of honoring one of our members who goes above and beyond in service of our specialty in multiple different ways.

It is therefore my pleasure this month to honor the late James J. Nordlund, MD, FAAD, as our AAD Presidential Spotlight.

Dr. Nordlund obtained his medical degree from the University of Minnesota and did his residency in internal medicine at Duke University, followed by residency in internal medicine and dermatology at Yale University, where he was mentored by, and collaborated with, the late Dr. Aaron B. Lerner. Dr. Nordlund was an attending dermatologist at Yale University for 14 years prior to taking the position of chair of the dermatology department at the University of Cincinnati in 1983. Jim was the author of over 350 articles and was the editor of several books and monographs, the best known of which to the pigment cell community is The Pigmentary System, which he co-edited with Vincent Hearing, PhD, Richard King, MD, and Raymond Boissy, PhD.

Speaking of ground-breaking, he was a founding father and leader in establishing the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research, serving as its first president. This is in addition to his distinguished role as a major figure in the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies. His scientific work and truly collaborative spirit helped with incredible discoveries including signaling pathways that regulate melanocyte function and proliferation, mechanisms of melanocyte senescence, function of TYRP-1 as a melanogenic enzyme, and TYRP-1 gene in oculocutaneous albinism, and response of melanocytes to ultraviolet radiation. He was the first to introduce the concept of crosstalk between skin cells, and paracrine regulation of melanocytes, and led the cutaneous immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory role of α-MSH.

Dr. Nordlund epitomized the words mentoring, teaching, philanthropy, and leadership. In fact, he had so much dedication and commitment to advancing work in pigmentary diseases that he took a year sabbatical in 1998 to Moshi, Tanzania, at the Regional Dermatology Training Centre, where he trained physicians and treated patients — in particular, in service to those patients with albinism and under recognized skin diseases in Africa.

But for me, what is most important to share about Dr. Nordlund is how he represents my own first personal exposure to how life-changing a dermatologist can be in a patient’s life. In the 1980s, when my younger brother was diagnosed with vitiligo, Jim was the only vitiligo specialist in the country. My family would make multiple long treks from our home in Georgia to Cincinnati to seek treatment, guidance, and advice on my brother’s condition with Dr. Nordlund. My own dear late father spent countless hours researching who was the best, most knowledgeable, and most advanced in their vitiligo research. Now remember, this was before the days of the internet, Google, doctor reviews, and online PubMed. I remember my dad going to the library and researching vitiligo papers and finding Dr. Nordlund’s name in multiple places, ultimately leading him to establish care for my brother in Ohio.

Over the years, Dr. Nordlund not only became our family dermatologist, but a member of our personal family in our eyes. In fact, he was so proud and surprised when we reconnected at my first AAD meeting in Washington, D.C., as a dermatology resident, and he saw my brother and I after so many years. In fact, he and his late wife Mary, along with his long-time nurse Phyllis, all attended my brother’s wedding outside of Washington, D.C., in 2013. He and I connected many times at meetings of the AAD, the Noah Worcester Dermatological Society, and others over the years, but I know how much a toll losing his dear wife Mary took on him. I think of Jim often and miss him dearly. He represented the absolute best of dermatology, the best of medicine, and the best of caring for your patients as if they are your own family. And now that I am a practicing dermatologist who specializes in pigmentary disorders, I hope that I too can play a part in carrying on his legacy. I wish he could have seen me become president of the AAD, but certainly hope I have made him proud. Most importantly, I want to say THANK YOU, JIM. You are someone who helped mold my journey to becoming a dermatologist, and it is my absolute honor and privilege to posthumously honor you as this month’s AAD Presidential Spotlight!

Additional DermWorld Resources