Dr. Taub’s Summer/Fall Letter 2022
Dear patients, colleagues and friends,
Summer has come and is giving us a glorious respite from our usual bad weather – hopefully! My gorgeous and fragrant peonies bloom every year in the first week of June and did not disappoint. I spent 12 days in Morocco touring the country with my family in May, and it was a true cultural immersion. We traveled over 1500 miles and saw the countryside, including the Sahara desert, the Atlas mountains, many towns that were established in the 13th-17th centuries, nomadic tents, and huts. We took a cooking class on how to make tagine, the signature dish of Morocco, which is a complex stew with fish, meat, or chicken, with vegetables and sometimes almonds, prunes, figs, and/or couscous (making couscous from scratch is a VERY time-consuming project). We saw orchards of fig, date, and olive trees (their number one industry is agriculture), and fields of almond, pomegranate, alfalfa, wheat, and onions. We rode horses through villages and camels through the desert. The country is Muslim, but the original inhabitants were Amazigh, people from the mountains. Many Moroccans speak Arabic, Amazigh, and French I I got by with a teeny bit of remembered French, and it started to come back to me. Luckily, we had a guide who spoke all three languages, plus English. The experience is still marinating in my brain. I find these trips take a while to establish a permanent presence and enhance my perspective and worldview.
We purchased a lot of new equipment toward the end of last year. Why so much, you may ask Well, first is the Sofwave'”, a tissue tightening device that IS different from those we already have, like Thermage® and Ultherapy®. We have learned over the years which individual is best for which device, and this one is better for people with thinner skin and more superficial skin sagging. It doesn’t go as deep, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective The second is a new Q-switched device, which is used to zap sun spots, remove tattoos, and improve stubborn pigmentation. We wanted a second one so we could have a laser in both the Glencoe and Lincolnshire locations. It is a popular laser because so many people like getting their brown spots removed. Finally, The DermaV™ vascular laser (for blood vessels) offering some advances in difficult/stubborn vessels and rosacea. See below for details in a separate article on all three: Spectra'”, DermaV'” and Sofwave'”.
I left the best for last: our new Doctor will begin seeing patients in September! His name is Tushar Dabade, MD, and he has had excellent training: medical school at Mayo Clinic, residency at Tufts, and a recent Mohs fellowship with Dr. Ashish Bhatia, a wonderful colleague in Chicago. He also practiced for 3 years before deciding to pursue Mohs surgery. Wonderfully, he still loves medical dermatology and is Dr. Taub and her husband Jeff having fun also quite proficient in injectables and lasers, so he will be seeing all and wearing matching hats in Morocco! patients as well as performing surgery. Sadly, this means we will be saying goodbye to Dr. Morrow, who has been a truly talented surgeon on our staff since 2078. As the other practice she works for has grown and established more offices, Advanced Dermatology’s need for Mohs has also become greater than one morning per week. It was a mutually beneficial decision for all, and Dr. Morrow will be here through October to insure a smooth transition.
Like many other services, you may have noticed a slightly longer waiting time for appointments. This is due to the well-published lack of people to fill jobs. We want to assure you that we still prize service, efficiency, and excellent care over anything else. We have been busy hiring and trying to make sure we have enough people to serve you effectively. We are so proud of our pre-professional medical assistant program. You may not be aware of this, but we employ many young women and men who are college graduates planning to become doctors, physician assistants, and nurses. We have had so many fulfill their professional dreams after they leave us by completing their MD, PA, or RN degrees. My son was one of those, recently receiving his MD from the University of Illinois. Elana Block, Brianna Andrade, and Joty Mangat are all RNs on our staff who returned to Advanced Dermatology after completing their degrees, as well as Jessica Dooley, PA-C who was previously one of our Medical assistants. Have a wonderful summer and rest of the year,
Amy Forman Taub, MD, FAAD
And the Staff of Advanced Dermatology and skinfo® Specialty Skincare Boutique