Tackling rare conditions: the consultant dermatologist

Edel O’Toole’s love of dermatology comes from a desire to help all patients with any skin condition—no matter how rare. “Recently an older patient presented with a rare disorder—he had had pain in his feet his whole life. I prescribed the drug erlotinib and his pain went away within 24 hours, which was miraculous,” she says.Working in dermatology means being able to help most patients get better, which results in high job satisfaction, says O’Toole, a professor of molecular dermatology at Queen Mary University of London and honorary consultant dermatologist at Barts Health NHS Trust.She enjoys the variety within the specialty. “You could be doing surgery, looking at pathology slides, or treating a child with severe eczema,” she says. “One of my clinical interests is paediatric dermatology, and treatment for eczema in children can be transformative.” There is also a lot to learn about the specialty, she says. “With more…
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