Teaching Facial Plastic Surgery, 2011

doctors performing surgery

I trained as a surgeon with the top experts in the field during my residency and fellowship and even today to enhance my practice offerings.  Yet, I find myself writing more and more these days. I just completed updating the content on my website at http://www.mdface.com/blog/ and am in the process of creating a new website that will be devoted entirely to the topic of revision rhinoplasty. I have vowed to update my blogs regularly to provide helpful and interesting information to my patients, and have become an active medical expert on http://www.realself.com/ to answer consumers’ questions about facial plastic surgery procedures.  These answers are also posted to my Twitter account, which you are invited to follow @DrPearlman.  As for my offline activities, I teach facial plastic surgery to residents from Columbia University and have a post residency fellow currently in my practice.  I also present regularly on facial plastic surgery, including primary and revision rhinoplasty at meetings held by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

I am a firm believer that teaching helps me reach more patients than I can actually touch.  In fact, one of the oldest definitions of physician is teacher.  Residents and fellows seek out information from many sources. In order to be a useful resource for residents and fellows, it is important that I stay ahead of the game in terms of patient education and advances in the field.  Last, but certainly not least, I firmly believe it is my responsibility to educate consumers. We are in an era of information, sometimes more information that we know what to do with. Patients should be educated about treatment options available to them as well as detailed information about the procedure(s) they are interested in, including the expected results and recovery time, whether the procedure is surgical or applied.  An informed patient is the best kind of patient.  If you have any questions related to this blog or would like to make a comment, I welcome you to do so.