The Translational Educator

Listening to Dr. Victoria Werth lecture in dermatology is like taking a master class —one where you hang onto every word and commit to developing your career with as high a degree of intention as she has.

The DF’s 2022 Lifetime Career Educator Award recipient has had a purposeful approach to her 35-year career. She progressed from internal medicine to medical dermatology, rheumatologic dermatology, and autoimmune skin disease.

Her accomplishments are numerous. Among them: she has cofounded dermatology societies, held leadership roles in dermatology societies and organizations, she works diligently to build bridges across medical professions, she conducts research that identifies new treatments for patients. Yet her dedication to educating trainees on the importance of managing complex dermatologic diseases within the whole patient is her most significant contribution to the specialty, according to Women’s Dermatologic Society (WDS) members Kathy Schwarzenberger, MD, and Jean L. Bolognia, MD.

Students and conduits

Victoria Werth, MD, DF 20229 Lifetime Career Educator Award recipient in her laboratory at UPenn with Dr. Avital Baniel (left), postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Dermatology Tel Aviv Medical Center.

Dr. Werth believes education is inherent in caring for patients and research, its primary conduit. “Research and education go hand in hand,” she said, “and I want my mentees to see the importance of doing both clinical and translational research in autoimmune dermatology, both of which I think are badly needed.”

A passion for autoimmune disease is the magnet that drew her to teaching in what she asserts is “a fairly underdeveloped part of the field.” She encourages students to develop an interest in the specialty and to consider it a viable career choice.

Each year, Dr. Werth mentors two to three predoctoral fellows. During that time, they observe how she relates to her patients, some of whom have been in her care for several decades. In following Dr. Werth’s model for patient relationships, the fellows are privileged; they can understand the crucial role listening plays in defining a course of treatment.

Books and mentors

It isn’t often that a book influences one’s career path, yet precisely that is what happened when Dr. Werth read Dr. Irwin Braverman’s now classic reference text, Skin Signs of Systemic Disease (1971). She was an internist then, and Dr. Braverman’s treatise on diagnosing underlying skin diseases sparked her interest. “I was drawn to a field where I would think more systemically about patients, develop therapies, and manage them,” she said.

Dr. Werth trained under Dr. Irwin M. Freedberg, then chair of NYU’s dermatology department, with whom she shared an appreciation for the laboratory and investigation. He is recognized as an educator and dermatologist who advanced the study of the genetic foundation of skin, hair, and nails. “He provided an opportunity for me to do a post-doctoral fellowship at NYU in immuno-dermatology. As a result, I created one of the first translational research fellowships.”

When she met Dr. Andrew Franks, she worked in a basic science lab to develop her clinical expertise. He was a role model for the career she envisioned — an internist/dermatologist/rheumatologist. His mentorship led to a position at Bellevue Hospital, where her emphasis was managing patients with autoimmune diseases. It laid the groundwork for her vision as a researcher and educator.

Societies and bridges

Her vision — sharing knowledge, debating issues of concern, and advancing research –prompted her, Richard D. Sontheimer, MD, and Thomas T. Provost, MD, to cofound, in 1994, the Medical Dermatology Society (MDS). Drs. Sontheimer, Werth, and Provost established the MDS to foster interest and cooperative, patient-centered research in adult complex medical dermatology.

Ten years later, in 2006, Dr. Werth and Dr. Sontheimer, along with several others in rheumatologic dermatology, started the Rheumatologic Dermatology Society (RDS) for dermatologists who manage complex rheumatologic dermatology patients.

When she had completed her medical training, one of Dr. Werth’s mentors asked what she intended to do next. “I replied that I wanted to link centers together and get evidence for what we do in medical dermatology.”

She has been firm in this conviction.

Combined knowledge

Dr. Werth works with physicians outside her specialty whose expertise contributes to expanding knowledge of multi-systemic diseases. “It’s imperative to understand the full spectrum of our field,” said Dr. Werth.

One of her goals as an educator was to combine medical and dermatology programs at the University of Pennsylvania. She and Dr. Sontheimer developed a proposal and lobbied the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Dermatology for approval, which they received. Today, the combined five-year program is available in five locations across the US.

“We’re now linking centers where rheumatologists and dermatologists can work together—and it’s expanding this part of the field in dermatology:” possibly her most outstanding achievement thus far.

References

Introducing the Medical Dermatology Society, Richard D. Sontheimer M.D., Victoria Werth, M.D., Thomas T. Provost, M.D. Dermatology Online Journal: Volume 2 Number 1:8. 1996