Dan
Welcome, Dr. Goodheart.
Could you tell me a little bit about your background?

Dr. Goodheart
I’m a dermatologist. Just to let your audience know, dermatologists are doctors that take care of the skin. And we take care of disorders anywhere from acne to skin cancers but we also care for hair and nails as well.

Dan
A question that I have is when you’re teaching dermatology or when a student is learning to become a dermatologist, how much time do they spend learning about acne versus skin cancer or other skin diseases?

Dr. Goodheart
Not enough, frankly. There’s a real paucity of education when it comes … because acne is a very complicated disease, believe it or not … or skin condition … I don’t know if you would call it a disease but for some people it is because it can be devastating. I think there’s a real need for more teaching of how to deal with acne, especially on the psychological level.

Dan
If you had to boil down your best advice into three points what would they be?

Dr. Goodheart
As far as advice, one of the things I tell most of my patients when their acne is relatively mild: I think the best product they can use is benzoyl peroxide. I think that’s a given. I think we all know that. All dermatologists know that. The other thing is: I try to control acne, if possible, with topical therapy alone, and try to avoid systemic medications. The third thing is: just make them feel better about themselves.

Dan
Where do you see research going in the future?

Dr. Goodheart
Right now, there’s this whole tendency to look for alternatives to oral antibiotics, and even accutane if possible. We’re looking into light therapy: be it laser, or pulse dye laser, or different types of light therapy. So far the results are mixed, at best, and I’m not that enthusiastic about it, yet. Until we find the right laser, the right type of light to deliver, it becomes very expensive, people have to come back for many, many visits, and it’s not covered by insurance for the most part. So very few people are really doing this unless they have no other alternative or could afford it.

Dan
What I hope to do with Acne.org is to gather the information and the intelligence of the medical community and the general population and … I’d like to get rid of acne … I was hoping to hear from you that research is so promising and there’s things right around the corner.

Dr. Goodheart
There’s wonderful research. We have wonderful research organizations within dermatology: something called the Leader’s Society, the Dermatology Foundation … a lot of money is being poured into that for research … just like we have the Psoriasis Foundation … there is a lot of research and there’s some wonderful experts on acne who are out there really doing a lot of work and a lot of clinical trials … quite a bit of hope.

Dr. Goodheart’s web site