Beyond Digital | Field Trips 

Harrison Dermatology

Harrison Dermatology, nestled in Missouri City, serves patients from all walks of life: treating skin cancer, acne, dermatitis, and offering laser hair removal and skin treatments. LongitudeSite visited Harrison Dermatology, a clinic led by Dr. Harrison Nguyen, to learn more about Mohs surgery and what it takes to run a dermatology practice.

Upon entering, Diane Trinh Nguyen, the research and office manager and Mohs histology technician, brought us to her lab where she processes the excised skin cancers into slides for Dr. Nguyen to read. It was amazing to see the process. After Dr. Nguyen performs surgery on his patient to remove their skin cancer, it is immediately brought into the lab. Then, Diane stains the skin and freezes it. Afterwards, the skin is thinly sliced and placed onto slides that are dipped into staining solutions. Then, Dr. Nguyen goes to the lab and reads the slides to look for any remaining skin cancer. If the cancer remains, then Dr. Nguyen continues performing surgery on the patient to remove more skin.

While that assessment process takes place, the patient is free to do whatever they want. Their wound is not stitched up until it is confirmed that no skin cancer remains, so the area will be wrapped up in gauze. Then, they can choose to sit in the waiting room or go get food in the area. This really surprised me because I can’t think of any other surgery where you are able to leave the doctor’s office during the procedure.

After we got to observe demonstration of slide preparation, we met another staff member who works on the clinical research side of the practice. Harrison Dermatology runs multiple clinical trials, and his staff is all very interested in advancing treatment of dermatological issues. The clinical researcher shared that they were recently chosen for another clinical trial, and she was extremely enthusiastic about the new research they would conduct.

Later, Dr. Nguyen answered our questions about dermatology. He shared the importance of sunscreen in preventing a myriad of dermatological issues such as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, melasma, and sunspots. However, he also shared that not all skin cancers are associated with UV exposure, so the risk of skin cancer is different depending on the ethnic and racial groups.

As we prepared to leave, Diane made goodie bags of skincare samples for us to take home. The entire staff was extremely kind and knowledgeable, educating us on the importance of sunscreen. In the goodie bag, Diane made sure to leave us some sunscreen, reminding us to wear it every day.