Photo by Jeff Newton

DERMATOLOGY

Most people wouldn’t associate dermatology with slicing people open, but Dr. Kristine A. Romine sees things differently.
 
This dermatologist says she got into the field because of the surgery.

“Surgery is my love,” Romine says, seated in a waiting chair in the lobby of her practice. “It’s extremely gratifying because you can see immediate results. You don’t have to wait for lab tests; you don’t have to wait until the medicine works.”

Romine’s practice – Camelback Dermatology & Skin Surgery – specializes in the Mohs micrographic surgery, a special technique of removing skin cancer and checking surrounding skin for nearly invisible cancerous cells. In fact, Romine says approximately 60 percent of her patients come into her office for Mohs surgery.
 
But it’s not just the immediacy of surgery that Romine loves – it’s the art. When performing Mohs surgery on a patient, she cuts the cancerous skin cells out and takes a small layer of the surrounding skin. “The artwork,” she says, “comes in repairing the wound that was created by the skin cancer, whether it’s a graft or simply suturing the wounds back together.”

The other 40 percent of Romine’s practice is split between regular dermatology, like treating eczema and rashes, and cosmetic dermatology, like Botox injections.
 
“I really enjoy the cosmetic part,” Romine says. “There is really a huge demand for it.”

Romine, a Phoenix native, always knew she wanted to be a doctor. “I always thought I wanted to be a pediatrician,” she says. “But when I went to medical school, I realized that it was difficult to see children and tiny babies that were very sick.”

While a resident at Good Samaritan Hospital, Romine switched her interest to internal medicine – the study of adult patients, which, she says, “proves to be a solid foundation for a lot of specialties.”
 
Romine says she chose dermatology as a specialty partly because it fit her lifestyle as a wife and mother of four children.
 
“It was a better lifestyle for a mom than to do something like cardiology or general surgery, things that would require lots of late nights or being on call,” she says.
 
Instead of spending her days in a bustling hospital, Romine balances her practice and her home life with teaching children skin safety through SunWise, a state-mandated program.
 
“I teach them how they can protect themselves from something they are exposed to every single day,” she says. “Knowing that they need to protect their skin in this state; we have such a high incidence of skin cancer.
“That is my passion – educating them.”

Whether she’s performing surgery or working with children, Romine’s rule is simple: She treats her patients as she would want to be treated.

“The golden rule – it’s an old rule, but I think it’s a good one,” she says. “We want every patient who leaves here to be satisfied.”