Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Gabriel Martinez-Diaz.
MD Aesthetics and Dermatology, LLC, founded in 2017 by Dr. Diaz, MD, FAAD, a Stanford University trained board-certified dermatologist.
Originally from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Dr. Martinez-Diaz is the middle of 5 children. Growing up, he envisioned a future as a veterinarian because his grandmother with only a 2nd grade of education care for numerous animals in her backyard. His first job in high school was selling Avon Products. He enjoyed getting to know the neighborhood and his clients by selling beauty, household, and personal care categories. He left the Island in 1999 in the pursuit of higher education the States. During college, he became fascinated by the ability to design new products and use his creativity to create new things. This led him to pursue and complete his Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He admits that while being a “Badger”, he focused too much on school, and very little on football games or partying, and managed to graduate without ever going to a football game. Shortly after a summer internship in “Corporate America” Dr. Martinez-Diaz realized that being an engineer was not his ideal “fit”. He stumbled upon a volunteer position in a busy city based county hospital which exposed him to a career of medicine. Wanting to make sure that becoming a physician was the only thing he would want to do, he took time to pursue his passions in education and biomedical research, prior to getting accepted to his “dream” school – Stanford University School of Medicine.
He started medical school with a desire to become an orthopedic surgeon, namely after having spent a year completing tissue engineering research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, prior to moving to Palo Alto, California. He loved the flexibility and freedom that Stanford gave their medical students. By now, Dr. Martinez-Diaz realized that he did best always thinking outside of the box, and creating his own path. It was no surprise that during medical school, Dr. Martinez-Diaz enjoyed volunteering at the student run free clinics, taught an undergraduate biology laboratory, and enjoying life on the “farm” and Northern California.
Convinced that he loved bones, cartilage and surgery, he took a year off from medical school at Stanford, and moved to San Francisco to complete a highly sought-after Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship. During his year working as a research fellow, he once again stumbled upon working alongside dermatologists in his interdisciplinary research for surgical site infection prevention. After realizing that fixing fractures and repairing damaged joints was not in his long-term plans, he decided to pursue a new passion for dermatology. What attracted him them most to the field of dermatology was the ability to work with patients from all ages, genders, and with different problems. Dr. Martinez-Diaz loved the ability to use his creative brain to address medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology concerns. Fortunately, upon returning back to Stanford to complete his last two years of medical school, he was supported by one of the strongest academic dermatology departments in the country. Dr. Martinez-Diaz had his first exposure to living in Chicago, IL during the winter of 2009, while he rotated as a visiting medical student in pediatric dermatology at Lurie Children’s Hospital. He loved winter so much that prompted him to seek his internship year at Hennepin County in Minneapolis, MN – the hospital where he discovered his desire to become a physician. After a brief one year in the twin cities, he relocated to Pittsburgh, where he completed his dermatology residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
While in Pittsburgh, Dr. Martinez-Diaz received ample training in all the different aspects included in the specialty of dermatology – medical, surgical, oncology, cosmetic and aesthetic medicine, pediatric dermatology and dermatopathology. He managed to one more time avoid going to any football games, and not become a Steelers fan. He cherished his time at UPMC because of the large number and the diverse complexity of patients that he cared for as a resident prepared to enter private practice. Shortly after completing his dermatology residency, Dr. Martinez-Diaz was able to have his second stint of living in Chicago, this time doing a rotation in Westchester, IL, under world renown pediatric dermatologic surgeon, Dr. Annette Wagner.
Dr. Martinez-Diaz accepted his first job for a large dermatology practice in Atlanta where he quickly learned that his Puerto Rican sass and West coast mindset were not truly a fit for the Southern living. While in Atlanta, he met his best friend, a Chicago native, who shortly upon meeting him challenged Dr. Martinez-Diaz to consider moving to Chicago. Two weeks later he flew to Chicago and was interviewing for a job in the Northshore. He relocated to the River North area predominantly to be closer to the highway and loved living in this area for his first two years of Chicago. He commuted to the Northshore for a year, and became quickly familiar with those communities. After his second attempt at being employed by a dermatologist, he started to question if either he was a terrible employee and could not keep his mouth shut, or he was perhaps better fitted to be his own boss. Dr. Martinez-Diaz decided to take a hiatus from being an “employee” and jumped the gun and worked as an independent contractor for six different practices. He became a “traveling dermatologist” where he went and practice dermatology in areas with short term needs – traveling all the way to Southern and Central IL, and even Alabama. He had the opportunity to run solo practices and worked alongside numerous practice settings all in short term intervals. Anxious to get back to living in Chicago, Dr. Martinez-Diaz one last time to be an employee and again he quickly realized that being someone’s employee was just not going to work out. Against his fears of becoming a business owner and with his inability to seem to make it past several months being an employee, he jumped the gun and decided to open his own aesthetics and dermatology practice.
M D Aesthetics and Dermatology was developed as a boutique dermatology practice. They aim to provide innovative, comprehensive yet efficient and highest quality dermatologic and aesthetic skin care for patients of all ages. The practice is housed on 1021 W. Adams St. LL # 1, Chicago, IL 60607, in the up and coming West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. Their practice occupies space in a building with a long Chicago based history which was designed and built by William LeBaron Jenney, an American architect and engineer known for building the first skyscraper in 1884 and becoming the Father of the American skyscraper. Amidst luxe lofts and chic retail boutiques, former warehouse and factory buildings grace the street of Chicago’s West Loop. M D Aesthetics and Dermatology was designed to derive inspiration from these contrasting surroundings, blending of the industrial scene with the creative edginess and vibrancy that has flourished in the neighborhood – creating an industrial chic setting for an Aesthetics & Dermatology practice in a diverse city.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Finding the “perfect” location for the practice in such an evolving neighborhood – West Loop – took some time. Initially I worked with a realtor who was based in the suburbs, and after my first location felt through, I decided to revamp my search and hire a new realtor group. Obviously with a set back of a number of months, my desired open date got delayed. But, as life always has it and the adage of “things happen for a reason”, a better location showed up. In hindsight, as a new business owner, from the moment to conception of the business to opening, it was been closer to over a year. Working with realtors, building owners, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, bankers has been a steep learning curve. When I used to perseverate about selecting the wrong answer in a multiple choice exam, now I dwell on business decisions and how much making the “wrong” decision will affect the success of my practice and business.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the M D Aesthetics and Dermatology story. Tell us more about the business.
Dr. Martinez-Diaz, as as a board-certified dermatologist and the owner of MD Aesthetics and Dermatologist, is a premier medical specialist trained to treat skin and soft tissue in both medically necessary and cosmetic surgical and non-surgical methods. Using the skin as the “window” to the body, he is able to provide the forefront of cosmetic treatments and corrections in a suitable, yet natural manner. Throughout his career as a dermatologist, Dr. Martinez-Diaz has developed a niche for cosmetic dermatology. With an interest in procedural dermatology, Dr. Martinez-Diaz is an expert in performing a wide range of treatments and procedures to treat the health, function and beauty of skin throughout every stage of life. Dr. Martinez-Diaz sees patients of all ages with any medically relevant skin care problems – acne, rashes, growths, skin cancer surveillance and treatment, and provides general dermatology surgery (adult and pediatric) and skin cancer surgical treatments, including Mohs Microscopic Surgery.
Ultimately what sets Dr. Martinez-Diaz’s apart is his affable personality, personal and transparent approach to dermatologic issues and treatment options, and comprehensive yet creative nature in designing care for all of his patients. As a leader in the dermatologic community, he is most proud of his commitment towards patient care in providing high quality, efficient and compassionate care to all of his patients.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Despite having gone through challenging times, in all of my previous adventures, every single experience has taught me a good amount about myself, what kind of physician I am, what kind of “boss” I would love to become and what qualities are essential to develop in your team and group of employees to keep them engaged. I consider myself fortunate to have had numerous lessons and welcome the ones that will present themselves in the new journey as MD Aesthetics and Dermatology takes off.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1021 W. Adams St. LL #1
Chicago, IL 60607 - Website: http://www.mdaestheticsderm.com/
- Phone: (312) 579-0700
- Email: info@mdaestheticsderm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gj_md/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drgjmd
- Twitter: https://www.yelp.com/biz/m-d-aesthetics-and-dermatology-chicago
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gabriel-j-martinez-diaz-md-hoffman-estates
- Other: https://www.realself.com/find/Illinois/Chicago/Dermatologic-Surgeon/Gabriel-Martinez-Diaz
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