The renowned dermatologist and founder of EuroDerma Clinic has mastered to perfection the art of modern skin and beauty care

Dr Mariela Hitova is one of the most recognisable professionals in dermatology, aesthetic medicine and laser therapy in Bulgaria. She is qualified and internationally certified in many fields, and has won prizes in different areas of social and professional life. In 2013, she became one of the founders of EuroDerma Clinic in Sofia where she practises and manages the facility's activities in a smart and dedicated way.

What inspired you to choose dermatology as your vocation?

I admit that as a student I was considering a career in other fields of medicine. However, one incredible person and professional got me excited about dermatology. He showed me that skin is the most reactive and representative organ in the human body, that we have to respect it and that solving its mysteries requires a lot of inspiration, intuition and diverse and in-depth knowledge. This was how I learned that if "medicine is the greatest of all arts," according to Hippocrates's laws, then dermatology is its emanation. This was how our shared journey began.

Which of your personal qualities is key for your professional success, in your opinion?

My skill to listen to people, my empathy. My patients share their lives with me to a significant degree. With some of them we grow together, with others we share moments of joy, yet with third we grieve for the losses. This is why my patients include whole families and circles of friends. My relationship with them is on the plane of mutual connectivity regardless of the ever-changing factors in life that surround us. The mutual trust that we have built together through the years makes the foundation of my practice. It shows that the long hours I have spent in the office were not wasted, that the path of my life, even if sometimes winding, has led me in the right direction.

Why did you decide to establish EuroDerma?

Building a doctor's professional reputation is a long and uneven process. There are many factors outside of our control that can push us unexpectedly in our professional growth. In such moments the doctor has to be prepared to grab the chance. This is one of life's laws.

This is what happened to me. A moment came when I got the feeling that being the manager of a public healthcare facility in Sofia did not satisfy me anymore. Other people were making the important decisions, setting limitations and impossible requirements. While I was pondering the situation, I gradually found like-minded people with impeccable reputation in our field. With them, we shared the idea that no matter how hard it was to make it a reality, we had to offer on the rapidly developing healthcare services market a complete, wholesome product with indisputable quality and a future of success. We knew that it would take time, that patience and perseverance were needed. We started EuroDerma nevertheless and have never looked back. As a result, our efforts were repaid.

This year you celebrate EuroDerma's 10th anniversary. What is your recapitulation?

I dislike recapitulations, as they sound to me as if something is going to an end. But I can say that this was an intensive part of my life when I managed to achieve everything I wanted so far, and that I have a vision on how to continue in the future. What really matters to me is to continue working, to not settle down, to continue helping the professional growth of young colleagues who start now and crave support and opportunities. I am extremely happy that the blending of experience and wisdom of age with the youth's explorational spirit and enthusiasm happened so easily. Our young colleagues soak everything from us, the experienced ones. I also learn from them on a daily basis. Challenging one another is an incredible adventure, I am deeply thankful to fate that it chose me.

In the past 10 years, at EuroDerma we successfully established four centres unique for Bulgaria, and we are preparing to open two more. We became the only ISO certified private dermatological clinic and we are expecting the end of the accreditation evaluation by the end of February. It will open new opportunities and perspectives to us.

On what principle do you choose the high-tech solutions that you use in your work?

Medicine, along with the IT sector, is the most intensively developing field in modern global society. Bulgaria's market is oversaturated with medical technologies. Every day I am bombarded with presentations and advertisements for machines and products. For my practice, however, I choose only solutions that are tested, innovative and needed. It is always a pleasure to offer to your patients the best and to have the opportunity to give them quick solutions. I believe that the core of perfect work with high technologies is in the perfectly trained team. In-depth knowledge and proper experience are needed to achieve the desired results without risks for the patient and doubts in the physician. If you know the machine you are using well, you can do wonders with it. This is why changing your equipment too often is not a good practice. Upgrading your platforms is the better alternative.

What leads you when choosing the social causes that you support? Which of them affected you the most?

I became engaged in socially important activities and causes as soon as I started work. These were free medical examinations in distant places without specialised healthcare professionals and facilities. For me, this was excellent professional training, as I encountered a lot of pathologies, had to react quickly, and to deal with a variety of cases. From then on, it continued that way rather organically. Sometimes I join a cause spontaneously, when it is organised by friends supporting good causes, such as the Future for Bulgaria Foundation's initiative to buy trampolines for children suffering from mucoviscidosis. Other causes I sought deliberately, such as the lectures and talks to children in foster care or the educational programmes for imprisoned people.

There are other missions in my life (I do not need to list them all) that have left deep traces in my soul. It is a good thing that we can store all these emotions somewhere in the 85 percent of our brain that remain unexplored. They are often very painful.

During these initiatives I meet both a lot of new people and people I know who volunteer without seeking attention. Knowing that we are in the same universe, charged with goodness and humanity, makes me trully happy.