Dermatology Professor Diya Mutasim Authors Two Books

In his youth, Diya Mutasim had aspirations of becoming many things—a doctor, a teacher, a writer among them. 

He is now all three.

That's because this year, professor Diya Mutasim, MD, an internationally renowned UC Health dermatologist on faculty at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, added "writer" to his list of accomplishments.

His first book, "Practical Skin Pathology" came out in March and a second, "Murida: Holding On To My Sister's Shadow," followed in April. Both are available for purchase on Amazon.com.

While the first book has a very specific audience—health care practitioners who might be asked by a patient about skin conditions—the second is far more personal in nature and chronicles the life and loss of his sister Murida to breast cancer.

"There is a vast difference between the Middle Eastern culture and how they respond and react to a fatal diagnosis," says Mutasim, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Arab parents who fled Palestine with his three older sisters.

"I'm happily surprised at how people are responding to it," he says of the story that follows "my lovely sister who died prematurely of undiagnosed breast cancer."

Mutasim attended medical school and a three-year dermatology residency at the American University in Beirut. He moved to the United States in in 1983 and served in a six-year residency and fellowship training in immunodermatology at Johns Hopkins University.

He arrived at the University of Cincinnati in 1990 and served as chair of the department of dermatology for 14 years. His research career highlight was the discovery of the ultrastructural location of the bullous pemphigoid antigen in the hemidesmosome. He has authored over 180 scientific publications.