Dr. Flávia Cury Rezende: Excellence Doesn’t Happen by Chance
- Evely Oliveira
- 3 hours ago
- 9 min read
'BUSINESS' EDITION COVER - AUGUST 2026 ISSUE
Before becoming the dermatologist we know today, there was a girl who had to earn every step of her journey through extensive study, hard work, and a discipline that was difficult to negotiate. The position she holds today did not come from a quick path. It was built gradually, through books, hospital shifts, exams, and a routine that, during her preparation for residency, included as many as ten hours of studying a day.
Before choosing Dermatology, Flávia decided to pursue Internal Medicine at the Hospital das Clínicas of the University of São Paulo School of Medicine (FMUSP). The experience broadened the way she sees patients and continues to shape the physician she is today. The skin has never ceased to be her focus, but she came to see it as part of an entire organism rather than in isolation.
Dr. Flávia Cury Rezende is a dermatologist who graduated from the ABC Medical School, with a residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital das Clínicas of FMUSP. She is board-certified in Dermatology by the Brazilian Medical Association and the Brazilian Society of Dermatology, is a full member of the SBD, and has also contributed to the training of new professionals as a preceptor in Clinical Research in Cosmiatry and at the FMABC psoriasis and biologics outpatient clinic.
Her credentials help tell the story of her career, but they do not fully explain who she is. There is an idea that repeatedly emerges when she talks about her profession and that, in a way, shapes the way she works: studying was never simply a requirement for advancing in Medicine. It has always been a way of showing respect for the person sitting on the other side of the consultation.
“Studying is not just a detail. Studying is taking responsibility for others.”
The sentence summarizes a conviction she has carried into her practice for more than a decade. For Flávia, knowledge is not merely a professional advantage. It is an obligation for anyone who has chosen to care for people. Perhaps that is why continuing education still occupies such an important place in her routine, even after completing medical school, residency, and establishing her career.
This perspective also shapes the way she approaches aesthetic Dermatology.
At a time when procedures have gained increasing visibility on social media and immediate results often receive more attention than proper diagnoses, Flávia prefers to begin with a different question: what truly makes sense for this particular patient?
For her, caring for one’s appearance does not mean transforming someone into another person. It means understanding what bothers them, identifying what can be improved, and respecting the qualities that make each face unique. When properly approached, aesthetics does not erase identities.
It follows the story of the person sitting in front of her.
There is an important difference between performing a procedure and knowing when it should — or should not — be recommended. It is within that space that clinical judgment, experience, and the sense of responsibility she considers essential to the specialty come into play.
Those who work closely with Flávia often describe a defining characteristic of her professional personality: perfectionism. She agrees, but with one caveat. In Medicine, striving for the best possible outcome can never mean crossing the boundaries of safety. For her, a successful result must exist within a balance of technique, knowledge, and prudence.
Over the years, her career has gone through different phases. FC Dermatologia represents an important chapter in that journey and is part of the story that established her name within the specialty. Today, she is experiencing a new professional chapter, without giving up what she considers essential: continuing to study, refining her clinical eye, and welcoming every patient with the same level of care that guided her from the beginning of her career.
When she looks back, the recognition she has achieved seems to be the consequence of a process much greater than titles or well-executed procedures. It comes from consistency — from years devoted to study, experience accumulated through clinical practice, and the daily decision to do better than she did the day before.
Perhaps this is the best way to understand her story: not as the journey of a dermatologist who has reached a point of excellence, but as that of a physician who continues to regard learning as an inseparable part of her profession.
It is this journey, what Medicine demands of those who choose to practice it, and the woman behind the dermatologist that Dr. Flávia Cury Rezende discusses in this interview.
1. Before becoming a dermatologist, there was a girl who had to earn every step of her journey through hard work. You studied for hours to get into residency and built your training step by step. What did that girl have that you made sure never to lose over the years?
I think that girl had, above all, determination. Since medical school, I had dreamed of becoming a dermatologist, and I learned very early on that wanting it was not enough to make it happen. I had to work, study, and persevere.
I even taught English to save money, and I spent years studying for many hours a day until I was able to get into residency. I completed two years of Internal Medicine before Dermatology and then another three years of residency, during which I also became pregnant. It was an extremely intense period, but it taught me a great deal.
Today, looking back, I realize that the path we imagine for ourselves is not always the path life has in store for us. For me, having faith means trusting that life holds unexpected outcomes, but that we also have to do our part. Many times, God guides us along paths that are more beautiful and fulfilling than anything our minds could ever have imagined.
2. Your training began in Internal Medicine at the Hospital das Clínicas, before you went on to specialize in Dermatology. How did those years change the way you see a patient today?
Internal Medicine gave me a medical foundation that I consider fundamental, but perhaps the greatest legacy of those two years is not exactly what I use theoretically in my day-to-day practice. It is the knowledge, the experiences, and everything I learned there.Those were two very intense years, spent at one of the largest hospitals in the country, where I interacted daily with patients, illnesses, and situations that demanded a great deal from me. I entered as a young woman, a very young physician, and I left as a woman and a doctor much better prepared to face the challenges that lay ahead.It was an experience that transformed me. And that confidence, that broader perspective on the patient, and that ability to see the individual beyond the complaint that brought them to me are things I still carry with me today. Without a doubt, it was one of the most important and beautiful experiences of my training.
3. You often say, “Studying is not just a detail. Studying is taking responsibility for others.” What does that statement mean to you in practice, especially when someone places their health, their appearance, and often an insecurity they cannot quite put into words in your hands?
To me, knowledge is a form of care.When someone walks into my office, they are entrusting me with something very intimate. Sometimes it is an illness; sometimes it is hair loss, a scar, a change caused by aging, or simply something about their appearance that has started to bother them.That is why I do not believe in stopping your studies once residency is over. Quite the opposite. Residency was only the beginning.I study continuously, attend conferences, keep up with new technologies, read scientific papers, and try to understand what truly has evidence behind each new development. There is always something new emerging in Dermatology, and, to me, it is a physician’s responsibility to know how to distinguish what can genuinely benefit the patient from what is merely a trend.I try to bring together knowledge, experience, and common sense. Because I don’t want to simply deliver a beautiful result. I want to deliver a beautiful, natural, and safe result.
4. After more than ten years in the profession, you have probably learned that what a patient asks for is not always what they actually need. When a patient comes in wanting to change something about herself, what do you try to understand before deciding whether that change truly makes sense?
First, I try to understand what is behind that desire for change.Sometimes, a patient comes in asking for a specific procedure, but as we talk, we realize that the actual concern is something else. It may be a feature she has always had, a change that has occurred over time, or even an insecurity that has become much greater than the feature itself really is.That is why I believe strongly in listening before making any recommendations.I also look at the person as a whole: her age, individual characteristics, skin quality, facial structure, proportions, lifestyle, and, above all, what can be done without erasing that person’s identity.I strongly believe in personalization. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Two people can come in with the same concern and need completely different strategies.There is also the importance of knowing when to say no. Not everything that can be done should be done. Many times, the best treatment is to explain that a particular intervention will not deliver the result that person imagines, or that, at that moment, they simply do not need it.
5. You are extremely demanding when it comes to results, but you also understand that, in Medicine, doing more does not always mean doing better. How do you recognize when a result has reached the right point?
I don’t think there is a single answer to that. There is no rule that says, “This is the right point.” There are medical, ethical, and safety limits that must always be respected, but within those boundaries, what constitutes a good result also depends on each patient’s expectations and satisfaction.That is why, for me, the first step is to align expectations. I need to understand what that person expects, what truly bothers them, and what is actually possible to achieve. This alignment needs to happen from the very beginning because, sometimes, the patient already feels extremely satisfied with an improvement that, from my perspective, could still be enhanced. And that’s okay. The result needs to make sense for that person.The opposite can also happen. Sometimes I feel that we have reached a very good result, but the patient is more demanding and wants to improve it even further. There is nothing wrong with that either, as long as there is a technical possibility and we remain within safe limits.A scar is a good example. Often, there is no specific moment when we can say that it has reached the “right point” in an absolute sense. We can improve its texture, color, thickness, and skin quality. The limit will depend on how that person’s body responds and, above all, on how satisfied that person is.So, I would say that the right point is something we build together. It is where what is technically possible, what is safe, and what makes sense for the patient come together.I am very demanding when it comes to my results, but I have learned that Medicine is not about pursuing perfection. It is about delivering the best possible version of that result for that person, while respecting their individuality.
6. After everything you have studied, built, and experienced so far, what do you still feel you need to say? If you could leave a single message for more people to hear, what would it be?
I would say that health is something we build. And caring for our appearance is also part of that care, but it cannot be separated from everything else.We can achieve beautiful aesthetic results today. We have technologies, medications, procedures, and treatments that have evolved enormously. But if a person does not take care of their health, stay active, exercise, eat properly, sleep well, and look at their body as a whole, the results we can achieve aesthetically will also have their limits.It was precisely my training in Internal Medicine, combined with Dermatology, that taught me to look at the individual this way. I cannot look only at the skin in front of me. There is an entire person behind it.And that is one of the things I love most about Dermatology. It is a specialty that cares for the skin, hair, and nails, but it also allows us to understand the patient in a much broader way. The skin is often the first place where we notice that something is not right, and a dermatologist needs to have medical knowledge to recognize that.That is why I strongly believe in the importance of seeking a physician who is trained in Dermatology. A dermatologist is not simply the professional who treats an aesthetic concern. A dermatologist is a physician who has studied to care for diseases and conditions of the skin, hair, and nails and who needs to understand the patient as a whole.In the end, every individual is unique, but also a whole. We cannot separate skin, body, health, habits, aging, and self-esteem as though they were independent things.Perhaps that is the message I would most like to leave: taking care of yourself does not mean trying to correct everything you see in the mirror. It means understanding that you are a whole, and that health, self-esteem, and well-being need to move forward together.
