DR. LIZE WIESE

Dr. Lize Wiese loves her work. She strongly believes in skin cancer early detection and treatment and nothing makes her happier than helping a patient avoid arduous cancer therapy.

After taking a job with an all-purpose skin care practice, she learned everything from skin cancer detection and treatment to cosmetic procedures like varicose vein removal. She found herself gravitating more towards the skin cancer side of the industry. Lize eventually returned to her full-time family practice, but skin cancer prevention stayed on her mind. She decided to incorporate it back into her life. Not wanting to foray into the cosmetic world, she decided to focus exclusively on skin cancer research, screening, detection, and treatment.

She put the word out to family doctors to see if they could get referrals, and her practice became flooded with them overnight. They transitioned from general family medicine to a skin cancer clinic. She and her husband later founded HeathWise in 2014, a family practice and skin cancer screening & treatment clinic. They also co-founded the Kelowna Skin Cancer Screening Clinic in 2018.

One of the reasons she loves skin cancer detection is that she gets to be a detective looking for clues in order to get to a diagnosis. Lots of freckles and moles can look the same, and everyone’s skin, in general, is very different. The challenge is looking at clues and building a diagnosis. She believes the ultimate satisfaction is finding something harmful to a patient that they might not have known was there.

There are many other reasons Lize enjoys her work. She appreciates working in a field that allows her to combine her academic knowledge with hands-on work such as examinations and surgeries. She also greatly enjoys the educational side of her job. There is a lot of anxiety when it comes to seeing something new on your skin, and she helps to alleviate people’s fears. Prevention is another part of her job that she considers vital. People are not very knowledgeable about how to treat their skin. A perfect example is suntanning. People believe in myths that are actually very bad for them, like getting a base tan. She prides herself on being a resource for solid information that isn’t anecdotal or hearsay and she enjoys helping people navigate through all of the information out there.

Currently, skin cancer prevention is not something that insurances cover, which makes it a big expense for people. Dr. Wiese’s dream is for skin cancer screenings to become more important in the eyes of the government, as well as the general public. She strives for a bigger interest and understanding of the importance of prevention and screenings. If sunscreen-related issues were covered by insurance, she is confident that more people would get routine checkups. Se believes skin exams should have the same importance as prostate, breast, and pap smear examinations. People should also have access to the latest screening tools such as full-body photography to pick up early melanoma.

Lize currently lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada with her husband and children. She and her husband are both active members of their community and give back whenever possible. They both also assist in surgeries at Kelowna General Hospital, sitting in for absent doctors in rural Yukon and teaching through the University of British Columbia medical student program (UBC). They also contribute to the YMCA and the Okanagan Mental Health Services Society.