Starting as Darwin Dermatology — a general dermatology clinic — the service has expanded in that time to become home to doctors of multiple specialities, including gastroenterology, nephrology, general medicine and geriatrics. 

Rebranding as Ologist is a playful nod to the suffix common to many medical specialists (eg gastroenterologist) and is an apt name for a multi-specialist clinic. Nestled within the service is Darwin Dermatology Aesthetics – the cosmetically focused part of the practice. 

The expansion has resulted in the business moving its core activities to its third location during that decade. 

The new premises are light and bright with one cosmetic treatment room and seven consulting rooms, of which two are also used for procedures. The new premises are 20 metres from the old ones in the Tiwi Medical Suites on the corner of Rocklands Drive and Tiwi Gardens Road. 

The rooms have simple décor and are finished with the business’ signature maroon crocodile skin furnishings. 

The business has three core activities and three co-leads. 

As a Gastroenterologist, Dr Kirsty Campbell sees patients suffering from reflux through to those who need gastroscopies, colonoscopies or suffer from liver disease. Dr Campbell has been joined by several other Gastroenterologists over the years and has paved the way for other medical specialties to join the practice. 

Darwin-born and raised Dermatologist Dr Dev Tilakaratne leads a team of visiting dermatologists, locally-based registrars and skin cancer doctors to look after skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis, and perform whole body checks and surgery for skin cancer. He is the only Dermatologist based in the NT. 

Dermal therapist Carla Costa is a Chemical Engineer and holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology with a focus on Cosmetic Science. She is originally from Brazil and heads up the aesthetic aspect of the business, dealing with cosmetic procedures from skin needling and skin tag removal to facials, chemical peels, laser and other energy-based devices. 

Dev said the trio’s areas of expertise are very much complementary to each other. 

“We had had a lot of patients who were trusting us with their medical skincare who wanted us to do the cosmetic side of their care in-house because they trusted us”, he said. 

“As a dermal therapist, Carla may perform some procedures that are optimised when combined with prescription-only medication that needs monitoring. That’s where I come in. 

“Similarly, cosmetic outcomes are often better when combining physical treatments with cosmetic injections such as the increasingly popular Salmon DNA injections, which our procedural nurse and I perform. By combining our medical and cosmetic knowledge we are literally helping people look and feel their best” 

Kristy said her work also intersected with her colleague’s areas of expertise. 

“A patient may come and see me for say, a colonoscopy and then they’ll say: ‘Actually, I haven’t had a skin check for a long time’ or ‘I’ve got this new rash’, so we can help them in-house. 

“Working off site, you can’t have that level of integration. That’s where our specialties combine.” 

Operating out of a larger premises means there is space for collaboration in future with doctors from a more diverse range of disciplines. 

The business has also expanded its reach across the Top End and has two other locations in the Darwin CBD and Palmerston where whole body narrowband UVB phototherapy treatments are conducted for eczema, psoriasis, vitiligo and other skin conditions 

“We’ve got duplicate rooms set up at every site, so they all look and feel the same – as if they were doing it here in Tiwi” 

We’re continuing to innovate and taking the friction out of doing ultraviolet light treatment.” 

Ologist also lays claim to being behind the roll out of telehealth dermatology appointments before they were even a thing. 

Dev and long-term visiting dermatologist Dr Chris Ross started the telehealth Dermo Direct service, winning the 2019 Telstra Business Award in the Emerging and Energised category. 

They set up the service in 2017 so Chris could follow up with patients when he returned to Adelaide. COVID arrived and the business exploded. It is now Australia’s largest tele-dermatology service with four doctors servicing 500- 600 patients each month and having treated over 10,000 patients from around the country. 

Patients can make an appointment for cosmetic skin concerns and skin checks online at the Darwin Dermatology website. Appointments with specialist doctors require a referral from a GP. TQ 

CONTACT 

Ologist & Darwin Dermatology Aesthetics 

Suites 3&4, 5 Tiwi Gardens Road, Tiwi 

(08) 8945 9515 or (08) 8945 7086 

reception@ologist.com.au 

reception@darwindermatology.com.au