Dr. Lucas Lima is an Aesthetic Biomedical Professional, a Nepuga postgraduate, and lives in Rio de Janeiro-RJ. He says that working in biomedicine and biotechnology was always a dream from a very young age, which is why he graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2020.
While still in college, he went through many professional experiences, including research and laboratories, and discovered Aesthetic Biomedicine. He even did an internship in the field and they began publishing an article about this qualification in the profession.
“I worked as an aesthetic procedures assistant, and that was my first real contact with Aesthetics. Then I started making contacts through research, developed papers, found Nepuga, came here and felt fulfilled with Aesthetic Biomedicine,” says the aesthetic biomedical professional.
Learn more about the journey of Dr. Lucas in this Success Story!
Aesthetic Biomedical Professional: a ‘Broad Professional’
Because he always had a lot of contact with Aesthetics through conversations with dermatologists, as well as visiting their offices as a patient, Dr. Lucas says he was already interested in the field through those experiences. Now, as a professional and aesthetic biomedical professional, he says he can take on many flights, besides doing what he loves.
“Aesthetics gives you the benefit of very close contact with your patient, plus the flexibility of being able to work not only in a clinic or in one particular profession, but it gives you the freedom to work in more than one area, and that makes me a much broader professional. It gives me the security that, besides having an income (or a supplemental one), I can also work in what I like,” emphasizes the aesthetic biomedical professional.
Even with little time since graduating, Dr. Lucas has had many experiences in the biomedicine job market, exploring the main career possibilities for a biomedical professional. The lack of contact with people, along with exhausting routines, led the aesthetic biomedical professional to keep investing in his career in Aesthetic Health.
“I worked in a laboratory, in the hospital setting, and I see that outpatient care is much more restrictive and limited; it ties us to long work hours, sometimes very tiring and without adequate financial return. So that field drains some of our personal life too, not just our professional life. Very different from Aesthetic Biomedicine, which gives us that flexibility to work,” notes the aesthetic biomedical professional.
Academic and Clinical Career in Aesthetic Biomedicine
Currently, Dr. Lucas splits his time between the academic and clinical sides of Aesthetic Health. Both are of great importance in his professional life as an Aesthetic Biomedical Professional.
“The most important thing is to generate quality of life for my patient, so the clinic is certainly the most important. But I’d like to bring some of the academic side to strengthen our profession, and I’ve had that interest since I was very young, so I see it as combining business with pleasure,” he explains.
Following this philosophy and life strategy, the aesthetic biomedical professional recently published his first international article through Nepuga, together with Prof. Dr. Antony Barbosa, in the journal Heliyon Journal Cell Press, by Elsevier.
“In this work, we studied Citrus sinensis, an herbal remedy that acts in the weight-loss process, including body harmonization. So we were able to uncover some pharmacological mechanisms behind it and broaden the discussion within this field,” he explains.
Dr. Lucas Lima took an average of nine months to prepare the article under Dr. Antony’s supervision, and it was published in August 2021. Heliyon is an open-access journal that publishes scientifically sound research by scholars from around the world in the biological, physical, social and medical sciences.
“I really like this research area, I have some published articles, but this is the first in the field of Aesthetics, and I think this scientific grounding is important for our daily clinical work,” says the aesthetic biomedical professional.
The Aesthetic Biomedical Professional’s Routine
After finishing the postgraduate program in Aesthetic Biomedicine, Dr. Lucas devotes himself more and more to his patient care.
“I work at a few aesthetic clinics and provide consulting on dermocosmetics and nutraceuticals to meet the demand from patients in other states, but at the same time I keep some scientific collaborations in this area,” he says.
The aesthetic biomedical professional also serves as a teaching assistant in the Aesthetic Clinical Outpatient Program and devotes himself to some extent to teaching and sharing knowledge with other professionals in the field.
The profession brings great profitability, but Dr. Lucas stresses that to stand out in the market it is necessary to keep specializing, since the field demands continuous improvement and a gradual pursuit of updated techniques and new protocols.
“That, in fact, requires that part of the professional’s time and financial return go toward the pursuit of new knowledge, courses, specializations, residencies and training to be fit for the job market. At times it demands a lot of personal dedication, and you have to always be receptive to trying to learn and adapt to the realities of the professional market,” concludes the aesthetic biomedical professional.
Watch the testimony of aesthetic biomedical professional Dr. Lucas Lima.
Josiele Batista
NEPUGA content team — Núcleo de Especializações Ana Carolina Puga.
