Lee
E.
Wheless
MD, PhD
Lee Wheless, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Dermatology and a physician-scientist whose work focuses on reducing the burden of skin cancer, which is the most common cancer in the United States. Clinically, he specializes in the care of patients at risk for developing multiple skin cancers, specifically including organ transplant recipients.
Dr. Wheless is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, and is a member of the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center and the Vanderbilt Data Sciences Institute. He is a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina where he completed a PhD in epidemiology and a master's in clinical research.
His major focus is on identifying clinical and genetic risk factors at the patient and tumor level for developing multiple or aggressive skin cancers. He works primarily in VUMC's research databases, the Synthetic Derivative and BioVU, as well as in the VA's similar database VINCI, the Million Veteran Program, All of Us, and the UK Biobank.
Dr. Wheless' areas of expertise and clinical interests:
- Basal cell carcinoma
- Squamous cell carcinoma
- Melanoma
- Dermatology in organ transplant recipients