Elyse S. Rafal, MD, FAAD

Elyse S. Rafal, MD, FAAD, is president and medical director of Rafal Center for Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery in Stony Brook, New York. She also founded DermResearchCenter of New York, Inc., where she holds the same two titles. Her practice spans cosmetic, medical and surgical dermatology.

Rafal earned a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. She began medical study at Harvard Medical School, then moved with advanced standing to the SUNY Health Services Center at Brooklyn (Downstate Medical Center), where she received her Doctor of Medicine with Honors and Distinction in Research. Her internship was at Montefiore Hospital Medical Center, followed by a three-year dermatology residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center. She is board certified in dermatology by the American Board of Dermatology and has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology since 1993.

After residency, she was appointed director of dermatopharmacology, director of outpatient dermatology and assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Stony Brook Medical Center. Since 2000 she has also held the position of assistant professor of clinical dermatology at New York Presbyterian Hospital of Weill Cornell Medical Center. Her hospital affiliations further include NYU Winthrop Hospital and Northwell/Peconic Bay Medical Center. She has lectured at numerous meetings, consulted for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, and appeared on CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC. She was lead author of an article on photoaging in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Her research record includes over 300 studies, more than 100 grant-funded projects across 30 years, and over 100 publications spanning book chapters, articles and abstracts. She keeps a database of patients with diseases of the skin, hair and nails. In the office she performs PRP injection therapy for hair loss and for scalp, skin and hair stimulation, reviewing the treatment plan and number of sessions at the consultation. For microneedling, she chooses needle depth and number of passes according to each patient's skin health and skin regimen, then designs a skin care plan afterward. The first consultation is used to get to know the patient, their goals and the practice's services.