My Way to Plastic Surgery
Knowing that surgical training is an arduous journey, requiring long hours of study and long years of training, an arduous journey followed by a life of service, I choose to specialize in the field of Plastic Surgery 15 years ago. Plastic Surgery is a unique profession, because it combines science and art. Surgery is a science inasmuch as it involves “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomenon.”* And surgery is also an art, as it demands “a special skill in adept performance, held to require the exercise of intuitive faculties that cannot be learned solely by study.”*
I am thankful to all my skilled mentor surgeons and to be exposed to their highest moral and ethical standards. They trained my in the most difficult reconstructive cases, which not only requires technical but also intellectual skills. Complex reconstructive surgery is the best school for aesthetic surgery. Unfortunately this is often forgotten today.
Plastic Surgery is still one of my passions. Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.
Yours faithfully,
Joe Hellers
* Webster’s II New College Dictionary. Pickett JP, Previte RE, Pritchard DR, editors. , eds. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co; 1999
Education
1990 – 1997: Baccalaureate at the Athénée de Luxembourg
1997 – 1998: Medical studies at the Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg
1998 – 2003: Medical studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
2002 – 2003: Medical studies at Harvard University (exchange program)
2003: German State diploma in Medicine
2009: Doctoral thesis at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
2010: Board Certified Plastic and Aesthetic Surgeon (Bavarian State Medical Association)
2010 – 2012: Master of Health Business Administration at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
2015 – 2017: European Master’s Degree in Surgical Oncology, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Breast Surgery at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
2018-2019: University Diploma in Hair Restoration at the Sorbonne Université Paris
2020-2021: Inter-University Certificate: Legal Expert at Catholic University of Louvain
2021-2023: University Certificate: Medical Expertise and Insurance Medicine at Catholic University of Louvain
The Surgical Clinic and Policlinic is one off the most famous and oldest surgical hospitals in Germany. Build in 1891 the hospital became soon a German and international reference in surgery. Prof. Erich Lexer, clinic director from 1928 to 1936, made of the clinic an international reference center for reconstructive surgery. Erich Lexer is considered together with Jaques Joseph from Berlin as one of the founders of Plastic Surgery. He published in 1910 the first facelift technique and in 1925 a breast reduction technique. Due to his expertise, he published in 1931 one of the first reference book in plastic surgery (Die gesamte Wiederherstellungschirurgie).
The Plastic Surgery tradition was continued by my teacher, Prof. Wolfgang Stock, a master of microsurgery and reconstructive surgery. Being part of the first microsurgical center in Germany, he made significant contributions to face reconstruction with free osteo-cutaneous flaps, the use of the lateral arm flap and the radial forearm flap as the free flap and a retrograde pedicled flap.
At the top: Surgical Clinic and Policlinic – University of Munich, Campus Innenstadt
At the right: Klinikum Großhadern – University of Munich, Campus Großhadern
Professional background
2004 – 2009: Residency at the Surgical Clinic and Policlinic of the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (Supervisor and mentor Prof. Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Stock)
2010 – 2011: Fellowship in Aesthetic and Postbariatric Surgery (Dr. Joachim Graf Finck von Finckenstein, Starnberg)
2011 – 2018: Senior consultant for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Full member of “SOS Main Luxembourg”
2018 – up to now: Independent consultant for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the Cliniques de l’Europe – Europa Ziekenhuizen – Brussels
2019 – up to now: Independent consultant for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the Bella Vita Medical Center – Waterloo
2019 – up to now: Plastic and Aesthetic Surgeon in private medical office – Dippach, Luxembourg
Specialization in Breast Surgery
I had the great opportunity to take part in the first Master’s Degree in Surgical Oncology, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Breast Surgery, which aim is to provide excellence. The two course directors Prof. Jaume Masia (Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona) and Prof. Jian Farhadi (St Thomas’ Hospital, London) were able to bring the most famous breast surgeons and teachers together for their project.
The face to face part included modules about breast oncology (European Institute of Oncology, Milan), oncological breast surgery (Institut Gustave Roussy, Paris), concepts of breast reconstruction, clinical training in implant based breast reconstruction (St Thomas’ Hospital, London), autologous breast reconstruction (Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona), clinical training in aesthetic breast surgery (Pyramid Hospital at the Lake, Zurich) and clinical training in lymphatic surgery.
The more practical modules included dissection in fresh cadaver at University of Alicante, dissection techniques of perforator flaps (IRCAD, Strasbourg) and training in microsurgery on a small animal model (Barcelona).
I spent my clinical immersion at the Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau, the University of Gent, the EIO, the Institut Gustve Roussy and finally the Pyramid Hospital at the Lake.
I strongly recommend the MRBS for all colleagues interested in breast surgery. MRBS program is more than an academic challenge; it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience of personal and professional development. The international character of the MRBS with students and teachers from all over the world was very inspiring. The meeting with plastic surgery living legends, like Robert J. Allen and Isao Koshima were one of the highlights.
Membership
Full member of the German Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (Deutsche Gesellschaft der Plastischen, Rekonstruktiven und Ästhetischen Chirurgen, DGPRAEC)
Full member of the Royal Belgian Society for Plastic Surgery (RBSPS)
Full member of the Luxembourg Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery
Full Member of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS)
Full member of the International Confederation of Plastic Surgery Societies (ICOPLAST)
Full Member of the European Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (ESPRAS)
Associated member of the German Society of Surgery (Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie, DGCH)
Full Member of the German Society for Senology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Senologie, DGS)
Member of the Medical Council Brussels and Wallon Brabant (Ordre des Médecins Bruxelles et Brabant Wallon)
Member of the Medical Council of Luxembourg (Collège Médical à Luxembourg)
Consultation and Hospitalization
Europe Hospitals, St Elisabeth, Brussels
The Europe Hospitals is a leading private hospital group offering comprehensive care in Brussels. Over 300 specialist physicians and 1,800 members of staff provide a highly personalized care by combining a state-of-the-art medical technology with contemporary infrastructure. Each patient can benefit from a high-quality care with the highest safety standards and excellent comfort.
Churchill Aesthetic Center, Uccle
The Churchill Aesthetic Center is a multidisciplinary center offering high quality local medical care in a relaxing setting. The aim of the center is to povide a state-of-the-art medicine and preserving his human size in the south of Brussels.
Medical Office Dippach, Luxembourg
I offer you a personalized, state-of-the-art care in my office in Luxembourg. Small surgeries and all non surgical treatments (aesthetic medicine) are done in the office. Major interventions are performed in Europe Hospitals in Brussels, all examinations prior to surgery and the after care can be done in Luxembourg.