My name is Dr Elena Karnovitch, some people refer me as Dr Elena.

I graduated from Vladivostok State Medical University in 1997 and a year later I completed my internship in medicine after which I moved to St Peterburg, Russia where I spent the next two years doing gastroenterology and clinical nutrition in St Petersburg Medical Academy of Post-graduate studies.

In 2000 I moved to the UK and after completing my Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) exams I registered with the General Medical Council in 2002 and since then I have been full time in the NHS completing all of the usual steps from Junior Doctor to Consultant. I used to work in A&E and also in Intensive Care for many years.

In 2006 I was elected to the membership of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom having completed a number of specialist exams. In 2012 I achieved my speciality certification in Respiratory Medicine. I became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2021.
I have been an Acute Medicine Consultant since 2013 and work in one of London's busiest hospitals. I have also completed specialist training to teach young doctors and students – I have been an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2015 (all my qualifications are here).

In 2008 I developed an interest in aesthetic medicine and since then I have been regularly studying and taking certifications in a range of aesthetic procedures. I have been running a small aesthetic clinic for over 12 years. My aim is to make people look and feel better, younger, happier and healthier.

In 2019 my son was diagnosed with autism which was devastating! I started looking into any kind of treatments and was referred to a functional medicine consultant who after vigorous investigations on gut microbiome, genetics and metabolism and changes in his diet helped to improve my son’s symptoms. So, I decided to explore Functional Medicine myself and took some time off work to study with the Institute for Functional Medicine and completed the course in one year. In parallel I was doing other courses to help me to understand the complexity of Functional medicine.

Very quicky I realised that FM was a missing jigsaw puzzle piece in my understanding of medicine and that was after practicing conventional medicine for over 20 years. Despite studying physiology and biochemistry in medical school we actually do not utilise the knowledge much after we become doctors. Hospital based medicine is heavily protocolised and rigid guidelines applied to patients. There is not enough personalisation of care and there is no much talk about preventing the disease by looking into nutrition and lifestyles of the patients.

This new knowledge really helped me with managing my patients in the NHS settings and I was able provide them with more personalised plans of treatment. In my aesthetic clinic functional medicine really enhanced my practice where I concentrate on slowing down ageing and optimising overall health, and improving appearances.

In 2022 I have rebranded my clinic “Rakushka Aesthetics” to “Dr Elena Karnovitch Health Bureau” and I am now offering a wider range of treatments from gut issues and chronic fatigue to weight management and cardiovascular problems. Please see more under “Conditions we deal with”.