Medical Spa MD: Physician community of skin clinics, laser centers, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and aesthetic doctors practicing nonsurgical cosmetic medicine.
New regulations proposed in PA and would require physicians to be on-site during all cosmetic laser and IPL treatments.
Notice to all physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, estheticians and laser technicians in PA: I'm asking your help to oppose a new regulations in Pennsylvania requiring changes to who can perform cosmetic laser and IPL treatments.
This law is attempting to be passed through regulatory agencies and implies that estheticians are negligent with the use of lasers and cause harm to patients. Many of the physicians I spoke with stated they have treated many patients harmed at the hands of other physicians.
The new regulation will stipulate that only physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants will be permitted to operate an aesthetic laser and if the operator is not a physician, the physician must be on-site during the use of the laser and must perform an assessment on the patient prior to treatment.
This would effectively eliminate the use of estheticans and laser techs from performing any laser-based treatment and could force many clinics to drastically change their business models, or close altogether.
On April 30th, I conducted a webinar for Palomar Medical, Inc. on the topic of optimizing Local Search Engine Optimization tactics to boost your practice on local internet placement and ranking. Soon after the webinar, I was contacted by many physicians with many questions. I felt confident in answering all of them, except for one. And, that question was "what is the definition of a "core" physician"?
I was stumped.
I've searched the Internet for a documented answer and found none. I then perused quite a few physician's websites where it was clearly stated they were "core" physicians. It was also clearly stated that those medical specialties that were not deemed as being "core" were not qualified to perform certain aesthetic procedures. Not to be accused of being "flippant" by a physician as in one of my previous posts, I had thought that it was experience, training and number of successful procedures performed that made a physician "core" in that particular aesthetic modality?
The answer I received from RealSelf stated : "RealSelf is no longer hosting profiles for participants who do not meet specialty designation criteria set forth by updated RealSelf policies. We have encountered problems with doctors and other medical personnel answering questions far outside their expertise or specialty and, in some cases, even dispensing inappropriate and dangerous advice to our readers. The aforementioned changes have been implemented in an effort to prevent these situations from arising."
Not to elicit any aggressive comments here, and I mean no disrespect to any medical specialty in particular, I just would like to be enlightened as to where the definition of "core" was derived from and what medical specialties that includes?
Now I know why there seems to be a reprieve in the economic status of the medical aesthetic market. I just couldn't believe this article on FoxNews.com so I am posting it in it's entirety for your viewing pleasure:
Buffalo, N.Y. Teachers Spend $9M in Taxpayer Cash in '09 on Cosmetic Surgery
Buffalo teachers rang up nearly $9 million worth of taxpayer-covered cosmetic surgery in 2009, according to the state-appointed authority overseeing public school finances.
The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority found that last year's costs for elective procedures such as chemical peels and other skin treatments were up $8 million over 2004's $1 million tab for cosmetic surgery.
The procedures, provided under the teachers' union contract, accounted for 9 percent of the district's total spending on health benefits for employees and retirees, The Buffalo News reported Thursday.
About 10,000 school employees are eligible for the benefit. District officials said teachers or their dependents accounted for 90 percent of the approximately 500 people who received cosmetic surgery last year.
The president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation said the union has agreed to give up the benefit in the next contract and said teachers may be simply rushing to use the benefit while they can.
Board of Education member Christopher Jacobs said the cost increase "smacks of abuse" and is asking the district and the city comptroller to investigate.
- I'm thankful for the boost to our industry, but not this way! Unbelievable!
Protecting your medical spa, personal, and professional reputation online can be damn near impossible.
With internet marketing opportunities on the rise, today's aesthetic clinicians are faced with a "double edge sword". One side, if you don't advertise yourself on the internet you have less of a chance to gain presence and new business over your competitors. The other side of the blade is that you are opening yourself and your practice up to negative comments and reviews.
While patients do have a right to exercise The First Amendment, what we really find in our industry is that positive reviews don't come freely. Seldom does a "customer" of a business post how wonderful a place is or what a great experience they had. Typically, rave reviews are solicited by the business encouraging their customers to post reviews if they are "happy". Whereas, someone who is disgruntled in some sort of way has no apprehension whatsoever in posting their views on the internet.
With many sites not requiring the identity of the poster to be verified, this opens up the "Wild West", so-to-speak, for anyone to post anything he or she desires. This also includes your competitors who can acquire an email address with any vendor, then post anonymous false reviews of you and your practice.
How can you combat this? First, you have to be diligent in canvassing your reputation on the web. You have a choice to let the comments go, or research them to see if you can determine who they are so you can have the opportunity to correct the review (if it is a legitimate complaint). You can also report the review to the posting internet site with a clear description of why you believe the post should be removed. However, there is no guarantee you will even receive a response.
Many social media marketing gurus state that all positive reviews on a business tends to make the consumer think something is a little fishy with the business, so one bad review can add to the business's authenticity. Take book reviews on Amazon for example. I know I read through them all, good and bad, then make my decision. After reading a few, you get a general idea of what reviews are just "out there" (i.e., insults, poor language, obscenities, etc.) and which ones are more reliable and genuine.
There are known instances of dentists being accused online by their competitors of being child molesters. Similarly, laudatory online comments can be written by the physician himself.
One way to try to work around such frivolous online statements is to have patients sign a waiver that has them promise, in case they are not happy with their care, that they will not post online comments to that effect. The way such contracts are enforceable is as follows.
In general, websites acting as platforms for outside commentary are not liable for defamation suits. They are, according to North Carolina neurosurgeon/attorney Jeffrey Segal, M.D., J.D., subject to copyright laws. Waivers can be written to assign copyright to the treating physician. If the treating physician asks the patient to sign such a "copyright" waiver, the physician can claim ownership of any anonymous review of the practice and demand that such an online review then be removed. There are now examples of website posts removing such deleterious copyrighted comments.
Needless to say, not all patients will agree to sign such a waiver. Some may feel such waivers are simply "gag orders." The reality is that disgruntled patients are free to speak with family, friends, other physicians, lawyers, hospital peer review committees or credentialing committees. There are many appropriate places where patients can express their views.
On Sunday, August 22nd, the new federal gift certificate law went into effect. What does this mean to your medical spa?
In essence, the new law sets a 5-year minimum term for most gift certificates sold in the U.S. and it doesn't shorten any minimum terms required by your State law. Period.
The new law is just extending the terms of expiration if they previously were less than 5 years. If your State had a minimum term of more than 5 years, such as MA (7 years), your term will not change.
In addition, if your State does not permit you to apply an expiration date, such as the Stets of CA, CT, FL, ME, MN, MT, NH, RI and WA, of course those terms would still apply to any gift certificates you sell.
If you have any questions about whether this new federal law pertains to you, you should check your state laws regarding gift certificate expiration, or consult with your legal representative or accountant.
Arizona Medical Spa Regulation Update: Esthetician & IPL Laser Technicians
Arizona requires all training providers be registered with the state to provide training to comply with their requirements. The program shall provide a provisional certificate to the applicant verifying the successful completion of the didactic training.
An esthetician who has been using laser and IPL devices before the effective date of this amendment to this section may continue to do so if the esthetician applies for and receives a certificate pursuant to this section before October 1, 2010. Arizona state legislature requires a laser technician who wishes to perform cosmetic laser procedures and procedures using IPL devices to successfully complete 40 hours of didactic training as required by agency rules at a certified training program. More Information From State Website
The Texas Legislature has passed legislation in House Bill 449that establishes a regulatory program for laser hair removal. The Department of State Health Services is charged with implementing that program. The legislation requires every laser hair removal facility to be licensed by the department. It also requires that each individual who performs laser hair removal procedures, except physicians, be certified by the department. By September 1, 2010, every laser hair removal facility must be licensed and each individual who performs laser hair removal must be certified.
However, the adoption of the laser hair removal rules and implementation of the laser hair removal program has been delayed for a number of reasons, including the request from state leadership for each state agency to submit a plan to reduce budgets by 5%, as well as implementing an agency hiring freeze to help address the state's budget situation. Work on implementation, however, does continue forward. More Information From State Website
Information adapted from Aesthetic Trends & Technologies
Ten-to-one you talked about acne briefly during your esthetics program. The acne patient at a medical spa, however, differs greatly than the patient you would see in a day spa. With the proper understanding of the etiology of acne and treatment modalities available, you can help keep your acne client's flare-ups under control.
In the Advanced Medical Spa Aesthetics Training Course, Chapter 12, Acne Vulgaris is discussed in depth. Understanding the disease itself is the key to deciding what therapies would be efficacious for your clients. The first section of the chapter discusses the etiology of Acne Vulgaris, various representing characteristics from the comedone stage to the cystic and scarring stage, medical treatment modalities such as antibiotic regimens or lightening agents, and the use of lasers.
At a medical spa level, most estheticians are involved in the treatment and care of acne patients. Their involvement typically includes product dispensing, facials, perhaps some light chemical peels (Chapter 4), or even microdermabrasion(Chapter 3) for acne scarring. Depending upon the State an esthetician is practicing in, therapy for some acneic clients can involve laser therapies. This chapter will help the esthetician learn how IPL therapies can be used to treat active acne as well as fractional lasers that can treat the scarring left behind (Chapter 15).
Acne is more than skin deep and, whether or not you can provide laser therapies to your clients, having knowledge of them and when to use them is quite valuable to your client and to your medical director.
If patients haven't already started coming to your practice for laser hair removal for silky smooth summertime skin, they're probably starting now. And now is a more dangerous time than ever for them to start laser therapies especially if you or your staff isn't adequately trained on proper skin typing and assessment.
If you're like most practices, you will request a patient complete a skin typing worksheet to determine their Fitzpatrick Skin Type. A couple of problems arise here. First, you're depending on your client to complete the chart and be accurate and honest. Many technicians only look at the final score and never really go over each question. Are they really blonde, or is their hair colored? Do they really tan easily without burning if they're a freckled red-head? Verifying each answer the client has chosen is the responsibility of the technician who should be comfortable "overruling" an answer upon using their own eyes to verify.
Another problem that can arise is exposure to the sun, tanning beds, spray or bottle tans. This is the time of the year where your client may start false tanning. This pigment applied to the skin can very much interact with the laser parameters you have set; therefore, you will need to make an adjustment. Or, they could walk in on a Monday after getting some sun on Saturday and their legs will be a little "pink" to them which should look like a big red flag to you!
Even though a patient may be a repeat client, that shouldn't rule them out from completing a new form and being reassessed prior to treatment this time. Just because they weren't tanned last year when they had their chin and upper lip done doesn't mean they won't be tanned this year when they come in to have their legs treated.
Skin typing should be performed at every laser session, not just the initial visit, as there could be subtle changes each session. If you are a laser technician or aesthetician who is uncomfortable with skin typing your clients, or you have staff personnel you feel lack the necessary understanding of proper skin typing, you might want to consider the Medical Spa Aesthetics Course, Study Guide, and Advanced IPL & Laser Training course available on MedicalSpaMD exclusively. The Patient Selection Chapter discusses Laser Applications, Patient Selection, Skin Color, Skin Typing, The Fitzpatrick Classification Scale, Skin Classification by Ethnicity Type, Medical History, Physical Examination, and Contraindications for Treatment.
Great patient results begin with proper education to develop solid standards of practice. Your patients don't want to get burned, and neither do you.
If you are new to "link building", it really isn't as hard as it seems.
Basically, link building is just a link from another website back to your own medical spa or laser clinic. The more back links your site has, the higher it will rank on the major search engines.
Link building can be very time consuming, but the FrontDesk SEO tool can really help you go out there and find the sites you should be listed on. This saves you a tremendous amount of time.
Because you will be resubmitting the same text over and over again, make yourself a document that you can keep all of your submission text on. This should include your Page Title, your website's URL address, a brief description of your practice, and important keywords. Website submissions also ask for a name of the submitter and email address. I would suggest setting up a email address with Google or Yahoo, one that you only use for submissions, this way your personal email won't become inundated with confirmation and/or spam emails as a result of your submissions.
View: 5 minute video introduction to linkbuilding and SEO
There are several types of link building methods you can do. Some are just basic data submissions, and some are blog and article submissions. I will describe the differences amongst the major link building methods:
Article Submission
There are directories on the web designed just for submitting articles and some for writing blogs. When you submit something you wrote about your practice or even a particular therapy you offer, you can attach hyperlinks to keywords in your article that direct the reader back to your website. Some quality sites are Squidoo, Hubpages, Blogger, and Wordpress.com. Let me show you how this works with just one line taken from a blog I wrote on my own blogpost:
"It's your body and you do have to be careful of who you choose to perform your laser lipo procedure. While no physician can have a 100% satisfaction rate, don't be afraid to ask questions about how long a physician has been performing these procedures, who they trained with, how many procedures do they perform a month, and also if they have any satisfied patients you can chat with. Also, it's important to ask to see a before and after photo book with their patients, and not someone else's."
By choosing a keyword you think your reader would be interested in, you can immediately direct them right to that page on your website with the hyperlinks.
Google considers a "Yahoo Directory" link as a quality back link. Unfortunately, they charge an annual fee of $300. It may be worth submitting to; however, there is no guarantee from Yahoo Directory that your site will be accepted.
Directory Submission
DMOZ is a directory worth submitting your site to. DMOZ is an Open Directory Project (ODP) mainly known as DMOZ which stands for "directory.mozilla.org" and is owned by Netscape. While DMOZ can substantially increase your SEO ranking, it's tough to receive their approval and the entire process could take months. If you are fortunate enough to receive their approval, many smaller directories use the DMOZ directory categories so if you can become listed with DMOZ this would mean you would also become listed on many other web directories as well. There are other major directories you can submit to such as the BOTW (Best Of The Web) directory ($99/year or $299/permanent).
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is changing in it's effectiveness all the time. In social bookmarking websites, users save links publicly (not personally on their own computers) to web pages that they want to store and/or share with others. Usually, these bookmarks are shared within an individual "group" someone may subscribe to (such as "Laser Hair Removal"). You can add descriptions to your bookmarks in the form of metadata, or meta tags, so that other users can understand what the content is of your bookmark without having to download it beforehand. Different types of "descriptions" can include comments or even reader's votes (favorable or not - like on YouTube or Digg). Again, FrontDesk SEO makes this process relatively easy.
Blog Commenting
MedicalSpaMD is a blog and, like most blogs, it is highly susceptible to spammers like we have all seen and Jeff so diligently tries to eliminate on a daily basis as it can be a true nuisance for people like us who use this site as a valuable tool for your practices.
If you want to find blogs to participate in and comment on, try to find quality blogs that are related to what you do as a profession. Again, FrontDesk SEO can help with this. And when you add your comments, try to make them content-relative because not only do your comments add value to the blogpost in general, they also have greater chance of staying on the blogpost with a link back to your website.
Press Releases
Press Releases have worked well for me, and I'm not too proud to say that I didn't write the ones that really worked. There are a lot of good and bad example press releases out there and I am no exception. Writing a quality press release is an art and, frankly, I don't have the talent for them and pay someone else to do it. Let me give you an example of my own good and bad press release experiences.
While this press release still continues to give my website hits, all it is is words: Paula's Bad Example
If writing a good press release including videos and back links is not your forte, then it's worth it to farm it out. Just writing a good press release is half the battle. Submitting it to the right press release agencies that will index it effectively for you is the other half.
Social Media Sites
Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube work very well by providing quality and relevant back links to your site that all the major search engines love.
So, this is back linking in a nutshell and we can really go deeper into the categories, but I fear you will become bored or even glassy-eyed if you're not a geek like me. So if you don't have someone out there performing these activities for you and you really are serious about your web presence, you really might want to take a look at FrontDesk SEO and see what it can do for you. Just remember, building links doesn't increase your website's internet presence overnight. It does take some time, like my good friend Jeff keeps reminding me! In a world of available "instant results", it's hard to be patient sometimes!
Well, here we go again! Care Credit is trimming the fat again cutting available financing funds to anyone who is not a dermatologist or plastic surgeon (when it comes to non-dental aesthetic procedures). First they limited non-core physicians who didn't meet certain practice criteria, now this!
Awhile back I posted on Care Credit and a follow up post on the difficulties we have been experiencing when trying to obtain financing for our patients. A good friend and colleague, Dr. Alex Covey tipped me off with an email that he received a letter limiting available funds to only $3,000. Your patient can be approved for $8,000, but can only spend $3,000 of it at your practice. This is totally not conducive to a practice such as ours when 80-90% of what we do is laser lipo, ultrasound lipo or water-jet lipo. Sure enough, we received the letter (note both of our practices are owned and operated by internists performing 100% aesthetic procedures, 100% of the time, and on-site 100% of the time).
The only way we can be reinstated is if our physician becomes a Fellow of an organization who, unfortunately, will not accept an Internist as a Fellow to begin with.
After arguing and pleading our case extensively with the folks at Care Credit, their criteria is set in stone always quoting their higher up corporate folks as the culprits. Perhaps their decision makers are in bed with RealSelf (sorry, I still hold a grudge there too)? Regardless, it's hugely discriminatory and insulting.
Not that we're not used to blows like this in our highly competitive industry, but it just gets exhausting to have to keep dodging roadblocks that are continually put in our way for absolutely no valid reason whatsoever.
So, anyone know a good finance company that's "color blind"?
In case you don't have easy access to the statistics posted yearly by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, here's the recap of their analysis of aesthetic procedures performed in 2009.
Keep in mind, the survey was performed on plastic surgeons.
In 2009, there were approximately 10 million surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures performed in the US. Surgical procedures accounted for 15% of the total with nonsurgical procedures making up the other 85%.
From 2008-2009, there was a 2% decrease in the total number of cosmetic procedures performed. Surgical procedures decreased by 17%, and nonsurgical procedures increased by almost 1%.
Since 1997, there has been over a 147% increase in the total number of cosmetic procedures performed. Surgical procedures increased by 50%, and nonsurgical procedures increased by 231%.
The top five cosmetic surgical procedures in 2009 were: breast augmentation (311,957 procedures); liposuction (283,735procedures); eyelid surgery (149,943 procedures); rhinoplasty (138,258 procedures); and abdominoplasty (127,923 procedures).
The top five nonsurgical cosmetic procedures in 2009 were: Botox injection (2,557,068 procedures); hyaluronic acid (1,313,038 procedures); laser hair removal (1,280,031 procedures); microdermabrasion (621,943 procedures) and chemical peels (529,285 procedures).
Women had over 9 million cosmetic procedures, over 90% percent of the total. The number of cosmetic procedures for women decreased over 3% from 2008.
The top five surgical procedures for women were: breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery, abdominoplasty and breast reduction.
Men had over 900,000 cosmetic procedures, over 9% of the total. The number of cosmetic procedures for men increased over 8% from 2008.
The top five surgical procedures for men were: liposuction, rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, breast reduction to treat enlarged male breasts, and hair transplantation.
People age 35-50 had the most procedures – almost 4.5 million and 44% of the total. People age 19-34 had 20% of procedures; age 51-64 had 27%; age 65-and-over had 7%; and age 18-and-younger had 2%.
The most common procedures for age 18-and-under were: laser hair removal, microdermabrasion, rhinoplasty chemical peel and Botulinum Toxin Type A (including Botox and Dysport).
Racial and ethnic minorities, as of last year, had approximately 20% of all cosmetic procedures, a decrease of 1 percent from 2008: Hispanics, 9%; African-Americans, 6%; Asians, 4%; and other non-Caucasians, 3%.
Where cosmetic surgeries were performed: office facility, 58%; hospital, 18%; and free-standing surgicenter, 23%.
Of the doctors surveyed, 75% say they do not offer “spa” services (e.g. wraps, facials, massages) in conjunction with their medical practices. 88% of the doctors say they do not work in conjunction with legitimate medical spas where nonsurgical procedures, such as injections and laser procedures are performed.
Americans spent almost $10.5 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2009
Figures may not add exactly to totals and percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
What was once considered and debated as a highly controversial topic, stem cells are being looked at in a completely different light.
We've always known that the use of stem cells were the cutting edge of medical science, but only now has the non-aesthetic arena begun to recognize and promote to the consumer the advantages stem cells have in the aesthetic industry.
In the Northeast Winter-Spring edition of New Beauty Magazine, the use of fat-derived stem cells is discussed in terms our patients and future patients can understand. The article states that plastic surgeons long discovered that fat harvested from liposuction procedures contain a vast amount of stem cells. And, while this was commonly known by many, exactly how to extract those stem cells and apply them is the one controversial factor faced by practitioners. The success of stem cell transfer is highly dependent on the techniques use for harvesting and processing, and other additives applied such as epithelial cells and growth factors. In the article Dr. Renato Calabria states "it's not as easy as just taking some fat and putting it where it's needed. This is a multistep procedure that is technique-dependent."
Regardless, physicians are embracing this fountain of youth and are researching and experimenting various techniques and applications to promote fuller breasts and buttocks, smoother skin by reducing pore size, improved skin tone and clarity, and stem-cell enriched fat transfer face lifts to name a few, and consumers are beginning to seek out those physicians who are pioneering the practice.
If this is not a band wagon you are contemplating jumping on, it definitely should be an area of aesthetics you will want to follow. As the word is now reaching consumers, ten-to-one they will be presenting you with questions.
Perhaps it is true that the medical spa aesthetic industry is beginning to bounce back, as indicated by the post on Allergan's increase last quarter.
I do know that in our practice we have seen an increase in patient flow. However, while the patients are gaining interest and beginning to come in for consults, one major problem still exists for some. Financing.
With the credit card companies raising interest rates for some, and all out cancelling accounts for others, the method of using one's credit card for paying for aesthetic procedures is not as easy as it once was.
Awhile back I posted on Care Credit sending "Dear John" letters to many practices. The practices that Care Credit retained found that the criteria in financing approval had been increased making it difficult, if not impossible, for some patients to finance their procedures. I do have to say, though, that I am beginning to see Care Credit lax their criteria a bit as more of our patients are beginning to receive financing.
We use a couple of finance companies who have imposed these new credit limits on our patients. I had sent out emails to colleagues in the industry inquiring as to who they're having more success with. I ended up adding a brokerage finance company, MyMedicalLoan.com, who delivers a patient's financial application to a variety of finance companies. Our representative told me that if they can only get the procedure amount partially financed with one company, then they will propose the remainder of the balance of the procedure to the other companies. In some instances, there may be two or three finance companies involved with the patient making one payment to MyMedicalLoan.com.
How has it worked out for us so far? On average, for every five patients we send them, approximately two or three receive financing. As it is now, we have more patients waiting for better financing options.
So, the patients are beginning to come in again and we are faced with providing sufficient financing options. I encourage anyone to share their experiences with others on financing options that are truly benefiting their patients and their practice.
If the clients won't come to you, then you can go to your clients. At least for product sales, that is. A new trend that many aesthetic practices are adopting is online product sales. It's attractive for many reasons:
It adds an accommodating service to your current client base who may be too busy to stop in and pick up their products. Convenience is the way of life these days!
It introduces your practice to new customers.
It brings in revenue that you may not have been exposed to before.
It's relatively easy to manage and doesn't require much staff time (i.e., low overhead).
It gives you the opportunity to stand out when compared to other competitive practices in your area.
And, it can even raise your SEO ranking!
Concerned about the cost of shipping products? No worries! The U.S. Postal Service now offers cost effective Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes in various sizes. So, if it fits, it ships!
Want to make your product line even more attractive and personalized? Try custom label packaged products like the ones from Concept Labs, CBI Laboratories, or Natural Skin Care to name a few. In fact, there are so many companies providing private label skin care products today that you can be very particular with ingredients and additives. Just perform an online search for "private label skin care" and many companies will come up in your search results.
Some practices offer relaxing CDs for sale, aromatherapy products, sleep masks, robes, and many other comfort items that create a sense of personalization with their clients and prospective clients.
How do you add an online store to your website? Companies such as Go Daddy offers "Quick Shopping Cart®", and there's X-Cart®, to name two. Like many internet-based businesses, there are a ton of them. Just use the search terms "online shopping software" and see what comes up!
What comes up then could be your practice's revenue in an area which probably could use a little boosting!
I think everyone staring out in the aesthetic industry, especially if you are a non-core practice, needs some sort of a guru. Someone to guide you along the way in your decisions on equipment, procedures, pricing, staffing, standard operating procedures, menu of services, etc. Our guru many years ago was Fran Acunzo from Acara Partners. Perhaps Fran's most famous, or successful client, is Dr. Bruce Katz of Juva MediSpa in New York City.
I remember listening to some of his suggestions he had for us at the time and saying "Is he serious? I have no idea what this SmartLipo thing is, but if he thinks it is going to be the next big thing, then we had better trust him as our consultant". Needless to say, Fran was right. And not only about adding SmartLipo to our practice when it was first approved by the FDA, but other procedures and services as well. So, to me, when Fran speaks... I listen.
Fran blogged his predictions for aesthetic procedures for the year 2010 and it's already making it's way across the internet cited and adapted into blogs by SpaFinder.com (Read Susie's comments on such predictions) and many, many others. If you have not yet read his predictions, I'd like to post them here in their entirety:
Here are my 2010 top 10 predictions in the world of Aesthetic Medicine
1.Dysport will become a strong competitor to Botox. Dysport, Medicis’ new entry into the world of botulinum toxin, was launched in the spring of 2009 and has begun to see increased demand as market awareness grows.
2.Non-invasive body contouring will continue to grow in popularity lead by Erchonia’s Zerona.
3.Face lifts will continue to drop in demand while liquid face-lifts grow in popularity, especially with the younger market (40 -54 year olds)
5.Laser Lipolysis will continue to be one of the most in-demand medical aesthetic procedures due to its minimal downtime and great results.
6.The younger audience (24 – 40 year olds) will continue to discover aesthetic medical services for preventive aging.
7.There will be an increase in the number of men having aesthetic medical procedures starting with facial fillers and injectables (i.e. Botox, Restylane, Radiesse, etc.)
8.The tipping point of when men and women want to have their tattoos removed will arrive and the demand will grow exponentially.
9.Facial Rejuvenation will come of age as medical practitioners perfect their skill combining aesthetic medical facial procedures for a complete Medical Makeover including the combination of fractional resurfacing, ablative resurfacing, chemical peels, photofacials, skin tightening, injectables and facial fillers, etc.
10.What was an Extreme Makeover in 2003 when the then popular TV show hit the airwaves will now become the Everyday Makeover.
It is entirely up to you whether or not you place your trust in Fran's predictions. I would guess to say there would be some discepancies amongst professions, but I can tell you I am already beginning to see many of these prove true in our own practice. It's also interesting to me that, upon research, I could find no other person or entity posting such predictions.
So, unless you have a crystal ball somewhere that has worked for you, I'm sticking to what has worked for us!
On January 1st the State of California put into effect the “Donda West Law”.
For those of you who are not aware of the details behind this law, Donda West was the mother of the much controversial rapper, Kanye West (the one who went up on stage and made an a** of himself when Taylor Swift was receiving her award).
Cosmetic Surgery Times reports that in 2007, Donda West died a day after she underwent an 8 hour procedure for breast reduction, liposuction and a tummy tuck. The L.A. County Coroner stated that Donda died of "coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty." Apparently, the autopsy results showed Donda died of pre-existing coronary artery disease and “multiple post-operative factors” a day after the procedures. The surgeon who operated on Donda surrendered his medical license in April.
The Donda West Law prohibits doctors from performing elective cosmetic surgery without a physical examination and clearance from a medical professional. The law requires an “appropriate” physical exam within 30 days before a procedure and “written clearance” from a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant before cosmetic surgery is performed.
"Clearance of a medical professional" is the confusing part of the equation. Apparently, the plastic surgeon who performed her procedure wasn't declared a "medical professional" in the eyes of the lawmakers. For those practitioners who are currently performing invasive and minimally invasive procedures (such as laser liposuction) in other States, if you are not doing so already, you may want to re-evaluate your pre-operative procedure to include a physical examination, blood work and possibly a sign off from the patient's PCP or cardiologist.
In the infamous words of the sergeant on the 1981 episodes of "Hill Street Blues", "be careful, it's a jungle out there"!
New regulations proposed in PA and would require physicians to be on-site during all cosmetic laser and IPL treatments.
