Medical Spa MD: Physician community of skin clinics, laser centers, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and aesthetic doctors practicing nonsurgical cosmetic medicine.
Dr. Sammy Sliwin practices at the Forest Hill Institute of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Toronto, Canada, and is working with new stem cell therapies.
With the growing interest in stem cell treatments, we thought we'd see what Dr. Sliwin thought. We got together with Dr Silwin to discuss his plastic surgery clinic, his practice, and talk about his work with adipose derived stem cell therapies.
That's interesting: Dr. Sliwin is the Founder and Medical Director of AdiSave – The Canadian Adipose Derived Stem Cell Bank.
Can you tell us more about the cosmetic Stem Cell therapies and clinical research you're involved with?
First we are doing research to optimize the harvesting of fat by liposuction to maximize the number and quality of the stem cells that we separate. We are as well doing research to optimize the separation process as well as a method of cryopreserving the stem cells in a completely autologous method (not using any animal or other human products). Once completed we will open up the stem cell bank utilizing these methods that we found. We will then apply to Health Canada to begin clinical trials for homologous uses which include cosmetic filling of facial areas, scars as well as deformities on the body. Once safety is proven we will apply to Health Canada to begin clinical trials for non homologous uses such as regenerative medicine and autoimmune therapies. In the future I believe that stem cell therapy will change the treatment of many degenerative and autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Seiler is a speaker, preceptor and physician trainer for Lumenis Laser Company and injection trainer for Allergan (manufacturer of Botox & Juvederm).
Birmingham Alabama is home to Seiler Skin, Cosmetic Laser Center & Medical Spa, a single-physician clinic run by Dr. Warren Seiler and his wife. We sat down with Dr. Seiler to find out what he thinks of the current crop of cosmetic lasers, how he runs his clinic, and hear what advice he has for other physcians.
Name: Dr. Warren B. Seiler III Location: Homewood, AL Website:seilerskin.com
That's interesting: Dr. Seiler is a Board Examiner and the Executive Director of the American Board of Laser Surgery and co-author of the ABLS examination text book and board certification exam.
As a single physician owner, how does your clinic operate?
My practice, Seiler Skin Cosmetic Laser Center, is a single physician driven cosmetic practice. I personally perform the laser and injectable procedures. I have a very good medical aesthetician working directly under me who helps patients with skincare programs, Hydrafacial, chemical peels, and laser hair removal. My wife is our marketing and website director and she is co-owner with me in the practice. We run the practice together, but we have an office manager that helps. I perform fractional CO2, Fraxel, Thermage, Laser Hair Removal, Laser Spider Vein treatments, IPL, and others. Botox and Juvederm are the only injectables, although I have tried many others, I feel they are the best. Our practice is really the only one in Birmingham in which the physician specializes entirely in cosmetic laser procedures and nothing else, which really helps to offer the experience that I provide.
Dr. Robin Yuan is an admittedly 'old-school' plastic surgeon in the heart of Beverly Hills with a staff of one and no marketing.
Dr. Robin Yuan was a founding member of of the Cedars-Sinai Craniofacial Clinic and the Cedars-Sinai Breast Center, and is an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the California Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Los Angeles Society of Plastic Surgeons. He was kind enough to sit down and share his thoughts on cosmetic medicine.
Name: Robin T.W. Yuan, M.D. Location: Beverly Hills, CA Website:robinyuanmd.com
That's interesting: Dr. Yuan is a member of the newly-formed American Society of Bariatric Plastic Surgeons and was recognized as the Best Plastic Surgeon in Beverly Hills last 2011. His new book, Behind the Mask, Beneath the Glitter: The Deeper Truths About Safe, Smart Cosmetic Surgery is available on Amazon.com. He was one of the original participants in the hit TV show, Extreme Makeover.
From a start in internal medicine, Dr. Alex Denes has moved to an entirely cosmetic medical spa and practice.
Dr. Denes worked as an assistant surgeon for 30 years before entering the cosmetic field in 2000. We sat down with Dr. Denes to find out what he's learned, and what lessons he has to pass on.
Name: Dr. Alex Denes Location: Hemet, CA Website:HiGorgeous.net
That's interesting: Dr. Denes is qualified as an expert witness for the US Department of Justice and the California Medical Board. He's appeared as an expert witness for the defense in hundreds of medical malpractice cases.
He is Medical Director and VP of Medical Affairs of Hemet Community Medical Group, a multispecialty group consisting of 155 physicians, and Corporate Medical Director for KM Strategic Management Group.
How did you transition from Internal Medicine to Cosmetic Medicine?
While hesitant to try yet another Social Media platform, I have left thousands of Facebook fans behind for Google + (and so should you...)!
Guest post by Craig Koniver MD
I know, I know, another social media platform is about all you need to read about these days. From Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to Instagram to Foursquare, it always seems as if there is another "latest" and "greatest" social media platform to pay attention to. But, trust me when I say this, I think Google + is THE one to pay attention to. And here are some reasons why...
NYC plastic surgeon Dr. Elan Singer is in one of the most competitive plastic surgery markets anywhere.
Plastic surgeon and naval reserve officer, Elan Singer MD is practicing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We got together with Dr. Singer and asked him what he's going to make sure his practice continues to thrive.
That's interesting: Dr. Singer has performed reconstructive surgery on patients from all over the world, including surgical missions to Haiti and Nigeria. Dr. Singer is also an officer in the United States Navy Reserve and performs monthly surgeries at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Shervin Naderi MD focuses on Rhinoplasy and injectibles at the Naderi Center for Rhinoplasyt & Cosmetic Surgery in Herndon, Virginia and Chevy Chase, Maryland.
With his emphasis on Rhinoplasty, Botox, Dysport and filler injections, Dr. Maderi has other plastic surgeons referring patients to his clinics in Virginia and Maryland. We thought we should sit down and learn from Dr. Naderi what he thinks about running a cosmetic practice.
That's interesting: Dr. Shervin Naderi is Board Certified Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon and ultra specialized in Rhinoplasty and minimally invasive facial injections. Hes' also a Board Examiner for the American Board of Facial Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery and a consultant and instructor for Allergan and Medicis, teaching Botox, Dysport and facial dermal filler injections to other physicians and nurse injectors.
With four plastic surgeons and a medical spa, St. Louis Cosmetic Surgery has been around for more than 35 years.
Name: Dr. Herluf Gyde Lund, Jr. Location: Chesterfield, MO Website:stlcosmeticsurgery.com
As part of a large cosmetic practice in St. Louis that is one of the largest cosmetic breast surgery practices in the country, Dr. Lund has undoubtedly seen his share of patients and has stories to tell. In this inteview, Dr. Lund shares his clinics compensation structures for staff members, details different types of medical spa business models, and shares his thoughts on building a successful practice.
That's interesting: Dr. Lund chairs and serves on numerous committees for both the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and is a principle investigator in studies using the next generation, Cohesive Gel Implant. Every summer, Dr. Lund volunteers as the "camp doctor" for Camp Chippewa for Boys in Cass Lake, Minnesota.
What do you think physicians need to know about starting or running a medical spa?
Determine first if you really need a medical spa. If you just want to provide some products and skin care, then you may not need to add a great deal of staffing and services. You may be able to train your nursing staff to provide many of the treatments and the product manufacturers are usually very willing to help train you staff on how to market and sell their product lines. This does not require a big investment in inventory and office space and also lets you “try the water” first.
Once you have made the decision to open a medical spa, then you need to decide what you want your medical spa to do. Once you have decided what you want to do, then you need to examine your patient practice mix and the surrounding competition to determine if the goals you have set are achievable given the environment you practice in.
For example, there are essentially four types of medical spa models to choose from when setting up a medical spa...
Video marketing to patients in your waiting room the single most effective way to educate your patients about your entire offering and drive more sales.
Waiting room video marketing educates and informs patients that are already inside of your clinic about all of your treatments in a way that generates interest and sales without pushy hard sales tactics. In fact, its the best ROI marketing I know of since it's usually a one-time flat fee to get set up and running.
If you're not already using video in your waiting room you're missing the easiest and most effective way to increase every business metric you should care about; patient satisfaction, referrals, and revenue. Educational marketing in to your existing patient base has been proven time and again to be one of the very best ways to increase referrals (new patient traffic) and create additional and add-on sales (revenue per patient).
Take a look at this demo video from Frontdesk (one of our Select Partners) that demonstrates how waiting room video marketing works and imagine just how effective it could be for your clinic.
There are all kinds of industrys that are already using video marketing in their waiting areas since they've been proven across all verticals to increase sales and customer satisfaction with wait times. Videos are being used in waiting areas to sell home equitly loans in banks, run real estate tours for brokers, upsell wiper blades at tire and oil change shops and educate patients about porcelain veneers in dentist offices. In fact, waiting room video marketing is so effective AutonetTV launched an entire TV channel just to broadcast into automotive center waiting rooms. So where are you?
In the most recent Medical Spa MD Physician Report, physicians running cosmetic clinics were asked what kind of marketing is most important in generating sales and if they're already marketing to patients in their waiting room. Here's what they told us.
What do you consider to be most important to generate revenue/sales for your practice?
How are you currently marketing in your waiting room?
(To be honest I think the the numbers here are a little off and that both of these questions should have and even more direct link to internal patient marketing and waiting room marketing.)
What's really interesting about this is that patients that are sitting in your waiting room are actually looking to be sold to, but you're probably doing a pretty poor job communicating to this captive audience. Most clinics have some brochures that are provided by technology providers or injectable reps, and you might have a flyer or two, but video marketing moves your marketing to an entirely new level. Look at that second chart; 25% of responding physicians indicated that they're using video marketing in their waiting room and that they're 'killing it'.
(Note: I don't believe that 25% of all cosmetic clinics are already using waiting room videos. I think that our responding physicians are skewed towards a much more proactive and business savvy group than the average and that accounts for the seeminly high percentage.)
Effective waiting room video marketing does 3 critical things immediately:
Reduces perceived wait times for patients. (Increased patient satisfaction)
Educates patients about additional treatments, services, or offers. (Increased referrals)
Generates questsions about other treatmens and services. (Increased revenue per patient)
Reduce perceived wait time for your patients.
Have you ever actually had to sit in a waiting room with nothing to do but contemplate your navel? (If you're a physician you probably haven't had to sit in another doctors waiting room but imagine yourself at the DMV.)
Putting a great video in your waiting room gives your patients something to watch and minimizes the perceived wait, making for happier patients even before they get into the consultation or treatment room.
Educate your patients while they wait.
All of your patients are stuck in your waiting room for at least a little while if only to fill out paperwork. You're missing an opportunity if you're not educating them about all of your services and treatments while they're at their most receptive.
Patients who know what your entire offering is are more likely to ask questions about additional treatments and think of friends and family that might benefit from them, increasing your referral rate.
Increases revenue per patient immediately.
Unlike most forms of advertising, great waiting room vidoes can boost your revenue immediately without any additional activity or cost by generating questions about additional treatments that your staff can answer without any hard-sell tactics, making both your staff and your patients more comfortable. You're moving the conversation from one that's initiated by you or your staff and that raises your patients buying barriers, to a conversation that your patient initiates. It makes up-selling and cross-selling easy.
Patients don't want to be sold, but they do want to buy. Treating them to a beautifully crafted and entertaining marketing message while they're already inside your business helps them do just that.
If you're interested in increaseing your revenue per patient right now or you just want to learn more, you can take a look at some more waiting room DVDs and videos here.
Surviving and thriving in the cut-throat cosmetic industry of South Florida.
Brian Sidella, founder of Forever Young Medspa sat down with us to discuss how a non-physician running a medical spa competes with a host of physician run clinics in South Florida.
Having now been in this business for almost 7 years, I’m still amazed at how this industry operates. Most of the players have a planned obsolescence strategy of about a 4 year life cycle and then most force you into a fork lift upgrade. As an example you could have begun 2004 with a Palomar Medilux, bought a Starlux 300 in 2005, a Starlux 500 in 2009 and now an Icon in 2012. Each of these systems represents a six figure investment. Whoever brings to market a field upgradable platform that will last a decade is going to dominate… as for the technology itself we have a pretty extensive suite from Palomar, Cynosure, Syneron, Edge & BTL. We use Palomar for IPL services and 1540 Fractional, Syneron for the Matrix, Cynosure for laser hair removal, Edge for HydraFacial M.D., Syneron for VelaShape & BTL for the Exilis...
That's interesting: Dr. Yellin has appeared on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox Television News and has been interviewed by local, national and international publications discussing facial plastic surgery.
With 70,000+ unique patient visits per year flowing through 3 clinic locations and a staff of 90, Dr. Yellin is definately on on the high end of the scale of patient traffic... but size comes with its own challenges. We got together with Dr. Yellin to hear his thoughs on plastic surgery and hear a few patient stories...
Parkcrest Plastic Surgery doctors: Dr. David Caplin second from left.David Caplin MD is one of four plastic surgeons at Parkcrest Plastic Surgery and draws patients from across all of Eastern Missouri.
In this interview, Dr. Caplin shares his thoughts on training, technology, and even marketing a busy cosmetic practice.
Name: David A. Caplin, M.D., F.A.C.S. Specialties: Cohesive Gel Implants, SmartLipo laser assisted liposuction Location: St Louis, Missouri Website:ParkcrestPlasticSurgery.com
That's interesting: Dr. Caplin is a recipient of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery’s "Certificate of Advanced Education in Cosmetic Surgery" and been a principal clinical investigator for the Mentor CPG (gummy bear) Cohesive Gel implant since 2002 with one of the longest and largest clinical experiences with this procedure in North America.
(Cohesive Gel implants have been used with great success in Europe and many other countries for many years but are currently only available to surgeons who are investigators in this study. Cohesive Gel implants have unique qualities including their form-stabilized anatomic shape and their resistance to implant leakage. The distinguishing factor is that the implant is a "soft solid". If the Cohesive implant is cut in half the implant maintains its shape.)
What do you think is most important to train a well rounded plastic surgeon?
In order to be a good aesthetic surgeon I have always felt that a strong background in...
Dr. John Di Saia is a board certified plastic surgeon and physician blogger practicing in the OC, CA.
We've been following Dr. Di Saia's blog for years and we finally had a chance to get together an pick his brains about his practice.
Name: John Di Saia, MD Location: San Clemente, CA Website:OCBody.com
That's interesting: His first degree was in Neurobiology with High Honors from UC Berkeley (1986). He completed medical school at UC Irvine in 1990 and started a General Surgery residency that year at UC Irvine. He completed General and Plastic Surgery Residencies at UC Irvine in 1995 and 1997 respectively.
The doctor's post-graduate activities have included several publications in the medical journals, a regular series of articles in local newspapers and expert reviewer status for the California Medical Board since 2003. As an honest blogging plastic surgeon the doctor is frequently quoted in the Orange County Register and has appeared on a few television interviews as a voice of reason.
How did you start your journey to plastic surgery?
Cosmetic surgery is part of a plastic surgery residency. My beginning was in the cosmetic surgery clinic of the university in the mid-nineties. It is no secret that cosmetic surgery is the financial subsidy upon which a plastic surgery practice operates.
Can you tell us more about your clinic?
We run a very small shop for patients interested in a more intimate experience...
Medical Spa MD has a professional group on LinkedIn, a Facebook page, and Twitter account as well as a number of other affiliated groups... but how should you be using them?
As a new Medical Spa MD Members receive a number of automated emails after you join. One in the series lets you know about our groups including these:
The Medical Spa Physician Report is critical information compiled from the answers of experienced doctors in cosmetic medicine.
Each Medical Spa Physician Report includes a survey of cosmetic clinics around the worlds physician interviews and case studies. We reach out to not only our member base, but also other prominent doctors in cosmetic medicine to find out what doctors are really thinking about technology, marketing, staffing and clinic operations.
And this is an experienced group.
Look at this graph from the last Physician Report and you'll see that 58% of physicians indicating that they've been practicing full time cosmetic medicine for 6 years or more.
Board certified in general and cosmetic surgery, Jerry M. Guanciale MD is operating in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Name: Jerry M. Guanciale, DO, FACOS Location: Myrtle Beach, SC Website:yourjourneytobeauty.com
That's interesting: Dr. Guanciale was accepted to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery fellowship program with the Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgical Group in Beverly Hills, California. He's been awarded medical licenses in Ohio, Kentucky, South Carolina, Arizona, and California with current active licenses in South Carolina, Arizona, and California.
What attracted you to cosmetic surgery and how did you get started?
While practicing in Myrtle Beach South Carolina, I had the good fortune to be asked by Dr. Steven K. White, a Board Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon to assist him in his larger plastic surgery procedures. I had, over the years, become somewhat disenchanted with certain trends in General Surgery in which procedures were being introduced that were clearly not changing patient outcomes but were narrowing the scope of my practice by creating multiple subspecialties of General Surgery. I needed something to infuse some vitality into an aging practice and frankly, into the monotony of the diseases and patients I had been treating for nearly two decades.
I applied for and was accepted into an approved AACS cosmetic surgery fellowship with the Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgery Group in Beverly Hills, CA. The cool thing was, I had no
Dr. Sammy Sliwin practices at the Forest Hill Institute of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Toronto, Canada, and is working with new stem cell therapies.
