Rosacea? Melasma? Acne? Building community sites around medical conditions.

Self Organized Patient Communities

Patients with medical conditions often turn to each other for support. The web allows them to build a community no matter where they're located or how uncommon the condition.

Rosacea Patient Communities

• Rosacea Support Group
• Rosacea, Yahoo Health Group
• Rosacea News (a blog about Rosacea)
  

If you read these types of community posts you'll discover that there's a lot if information, but there are very few if any physicians participation in the discussion, even anonymously.

I read any number of sites each day where physicians are disseminating information, but not in these groups. Curious.

New PDT skin cancer light treatment for home use?

Via Medgaget

Professor Ifor Samuel, a physicist from St Andrews University, along with Dr. James Ferguson, head of photobiology at Ninewells Hospital, have teamed up to develop a new way to treat skin cancer.

From the press release.

A new light-emitting 'sticking plaster', which will revolutionise the treatment of skin cancer, has been developed by researchers at the University of St Andrews and Ninewells Hospital, Dundee. 

The new device, which builds on established photodynamic therapy treatment (PDT) methods, not only reduces pain but has the potential to be used by patients in their own home.

The breakthrough, a portable lightweight light source powered by a pocket-sized battery, is the brainchild of St Andrews' physicist Professor Ifor Samuel, and dermatology consultant Professor James Ferguson, head of the photobiology unit at Ninewells Hospital Dundee.

The pair teamed up four years ago to combine their expertise in photo-physics and photodynamic therapy to create a new way of treating skin cancer. The result is a 'light bandage' which contains its own light source and is so portable that patients can go about their daily business while under treatment.

Professor Samuel said: "By adapting the latest technology to an existing treatment method, we have developed a compact light source for treating common skin cancers. It can be worn by the patient in a similar way to a sticking plaster, while the battery is carried like an iPod."

The light is generated by an organic light-emitting diode, (OLED) and is a spin-off of Professor Samuel's work on advanced displays. "It's very exciting to be have developed a new technology that helps treat skin cancer patients," he said.

Professor Ferguson said: "This new device will have a major impact on the treatment of skin cancers. The light-emitting patch is a low-cost, portable and convenient method of treatment. Our initial pilot trials have already shown its effectiveness and we find patients requesting this treatment over conventional methods."

The new approach is much more convenient and comfortable than conventional methods as lower light levels are used (reducing pain), and the patient can move around during treatment.

Botox, Face Lifts, & Politics

From the NY Times: Botox and politics don't mix.

What was especially intriguing about Mr. Spencer’s off-the-cuff remarks, as reported in The Daily News, was his speculation that Mrs. Clinton had evolved from an ugly duckling to the presentable 59-year-old woman she is today with the help of “millions of dollars” of “work.”

And if she had: Would it matter?

With Americans spending $12 billion a year getting injected, stapled and snipped, cosmetic surgery long ago went mainstream. Yet there is one arena in which an accusation of having work done still stings, and that is in politics.

 And male politicians aren't immune from Botox prosecution:

In the 2004 presidential election, when it was suggested that John Kerry had undergone Botox injections to wipe away facial lines, the Democratic candidate did his best to furrow his brow and declare such talk nonsense. (No matter, his critics said, since he was guilty of something much worse: looking French.)

Is Thermage Making A Comeback?

Thermage may have weathered the storms that plagued them early on. Poor training. Poor reviews. Unhappy doctors.

At a meeting this week a Thermage rep told me that they had just had the most profitable four months since they launched. The initiation of Thermage body and eye treatments seems to have helped in addition to making the treatment head bigger.

I've posted on how Thermage brings out the heavy anger here.  Some docs think Thermage is a totally bogus technology. That's the rep that many new treatments encounter. I think Thermage brought most of that trouble on themselves with inadequate training and price gouging. The move to quicker treatments with bigger heads (effectively cutting the price) is a step in the right direction. Thermacool as a treatment is improving, Thermage as a company has been a pain in the ass. I hope that is changing.

If Thermage is going to compete against Cuteras Titan, Fraxel, Palomar's Fraxel head for their Starlux, and whatever else is coming, They're going to have to continue to innovate and out compete. No one likes paying $650 for a piece of plastic and chip that costs $8.

Nothing Brings Out Anger Like Thermage

It's surprising to me how polarizing Thermage as a treatment seems to be. There are 5 threads on Thermage going on in the Physician to Physician discussion area. While the 'pro' Thermage docs seem to be relatively calm, the 'con' side is much more strident in their views. ( It appears that the docs panning Thermage appear to be plastic surgeons but who knows.) It seems to be particular to Thermage for some reason, Cutera's Titan or Fraxel  don't seem to evoke nearly the outrage.

Here's a sample: 

If you feel that you must scam your patients because you don't have a real treatment or can provide a real surgical intervention for them because you're not qualified to be doing what you are trying to "sell" to unsuspecting patients...

Pretty strong stuff. Most doctors hesitate to accuse other physicians of running scams on their patients but Thermage seems to push some right off the edge.