Medical Spa MD: Physician community of skin clinics, laser centers, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and aesthetic doctors practicing nonsurgical cosmetic medicine.
Part 1: How to market your medical spa, laser clinic or plastic surgery practice with a blog.
In Part 1 of this video series on building patient traffic with social media, Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD explains how plastic surgeons, dermatologists and laser centers are using blogging and blog marketing to increase patient traffic and increase SEO for their websites and clinics.
Part 2: How to market your medical spa, laser clinic or plastic surgery practice with your own blog.
Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD explains how plastic surgeons, dermatologists and laser centers are using blogging and blog marketing to increase patient traffic and increase SEO for their websites and clinics.
I was just reading the text of the proposed changes to the Healthcare reform bill. Hidden in the middle of dozens of pages is this gem:
IN GENERAL.—There is hereby imposed on the sale of any taxable medical device by the manufacturer, producer, or importer a tax equal to 2.9 percent of the price for which so sold.
Well guess what, people - Mr. Obama & company may have backed off on the 10% cosmetic surgery tax, but he's still sticking it to you with a 2.9% tax on implants and surgical supplies. It would also increase the cost of lasers, liposuction equipment, and many other surgical and anesthesia supplies we all use.
That's in addition to the additional 3.9% tax you'll be paying for any profit on investment income. So, if you invested and "saved your pennies" like an honest, hard-working American, you might be penalized up to 6.8% for having cosmetic surgery!
This tax also would apply to pacemakers, stents, heart valves, cataract lenses, artificial hip & knee implants, motorized wheelchairs, and implantable defibrillators. As if these things weren't expensive enough! It's the "Son-of-Bo-tax". Boo!!!
From: Tom Fiala, MD
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"?
Frontdesk offers do-it-yourself SEO software that lets you use your front desk staff to market your business. (They offer outsource SEO as well.) You can start for as little as $59 a month which is killer.
If you haven't already, run a free SEO report on your website and see where you rank according to the major search engines.
This is the same system that we use at Medical Spa MD to keep our #1 rankings in all of the major search engines and I can't say enough about the back end and how easy it is to use and works eaqually well for any business or web site. And, if you want to kick it up a notch, the have outsourcing options that use their SEO experts to do the work.
Medical Spa MD Members get a Podium patient review marketing account and save $1,257
Protect your reputation. Get new patients. Medical Spa MD Members receive a special, full service Podium account that includes: no setup fee (save $300), a 10% discount forever (save $330/year) and on-demand patient review marketing training for your entire staff ($597 value). This offer is not available anywhere else.
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.
Figures may not add exactly to totals and percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
No need to shed tears for Allergan with a market cap of nearly $18 billion last week.
Allergan Inc. Chief Executive David Pyott is guarded about 2010 as the drug maker faces competition, uncertain spending on its medical cosmetics and a relatively quiet year for product launches.
“It’s sensible to remain conservative in our forecast given there are still a number of challenges to be accounted for,” Pyott said. “You need to think about 2010 potentially being the most challenging of the coming years.”
In the 'you've got to be kidding me' category... Six women in NJ ended up in the hospital after they were injected with 'bathroom tile calk' from unlicensed ass-injectors.
This rings of the other idiots who are/were injecting themselves at home with an unknown 'do it yourself Botox' substitute.
(CBS/AP) Six women in New Jersey are recovering after they received buttocks-enhancement injections containing silicone used to caulk bathtubs.
State health officials say the women, from Essex County, apparently underwent cosmetic procedures from unlicensed providers.
Investigators have not determined if the cases are related.
No arrests have been made.
Instead of medical-grade silicone, the women received a diluted version of nonmedical-grade silicone.
"The same stuff you use to put caulk around the bathtub," said Steven M. Marcus, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, according to The Star-Ledger.
State epidemiologist Tina Tan says there's the risk for more serious complications when infections are not treated early.
Gregory Borah, chief of plastic surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, told the newspaper the incident was "a tragedy."
Using over-the-counter silicone can cause abscesses that he said resemble "a big zit."
Borah, also president of the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons, said the botched procedures underscore the need for patients seeking such enhancement to seek out licensed professionals in a sterile setting, the newspaper reported.
Last week we had a webinar on social media marketing and more than 70 Medical Spa MD Members signed up. I'd expected somewhere from 10-15 so having 70+ surprised me somewhat.
Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD explains basic Twitter functions for physicians running medical spas, laser clinics, and cosmetic medical practices
We had intended to post the entire webcast but, due to some technology issues, the audio wasn't usable. So, Alex was kind enough to recreate the entire presentation in smaller parts.
We'll be posting a number of 'how to' videos as they're available around social media marketing with easy step by step instructions, from how to set up your Twitter account, to advanced techniques on Facebook to attract followers and promote your medical spa.
This video is the first in this series, Social Media Marketing for Medical Spas: Part 1, Alex goes over setting up a Twitter account correctly.
Setting up a Twitter account for your medical spa, laser clinic or plastic surgery practice. of course you'll want to follow Freelance MD and Medical Spa MD on Twitter.
Plastic surgeons, dermatologists, laser clinics, medical spas, skin clinics and laser centers will all benefit from learning about the newest social media marketing tactics and strategies. Social media is growing and your cosmetic medical practice can benefit from it's growth with Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, SEO and do it yourself search engine marketing.
Free SEO report for your medical spa or plastic surgery website from Frontdesk SEO.
A free SEO website report from Frontdesk SEO lets you know how your website is ranking on the search engines.
Frontdesk SEO offers do-it-yourself search engine marketing software for businesses who want to use their existing staff—hence the 'frontdesk' monkier—to build search engine rankings, increase visibility for their potential patient population, and drive traffic locally.
Frontdesk has a free SEO report that can give you a feel for how well you're doing in the cut-throat competition online.
And, if you really want to dominate your local market, Frontdesk offers outsource SEO packages that unique, combining monthly phone interviews, press releases, social media, blogging and article distribution to give you some serious marketing power.
Armed guard protects ALC patients from the supervising physician who is supposedly overseeing their treatment.
American Laser Clinics operations are stopped by a medical board yet again.
This reminds me of the armed guard that American Laser Clinics stationed in the laser clinic to prevent the supervising physician from seeing patients... while they treated those very same patients under his 'medical direction'.
According to the Quad City Times:
A doctor who led a medical spa in Bettendorf has been sanctioned by the Iowa Board of Medicine.
Anthony O. Colby, of Iowa City, was the medical director and/or supervision physician at American Laser Center in Bettendorf, Coralville and West Des Moines, documents from the board said. The Bettendorf location is at 852 Middle Road.
The center’s West Des Moines office was also issued a cease-and-desist order by the board, saying that the center must stop “the unlawful practice of medicine in Iowa,” records indicate. The board says a person at that office performed medical services without proper physician oversight.
A spokesperson for American Laser Center, a chain with 225 clinics nationwide, could not be reached for comment. Colby could not be reached for comment, either.
According to board documents, Colby has insufficient training or experience to supervise individuals performing medical aesthetic services in Iowa. The board also alleged that Colby failed to properly supervise those who performed such services.
Specifically, at least one patient suffered serious burns on her arms after receiving treatment for hyper-pigmentation on her face and arms by a person under Colby’s supervision.
The board ordered that Colby not serve as the medical director for a medical spa that offers specific types of services or supervise anyone who performs those services.
He was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and warned that any more violations could result in further disciplinary action.
As for American Laser Center in West Des Moines, the board determined that non-physicians were performing examinations, diagnosing medical conditions, offering treatment recommendations and performed medical procedures, including the use of lasers for the treatment of hyper-pigmentation and cellulite removal.
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Medical Spa MD has been threatened with lawsuits on more than one occasion for something that someone posted in the forums.
If you're running a laser clinic or medical spa you'll have some unhappy patients from time to time as well.. and very soon every one of your patients will have a Facebook page, Twitter stream, or personal blog that provides a public platform for them to voice their displeasure.
In fact, more than 85% of your potential clients who are looking for a medical spa or elective plastic surgery proceedure are doing research online. And it's not just kids. People between 35 and 60 are the fastest growing group online. If you're not the most prominant voice, you're loosing patients, revenue, and reputation.
There have been a number of medical spas and physicians who have literally gone out of business because they were unable to manage their reputation online when it was attacked. (Look at American Laser Clinics reputation.) Trying to 'fix it' with underhand tactics can make it worse.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
Here's a story on CNN about a student who created a Facbook page about a teacher:
A former Florida high school student who was suspended by her principal after she set up a Facebook page to criticize her teacher is protected constitutionally under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate ruled.
U.S. Magistrate Barry Garber's ruling, in a case viewed as important by Internet watchers, denied the principal's motion to dismiss the case and allows a lawsuit by the student to move forward.
"We have constitutional values that will always need to be redefined due to changes in technology and society," said Ryan Calo, an attorney with Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.
"The fact that students communicate on a semi-public platform creates new constitutional issues and the courts are sorting them out," Calo said.
Katherine Evans, now 19 and attending college, was suspended in 2007 from Pembroke Pines Charter High School after she used her home computer to create a Facebook page titled, "Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met."
In his order, Garber found that the student had a constitutional right to express her views on the social networking site.
"Evans' speech falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech," he wrote. "It was an opinion of a student about a teacher, that was published off-campus ... was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior."
Matthew Bavaro, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing Evans, was pleased with the ruling.
"The First Amendment provides protection for free speech regardless of the forum, being the Internet, the living room or a restaurant," he told CNN.
So, while there's nothing you can do to prevent an unhappy patient from broadcasting their displeasure, there is a way to keep that unhappyness from being the first thing that comes up when someone searches on your name or the name of your medical spa or clinic. That's to be the dominant 'voice' that's heard when someone is looking for information about you, your practice, or your services.
So what can you do to protect your personal and medical reputation?
In effect, you need to have a bigger microphone. That means that means that you're going to need to do some heavy lifting online to make absolutely sure that when someone is searching for information on your medical spa, dermatology practice, or plastic surgery clinic, the information that they find is about your practice, not negative comments from disgruntled patients.
And since this is such a problem for every medical practice and physician, we've been looking to help address this need. We're about to launch two new Medical Spa MD Select Partners to help.
The first, Freelance MD, is a creative agency specializing in marketing and advertising outsource services for medical spas and plastic surgeons. The second will be announced later this week.
Freelance MD will be hosing a free webinar on social media marketing this week. (You can see details and register in the previous post.) If you're not an expert at using search engine marketing, social media, special events and local PR, you'll want to sign up and learn how it's done.
Social media has been a hot topic in the business world, but many medical practices are still far behind in their implementation of it, if they're attempting it at all.
One lame excuse is that Facebook is just for kids and college students. Think again: the latest statistics showed that the most explosively growing demographic on Facebook is women 55 and over(http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/02/fastest-growing-demographic-on-facebook-women-over-55/), and 45% of Facebook is aged 26 and over.
Many practices are not yet fluent in Twitter, citing the 130 character limit on posts and a userbase smaller than Facebook's. However, Twitter and Google recently announced a deal to index and list Twitter posts in search results. Can you say backlinks?
Want to learn more? MedicalspaMD is pleased to announce our first free webinar in an instructional series on social media and SEO, on Thursday, February 25, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Presented by Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD, the webinar will serve as an introduction to the sites Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, covering how to set up accounts and a blog that can eventually increase profits and local awareness of your practice.
The webinar is designed for doctors, practice administrators, and support staff who are either starting from square one or want to see how they can do things differently.
There will be a question and answer session at the conclusion, and it will be recorded for future viewing.
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| Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/189033608 |
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.
Paula D. Young RN runs internal operations and training at Young Medical Spa and is the author of the Medical Spa Aesthetics Course, Study Guide, and Advanced IPL & Laser Training course for medical estheticians and laser technicians.
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Shine Teeth Whitening posted this video demonstration of just how easy it is to take dental impressions these days.
Shine Teeth Whitening is a Select Partner of Medical Spa MD and provides a service that gives physicians and medical spas the ability to offer custom-made teeth whitening trays to their clients.
I wish I'd had their service in our Park City clinic about ten years ago. (Teeth whitening is the #1 most sought after cosmetic service.)
Physicians, plastic surgeons, and dermatologists practicing nonsurgical cosmetic medicine in medical spas, laser clinics and aesthetic practices.
A community of dermatologists, plastic surgeons, laser clinics, & skin clinics world wide.
Medical Spa MD is a community of physicians and clinicians practicing nonsurgical cosmetic medicine in laser clinics, medspas, dermatologist and plastic surgeon clinics worldwide.
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