An anesthesiologist moving into cosmetic medicine.

I had occasion last Friday to be visited by an anesthesiologist from Denver, who is interested in learning more about Surface Medical Spas.

Dr. Nelson is currently a member of a rather large group of anesthesiologists (55). In choosing her residency, she had felt that anesthesiology was a good fit since it was procedure oriented, and a high paid specialty. She has since been slightly disenfranchised, and to be honest - bored. She is also not terribly excited by the fact that she does a lot of pediatric anesthesiology, and is on call as a junior member of her group so that she has interrupted weekends and evenings.

Dr. Nelson called me a few weeks ago to ass about Surfaces cosmetic and business training for physicians. I spoke with her at some length about what we did, and what I thought we might be able to help her with. I suggested she come visit us, if she felt so inclined, to learn more.

(I have found in the past that, speaking on the phone is great, as far as it goes - but, the amount of information that you can convey over the phone during a half-hour or hour-long phone call is just not that great. Whereas, six hours of speaking with sedition's and staff, and treatments performed, and consolations done, and how our office is run, conveys a huge amount of information, and has always been extremely beneficial.)

Dr. Nelson in on a Thursday, and had booked a plane ticket home on Friday at around 2:00 - which didn't give us much time. I met Dr. Nelson for breakfast, and we talked about both where she was as a physician, where she wanted to be, how she might go about getting there (moving from Anesthesia into cosmetic medicine, is still a bit of a stretch) I was impressed with Dr. Nelsons interest and drive. She had already spent a tremendous amount of time researching her options and had looked at several of the current batch of medspa franchises and licensing consultants. She half-jokingly referred to several of them as 'evil'.

Doctor Nelson and Doctor Bergstrom spent a brief period of time just talking and chatting about history and backgrounds before was invited into one of Doctor Bergstrom 's consultations.

(Surface consultations are performed very differently than what is typically done. First of all they are free. Secondly they are an hour long. Our patients are able to spend an hour of physician time discussing anything they want, including how much stuff hurts, how much stuff costs, whatever... )

After the consultation, Doctor Nelson had maybe about another hour that I spent talking to her before she had to catch her plane. She was, I think it is safe to say happy that she came. She expressed to me a number of times during that hour that she felt she had found her new home.  In fact, one of the direct quotes was, "I want to be Doctor Bergstrom," which I found both humorous and flattering.

It will be interesting to find out if or how she pursues both her contacts with Surface as well as any other potential avenues. We left it with her thinking about what her options might be in the near future. Whether she joints Surface in some capacity, or opens up a clinic of her own, I  wish her the best of luck.