What's Killing Your Cosmetic Practice Profits?

If you haven't watched this video, do it now and learn what top performing cosmetic practices are doing that you're not.

Hint: It's your internal systems.

A few weeks ago we sent a survey to 472 physicians asking about efficiency and productivity in their clinic or practice. Here's just a little of what we found out:

• Over 9/10 of physicians said that their clinic operated at less than 80% efficiency, and 4 out of 10 said that their clinic efficiency was below 60%!
• Physicians reported this "productivity gap" costs their clinic between $5k and $40k in lost revenue every month.
• When I asked them what doesn't work, the most common responses: "lack of systems" (44%), "wasted time and effort" (50%), and "micro-management" (40%).

There is a better way that can pull you out of the micro-managing, hair-on-fire, unproductive daily grind and put you in a position where you're working ON your business, not IN your business. Take a look at the Ultimate Clinic Operations Blueprint.

Survey: How Efficient & Productive Is Your Medical Clinic?

The New Clinic Efficiency & Productivity Survey

As part of a new course we're building for the new Training Academy, we're looking into how clinics and medical practices operate, and how efficient and productive they are.

The new course? The Ultimate Clinic Operations Blueprint.

Please take a moment and answer 9 quick questions on your clinic's productivity and efficiency. It should take just 2 minutes and we'll send the results to all participants.

Take the survey right here.

Survey: The Cosmetic Clinic Consultation Blueprint

The money is a cosmetic clinic is made in the consultation room. We want you to make more of it.

Take this quick survey and help us build a blueprint of best practices for cosmetic patient consultations.

What do you say? What do you do? What tools, software, or photos do you use to educate your patients during a consultation? What's your teams process and training? What results or metrics do you track?

Patient consutations are where your clinic makes money. That's the truth. The services you then deliver are just a fulfillment of the promises and commitments you made in the consult room. So improving your patient conslultatons is something that you should be focused on as a clinician, and working to get everyone on your team behind. 

Help us build the roadmap to the perfect cosmetic patient consultation by taking this quick survey and telling us how you perform consults, what works, and what you've tried that doesn't. We'll compile all of the answers along with input from consult guru's and top performers to build a "cosmetic clinc consultation blueprint" that will be available to members to learn from and help train their team to up-level one of the most critical parts of your cosmetic business. 

Take this survey and share your thoughts. 

This survey has 10 questions and should take you just a few minutes. (We might even contact you for more info for the guide.)

The New "Natural" Breast - Ideal Proportion is Key

A recent study in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reveals the ideal proportions that may be used as a basis for helping your patients define the perfect breast.

You've all seen it happen; every woman wants perfects breasts and is convinced she knows what that means. Why then, is she dissatisfied when you deliver the modifications she's asked for? It turns out there's a new standard of beauty and a new study to help you, and your clients, achieve it.

In a recent survey, 1,315 men and women were asked to rate the attractiveness of breasts shown to them in three-quarter profile.  The results showed a clear pattern; the best chests have 45% fullness above the nipple line and 55% fullness below in a slightly teardrop shape.  Upward pointing nipples, a mildly concave upperslope and a convex and smooth lower slope were also key. Ironically, the traditional emphasis on upper pole fullness is not what patients now want. Round is out, natural is in!

So, how do you transfer the old ideal to the new real? Use these tips to guide your consultation:

• Educate - find out what she already knows about the procedure and use this  knowledge as a basis to discuss the safest and healthiest way to achieve the result. Augment what they "know" with your expert medical opinion.
• Communicate - Eveyone woamn has her own opinions about ideal shape and size. It is also critical to know whether a natural or augmented look is desired. Also useful is a  discussion of implant location, fill material and resulting profile in addition to size. It is also key to help her understand that a naked breast will have a shape that differs from a clothed breast.
• Be specific - Size and proportion alone isn't enough.  Discuss frame size, body shape and activity level with your patient.
• Use images - Pictures, drawings and 3D imaging are all excellent tools to guide the process.

In the end, a common standard of beauty may be ideal, but your goal is to also help a woman be beautifully real.  If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, use her as a collaborator to achieve both of your goals.

Read more about the survey discussed above at: http://journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/Fulltext/2014/09000/Population_Analysis_of_the_Perfect_Breast___A.8.aspx?WT.mc_id=HPxADx20100319xMP

Fear of the Unknown in Cosmetic Surgery

A study commissioned by CCR Expo reveals that only half of the women who are interested in cosmetic surgery actually undergo the procedure.

Aside from cost, CCR Expo research reveals that there is actually fear of botched treatment as seen in media, wariness in the results (patients fear that they might not like what they will see in the mirror), and not knowing if the practitioners themselves are qualified to perform the procedure.

The annual CCR Expo, or the Clinical Cosmetic and Reconstructive Expo 2015, will be held on October 8-9, 2015 at the Olympia National Hall, London, United Kingdom. Prior to the event, three surveys were conducted among to know the opinion of various individuals including aesthetic practitioners, medics such as general practitioners and dentists, and the women patients who constitute majority of the patients undergoing such treatments.

Notwithstanding the governments efforts to regulate and "clean up" the cosmetic surgery arena, research revealed that patients and practitioners alike have a lot of fears. This is attributed to the fact that the aesthetic sector is largely unregulated.

Practitioner's View 

•  There are too many untrained cosmetic providers who perform procedures that damage the reputation of credible and qualified practitioners.
•  There is a lack of training and expertise in the following: facial anatomy, diagnosing and coping with complications, wrong treatments, and the use of unproven products.
• Medical colleagues see that there is a strong prejudice for practicing aestheticians and the later are regardes as "beneath them". On the other hand, the survey also revealed that colleagues saw the field as lucrative but they got scared to enter because of lack of knowledge.
• 90% of the surveyed GPs and dentists had considered providing aesthetic treatments, yet they did not push through because of: lack of specialized training, concerns in tax regulations and botched jobs, not understanding its legal frameworks, and the marketing involved.

According to CCR Expo organizer Peter Jones:

We don’t necessarily encourage more clinicians to join the aesthetics arena, but our research clearly shows there is a strong desire for more clarity in the sector, alongside some understandable concerns. At CCR Expo our logic is, if you’re going to do it, then do it right! This is why we have put together a full programme and roster of experts who can offer support and guidance to those who do wish to enter this field, so they have the tools enabling them to practise ethically and safely.

Clinicians have honed their careers over many years – sometimes decades, and being protective of their reputation is entirely natural. We are here to help them train andmaintain their hard-earned standing, whilst also helping keep the public safe. They certainly deserve no less.

More on: https://www.prime-journal.com/fears-continue-to-grow-around-aesthetics-sector/

High Dissatisfaction among Patients with Atopic Dermatitis: Opportunity for New Market Entrants

Atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, appears most commonly in one-year old children, and about half of these children will have them when they become adults. Sadly, research reveals a very high dissatisfaction among adult patients of the treatments available for atopic dermatitis (AD). On the other hand, this is a good news for new entrants in the market.

The research done by GfK Disease Atlas on atopic dermatitis covered eight countries, over 4,000 pediatric and adult atopic dermatitis patients, and over 800 physicians. Results reveal that 6 out of 10 patients experiencing moderate to severe atopic dermatitis who were treated with topical steroids are not satisfied with the results.

This is amidst the the fact that about 92% of them said that their doctors explained what is expected from the treatment. Four out of 10 of doctors also expressed their dissatisfaction. Topical steroids are used mainly to reduce the swelling and inflammation in affected areas and control eczema.

There is a lack of options available for patients, making them repeat the same treatment options.This is the reason why GfK Immunology and Dermatology Therapy Director Alison Rose said that there is a huge potential for new players to enter the market and provide with other therapy options.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, atopic dermatitis cannot be cured but it can be controlled. This is done by preventing AD from getting worse, calming the skin and relieving pain and itch, preventing infections, and stopping the skin from thickening.

Further, according to the AAD website, there is no way to determine if AD will ever go away or it will be a lifelong disease, however, it gets milder with age. Treatments, therefore, are very much important in preventing AD from getting worse and relieving a patient's discomfort.

Read more on: http://www.gfk.com/news-and-events/press-room/press-releases/pages/dissatisfaction-in-atopic-dermatitis-treatment.aspx https://www.aad.org/dermatology-a-to-z/diseases-and-treatments/a---d/atopic-dermatitis

Survey: Share your opinion of the future of telemedicine.

Take our 2 minute survey and share your thoughts and opinions about the future (or lack thereof) of telemedicine!

Telemedicine is gaining at least a toe-hold in health care at both ends of the health care spectrum. For some large hospital groups and insurers it offers an ability to scale with significant cost savings, and on the other end individual physicians like those in concierge and cosmetic practices are using telemedicine to stay in touch with patients and offer services on-demand.

If you're a physician, clinician or clinic/hospital administrator, we're asking you for a few minutes of your time to take this survey an answer a couple of simple questions to see what providers are thinking about telemedicine.

We'll aggregate the answers and create a report outlining the sentiment of physicians and other providers around telemedicine.

This survey is being run by our frends at Freelance MD but we'll share it with our Members. (If you're not a Member, join now.)

Here's a direct link to share with your networks: https://storyteller.typeform.com/to/CFMq33