Medical Spa MD

ASAPS 2009 Statistics Are In

2010-03-11T00:20:18Z

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.

In 2009, there were approximately 10 million surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures performed in the US. Surgical procedures accounted for 15% of the total with nonsurgical procedures making up the other 85%.
From 2008-2009, there was a 2% decrease in the total number of cosmetic procedures performed. Surgical procedures decreased by 17%, and nonsurgical procedures increased by almost 1%.
Since 1997, there has been over a 147% increase in the total number of cosmetic procedures performed. Surgical procedures increased by 50%, and nonsurgical procedures increased by 231%.
The top five cosmetic surgical procedures in 2009 were: breast augmentation (311,957 procedures); liposuction (283,735procedures); eyelid surgery (149,943 procedures); rhinoplasty (138,258 procedures); and abdominoplasty (127,923 procedures).
The top five nonsurgical cosmetic procedures in 2009 were: Botox injection (2,557,068 procedures); hyaluronic acid (1,313,038 procedures); laser hair removal (1,280,031 procedures); microdermabrasion (621,943 procedures) and chemical peels (529,285 procedures).
Women had over 9 million cosmetic procedures, over 90% percent of the total. The number of cosmetic procedures for women decreased over 3% from 2008.
The top five surgical procedures for women were: breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery, abdominoplasty and breast reduction.
Men had over 900,000 cosmetic procedures, over 9% of the total. The number of cosmetic procedures for men increased over 8% from 2008.
The top five surgical procedures for men were: liposuction, rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, breast reduction to treat enlarged male breasts, and hair transplantation.
People age 35-50 had the most procedures – almost 4.5 million and 44% of the total. People age 19-34 had 20% of procedures; age 51-64 had 27%; age 65-and-over had 7%; and age 18-and-younger had 2%.
The most common procedures for age 18-and-under were: laser hair removal, microdermabrasion, rhinoplasty chemical peel and Botulinum Toxin Type A (including Botox and Dysport).
Racial and ethnic minorities, as of last year, had approximately 20% of all cosmetic procedures, a decrease of 1 percent from 2008: Hispanics, 9%; African-Americans, 6%; Asians, 4%; and other non-Caucasians, 3%.
Where cosmetic surgeries were performed: office facility, 58%; hospital, 18%; and free-standing surgicenter, 23%.
Of the doctors surveyed, 75% say they do not offer “spa” services (e.g. wraps, facials, massages) in conjunction with their medical practices. 88% of the doctors say they do not work in conjunction with legitimate medical spas where nonsurgical procedures, such as injections and laser procedures are performed.
Americans spent almost $10.5 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2009

Figures may not add exactly to totals and percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.

Allergan - Botox Cosmetic

2010-03-09T02:40:49Z

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.”

For most of the last decade, Allergan played offense.

The Irvine-based drug maker was fueled by its $3 billion 2006 buy of Santa Barbara medical cosmetic maker Inamed Corp. and big product rollouts, including Botox Cosmetic in 2002 and eyelash growth drug Latisse at the end of 2008.

This year, Allergan is in more of a defensive mode, with worries about a slow economic recovery and its impact on medical cosmetics spending, expected generic competition for a key eye drug and the first full year of sales for Botox’s only rival.

Allergan gave a guarded outlook for the current quarter and 2010 earlier this month. The forecast was cautious even by the standards of Pyott, known for underpromising and overdelivering.

The company said it expected a profit of $174.3 million to $180.4 million for the first quarter, well below the $186 million analysts had been looking for on average.

The drug maker projected first-quarter product sales (slightly less than total sales) of $1.06 billion to $1.1 billion. On average, analysts had been expecting sales to come in at $1.11 billion.

For all of 2010, Allergan forecasts a profit of $944.9 million to $963.3 million, in line with analysts’ average expectation of $960.2 million.

2010 product sales are pegged at $4.55 billion to $4.75 billion, below the $4.78 billion Wall Street had been forecasting.

The 2010 outlook “didn’t have quite the upside to our forecast that we hoped,” said Gary Nachman, an analyst with Boston-based Leerink Swann LLC, in a research note.

Allergan’s shares briefly slumped after its forecast before rebounding, which “strongly suggests investors expect better results than those Allergan has projected,” Aaron Gal, an analyst for New York-based Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., told Reuters.

Allergan had a market value of nearly $18 billion last week.

Via Orange County Business Journal

Idiot Ass Augmentations Hospitlize Six In New Jersey

2010-03-09T02:27:12Z

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.

Social Media Marketing: Part 1

2010-03-06T19:41:35Z

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 laser clinic website.

2010-03-01T16:04:16Z

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.

American Laser Clinics Trouble In Iowa

2010-02-26T23:15:23Z

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.

Social Media Marketing Webinar TONIGHT! Thurs, Feb 25 8:30 EST

2010-02-25T16:09:54Z

Freelance MD: Social Media Marketing

Join us for a live Webinar on Thurs, March 25

Space is limited. Only about 12 seats remaining!
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/189033608

Freelance MD's Social Media Marketing Webinar presented by Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD, the webinar will serve as an introduction to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and cover how to set up accounts and a blog that can eventually increase profits and local awareness of your medical spa or cosmetic 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. A Q&A session will follow to ensure that all of your questions are answered.

Title:		Freelance MD: Social Media Marketing

Date:		Thursday, March 25, 2010

Time:		8:30 PM - 9:30 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Protecting Your Medical Spas (And Your Own) Reputation Online

2010-02-22T16:09:14Z

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.

Medical Spa MD: Social Media Webinar Thurs, Feb 25 8:30 EST

2010-02-19T17:08:09Z

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.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/189033608

The Next Frontier: Stem Cell Enhanced Treatments

2010-02-17T21:33:55Z

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.

Shine Teeth Whitening: Custom dental tray video.

2010-02-17T03:22:49Z

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.)

Financing for Your Medical Spa Patients

2010-02-11T14:38:37Z

Perhaps it is true that the medical spa aesthetic industry is beginning to bounce back, as indicated by the post on Allergan's increase last quarter.

I do know that in our practice we have seen an increase in patient flow. However, while the patients are gaining interest and beginning to come in for consults, one major problem still exists for some. Financing.

With the credit card companies raising interest rates for some, and all out cancelling accounts for others, the method of using one's credit card for paying for aesthetic procedures is not as easy as it once was.

Awhile back I posted on Care Credit sending "Dear John" letters to many practices. The practices that Care Credit retained found that the criteria in financing approval had been increased making it difficult, if not impossible, for some patients to finance their procedures. I do have to say, though, that I am beginning to see Care Credit lax their criteria a bit as more of our patients are beginning to receive financing.

We use a couple of finance companies who have imposed these new credit limits on our patients. I had sent out emails to colleagues in the industry inquiring as to who they're having more success with. I ended up adding a brokerage finance company, MyMedicalLoan.com, who delivers a patient's financial application to a variety of finance companies. Our representative told me that if they can only get the procedure amount partially financed with one company, then they will propose the remainder of the balance of the procedure to the other companies. In some instances, there may be two or three finance companies involved with the patient making one payment to MyMedicalLoan.com.

How has it worked out for us so far? On average, for every five patients we send them, approximately two or three receive financing. As it is now, we have more patients waiting for better financing options.

So, the patients are beginning to come in again and we are faced with providing sufficient financing options. I encourage anyone to share their experiences with others on financing options that are truly benefiting their patients and their practice.

Zerona Lasers

2010-02-09T16:37:45Z

Thoughts on Zerona Lasers

LH (Dr. Lornell E. Hansen II MD) has this comment on the latest Zerona Lasers review discussion around the effacacy of Zerona for 'fat melting' and a study that was just released.

Here's the Zerona Body Sculpting Study

Low-Level Laser Therapy Effectiveness for Reducing Pain After Breast Augmentation American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery Vol. 26, No. 3, 2009
Robert F. Jackson, MD; Gregory Roche, DO; Todd Mangione, DO

LH's comments:

...I do have to apologize as I did not know that the article had been published. The last I had read was that it was waiting for review. I also want people to understand that I am not saying that the physicians involved in the study did anything wrong with my evaluation of the article. I just think that the company is over marketing the product and charging way too much.

My critique:

The first thing they teach you in medical school on how to evaluate research is who paid for the research. In this case the sponsor of the research and article was Erchonia the company that makes Zerona.

Who wrote the article? In this case the article appears to have been written by Ryan Maloney. Who is Ryan Maloney? He not only is the medical director of Erchonia he actually has ownership in the patent of the Zerona. Other than that you do not know his background. We know he is not a PhD or physician otherwise it would be behind his name under the authorship of the article. He has a direct financial benefit to write the article in a positive light.

8 Individuals did not have final measurements. The first question is why? 4 were from the treated group and 4 were from the placebo group. At first that seems OK, but when you look further into they kept all of these test subjects included in the study. What they did is they took the last measurements for those subjects and carried them forward. Again seems Ok at first but when you start to look at the trend of circumferential loss at the 2 weeks post treatment the measurements are trending back toward baseline. So if you include these patients last measurement (which by the way is the best overall average circumferential loss during the treatments for the treated group) and carry them forward they will artificially lower the true values two weeks post treatment. All 8 of these subjects should have been eliminated from the study.

There is no assessment of cosmetic benefit. To have this be worth something you would need before and after pictures that are reviewed by a group of individuals that are blinded to which treatment the individual participant received. So in other words is a 3 inch loss aesthetically significant.

They do not state if participants are male or female. So the question is left, does it work as well on males as it does on females? This could be very important as males tend to have thicker skin so does the laser penetrate as deep in men?

the study was limited to patients with a BMI of 25 to 30. Now I think it is fine to have this limitation as you have to start your research somewhere. But the limitation is that the article is implying that it will work for all BMI's. What about the thinner female patient with a BMI of 20 but has a small lower abdominal pooch? Or what about the patient that has a BMI of 35? This should be stated in the conclusion but Mr. Maloney seems to forget this.

They also do not state if the patients received their treatments for free or if they were compensated for their time. This is only important for the portion of the study that talked about the patient satisfaction. We need to understand that patients will put a value on the treatment because if something is free their expectations are much lower. their expectations are much higher if they paid $2500 for the treatment. So if this was free to the patient and you have 30% of the treated group that are dissatisfied or neutral what would that mean to a clinic if the patients are paying for it. I would guess you will have a much higher dissatisfied group that either wants their money back or free treatments. I do not want something in my clinic that has a 30% failure rate.

They do not discuss if either group was asked to change their diets. This should be stated up front in the methods portion of the article. They also do not mention if there were any dietary supplements required such as niacin. Most clinics using Zerona are having the patients take niacin even Erchonia recommends it.

They set the standard for success to be an inch loss of 3 inches or greater. Only 62.86% of the treated group achieved success. So this translates in to a 37.14% failure rate. Again, not something that I would want to stake my reputation on.

Now what do the numbers mean? If you look at the numbers the patients baseline combined measurement average was 120.31 inches. At week 2 of treatment (the best measurements achieved) the average was 116.79 inches or an inch loss of 3.52 inches on average. This sounds pretty good until you look at the true numbers. Using the numbers from the study this equates to a 2.9% inch loss as measured over 4 areas. Is this clinically (visually) significant? I do not think that most individuals will be able to see a 2.9% change or if they can it will be meaningful.

Lets take a look at the 2 weeks post treatment measurements. Remember, these are not true numbers as 4 patients had their best numbers included in these measurements pulled forward and included here. (I think all of their measurements should have been puled out). At 2 weeks post treatment, you see a 0.31 inch increase from the circumferential measurements at the 2 week treatments. What this equates to is an 8.8% increase in inches in only 2 weeks. So what happens at 4 weeks? 6 Weeks? So if it were a perfectly linear increase it would only take about 20 weeks or so to be 100% back at baseline. That is if it were linear and I highly doubt it is a linear response and if i had to guess most patients will be back at baseline measurements within 6 to 10 weeks and this is why there are no long term studies. The company has had ample time to produce longer term studies they apparently do not want to.

So as you can see, there are a few issues with this article and how it was analyzed and written. The first and foremost problem is that the article was authored by an individual with direct financial interest in the product. The ASLMS journal never should have published this article due to the authors conflict of interest or it should have a disclaimer prior to the abstract. I have no vested interest in any of these non-invasive technologies and would love to see something like this work and have long term benefits for the patients. I think this technology may have better long term benefits on cholesterol etc. I have heard that there are some interesting studies coming. I just hope they are not written by Mr. Maloney. And for others reading this I assume that Chad works for Erchonia or the marketing company that is selling this thing to anyone they can including chiropractors.

Sincerely,
Lornell E. Hansen II, M.D. (LH)
www.LazaDerm.com

p.s. Sorry for being so long winded but I could not help myself. I want these companies to be held to higher standards. I think the ASLMS should have higher standards as well.

If you read the thread there's some interesting thoughts that spring to mind. If Chad is not with Zerona it would be the first time in my experience that a patient has been searching for peer-reviewed medical studies before deciding to have a treatment... I'm just saying.

Of course this qualifies as a guest post and a well deserved back link.

Any other physicians using Zerona have any thoughts?

Allergan's Botox Profits Jump 51%

2010-02-09T04:08:26Z

Allergan's profits bounced up an impressive 51%... Could this signal a medical spa rebound?

Allergan Inc.'s (AGN) fourth-quarter profit jumped 51% from a charge-addled period last year while product sales surged 16% amid continued improvements in markets for cosmetic medical procedures following the recession, the company said Thursday.

The Botox-maker forecast weaker-than-expected earnings in the first quarter, which it pegged to increased spending on advertising and product launches. It also projected full-year earnings mostly below Wall Street's forecast while being cautious about economic recovery and challenges for certain products.

Still, shares of the Irvine, Calif., company, which also makes eye drugs, breast implants and fillers for facial wrinkles, recently traded up 2.3% to $58.09.

Add a Medical Spa MD Badge to your website.

2010-02-07T20:12:43Z

Member Badges

Identify your site as part of the most respected physician community on the web. Insert the following code into the HTML of your web site to place a Medspa MD Member Badge.

Medical Spa MD Free Member Downlad Files are intended for the personal use of Medical Spa MD Members and protected by copyright. All other copyrights are owned by their original owners. By downloading this content you agree to be bound by Medical Spa MD's terms and conditions.