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hCG Diet - 2 Years Later!

It’s been two years since I did 34 days on the IAPAM’s hCG diet protocol, so I thought I’d give you an update on the effectiveness of the program. As of this morning, I’m still within 2lbs of my last injection weight, so am I happy with my results, you bet I am! In reviewing my results, I can safely say that the protocol did everything thing it was supposed to do: it reset my metabolism, reduced my appetite, got rid of those problem fat areas, and all without any type of regular exercise. I hear from others who haven’t been so successful on hCG and I ask them “where did you buy it?” and in 99.9% of the time, I hear “through the internet.” So I know they bought sugar water for $50, and I’m not surprised they didn’t have long term weight loss. I also hear from those who took the sugar water (aka homeopathic hCG) who say they lost a lot of weight, but those people seem to disappear after 6 months or so, when they discover that taking homeopathic hCG isn’t the same as taking prescription hCG. They don’t get the long term benefits, and like all the other yo-yo diets out there, they regain all their initial weight loss within 6-9 months.

More info: hCG Training for Physicians , What is hCG?, Dr Simeons Manuscript, IAPAM Botox training for physicians

Cheers,   Jeff Russell

               

Secrets to a Profitable Aesthetic Medicine Practice

As the Executive-Director of the IAPAM (International Association for Physicians in Aesthetic Medicine) I receive many calls and emails from physicians looking at entering the aesthetic medicine industry. The most common request is for Botox training, many believe by only offering Botox, they will be on their way to vast riches. The reality is that you certainly need to offer Botox treatments (it has been the number one non/minimally invasive cosmetic procedure for years), but it is highly commoditized. Which means, you don’t make much money! If you are going to add aesthetics to your practice, it should be for the money. For a typical Botox treatment, the patient may require 40 units of Botox. By the time you incorporate the cost of the product & consumables (needles, gloves, saline, gauze, ice pack, office time) you have a cost of $240, but the going rate for Botox is $9/unit, so you’ve made $120. Typically a patient comes back every 4-6 months, so you’ll make $240-$360/yr from one Botox patient. Now lets take a chemical peel treatment. Your cost is $20 (product cost & consumables), but you charge $120, your profit is still $100, but you see this patient once a month instead of 3 times a year. In a year, your profit is $1,200/yr vs $300-400/yr for one Botox patient. Ideally, your Botox patient is also a chemical peel patient as well! See where I’m going! Read more

               

Adding Botox to your Practice: Cash Based vs. Insurance Based Services

As Physicians, you want to move away from reducing insurance reimbursements and actually get paid for what you do! I love the analogy of, what if you walked into Target and only paid for half of the items you left with? Well, you would probably get arrested! However, this happens to physicians every day. You submit all those forms to insurance companies, and often you are lucky if you get paid for half of them. This is one of the many reasons physicians want to add aesthetic medicine procedures, like Botox, to their medical practices. The nice thing about these procedures is that they are not covered by insurance, and the patient needs to pay cash (debit or credit) when these procedures are done. Read more

               

Facebook for Medical Spas and Aesthetic Practices

I recently read that there are over 50 million connections between businesses and users on Facebook. What I find amazing is that Facebook users seem to have no problem “Liking” brands. Even just a year ago, most Facebook users kept everything personal, they would ignore Facebook ads, and they focused on keeping in touch with friends and family. My how times have changed in only a year. Read more

               

Cosmetic Injectable Procedures Continue to Grow Despite Economy

After reviewing the latest statistics on cosmetic procedures, I’m continuing to see strong growth in all of the minimally invasive procedures. Particularly in cosmetic injectables like the Botulinum toxins and dermal fillers. According to a recent report from Global Data, the Botulinum toxin market is expected to maintain the lead in terms of market share. They forecast the US facial aesthetics market to reach $1.7 billion in 2017, with an average 9% annual growth.

This report really emphasizes the importance of physicians offering lower cost, minimally invasive procedures to their patients. Once the realm of plastic surgeons and dermatologists, we are now seeing more non-core physicians like family practice and ob/gyn physicians adding these low complication procedures. Read more

               

FDA Takes Stand Against Homeopathic hCG

There certainly was a lot of buzz regarding homeopathic hCG. The FDA and the homeopathic industry both agree that homeopathic hCG doesn’t exist. “Homeopathic hCG is not recognized in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia. Therefore, it is not recognized by the FDA as homeopathic drugs, so they are unapproved drugs and are illegal. All lab tests on homeopathic hCG have found that it contains nothing more than sugar and water, not even a trace of hCG. Taking homeopathic hCG without a physicians supervision is very dangerous!” It looks like the FDA may start going after these homeopathic sales people since taking sugar water has not been found to help anyone lose weight. Read more

               

Homoepathic hCG found with Zero hCG

I came across an interesting website today. It appears that someone bought some homeopathic hCG on the internet and sent it to a lab for testing.  When the results came back, it was discovered that it contained no hCG! Wow, isn’t that surprising!?! You can see the website and lab reports here.  When they questioned the lab, they found that the homeopathic hCG drops were nothing more than alcohol and water with some traces of herbal stimulants. Of course people who’ve purchased this homeopathic hCG swear it works, and I’m sure they are losing weight, but what kind of weight are you losing? Muscle or fat??  With homeopathic hCG it’s safe to say it’s going to be muscle, whereas studies have shown you lose fat when following the original hCG protocol with pharmaceutical strength hCG (available only by prescription). Read more

               

Focus on Skin Care Packages and Gift Certificates for the Holidays

With the holiday season in full swing, this is the time for medical spas to pull out all the stops and focus on selling gift certificates or gift cards for the holidays.   This is critical in order to keep your aesthetic practice busy through the traditionally slower months of January and February. As well, you should be creating great holiday skin care gift packages for both men and women.  Try and make it easy for your clients; create a complete package of skin care products along with a holiday themed gift bag or box. Read more

               

Holiday Marketing for Medical Spas

The holiday season is coming very quickly. Thanksgiving will be here, and before you know it the holiday party season will begin.! For Medspas, this is the time you need to focus on selling those gift certificates and special packages. Since January is typically a slower month in aesthetics, you want to make sure you sell many packages in December so you have patients coming in for the first quarter of 2011. Read more

               

Effective MedSpa Print Advertising

In today’s economy, it’s more important than ever that you only spend your marketing dollars on revenue generating marketing tactics.  My good friend, and medical spa consultant, Cindy Graf (aka The Laser Queen) says, “you don’t have the time or money for brand advertising, you need to get patients in the door now!” I 100% agree with her advice!! If your existing print advertising campaign consists of the doctor along with a laundry list of your services, you need to change now!  Read more

               

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IAPAM Aesthetic Medicine Resources

• Recent News

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  • Cynosure Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for Cellulaze Cellulite Laser Workstation
  • IAPAM’s hCG Physician Medical Weight Management Training - March 2, 2012
  • Botox/Dermal Filler Training- February 18-19, 2012
  • Advanced Dermal Filler Training- February 17, 2012
  • IAPAM Aesthetic Practice Startup Workshop - March 5, 2012
  • IAPAM Announces NEW hCG Training Resource: IAPAM’s hCG Q & A e_Book
  • Doctors can enjoy variety of advantages from implementing EMR after initial learning curve
  • Stop the Clock: Lift and Tighten Without the Knife
  • Botulinum Toxin Used on Perioral ‘Bar Code’

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