Pat - Community Publisher

Members and guests, While this forum and our patient created websites have served us well, we've been working behind the scenes for almost a year to create a new robust community and forum that will take our sharing and interacting to a higher level. Much like Facebook, the new Hair Restoration Social Network will enable members to create personal profiles and share their hair restoration stories, photos, and videos. Members can also create blogs, update their status (tweet), create and join groups, and interact with hundreds of hair loss sufferers online. Bill Seemiller, our managing publisher and forum moderator, has worked very hard in creating this new community and assuring that all current forum member profiles, posts, photos and links will be transferred intact into the new social network's discussion forum. After extensive testing and months of revision, we'd like to invite you to take the new Hair Restoration Social Network for a test drive. After all, you and other members are ultimately going to be the ones in the driver's seat. We'd greatly appreciate your feedback on any errors you may discover or suggested enhancements. Please share this feedback on this forum topic or email them to help@HairTransplantNetwork.com Important Note - the current version of the Hair Restoration Social Network is for testing purposes only. All posts, blogs, photos albums etc. that you add to this test version will not be carried over to the final version and will be lost. To test drive the new community and forum, visit www.hairrestorationnetwork.com. Highlights of the new Hair Restoration Social Network: New and Improved Discussion Forum The new discussion forum will offer many new enhancements such as the ability to embed videos, present higher resolution images, and much more. Our new forum is fully integrated with our new social community and one login will give members access to all its features. In addition, all previous discussions, links and photo albums from our current forum will be transferred into the new forum. Though some of the new forum tasks are performed a little differently, we think you will find its features easy to use and similar to the current discussion forum. Design Your Own Custom Profile In the new social community you can create and customize your own profile. You can share photos, upload videos, create blogs, update your status (tweet) and share your hair loss treatment regime. If you have already created a patient website you can include a link to it in your profile. Become Friends with Other Members Much like Facebook, you can invite your favorite members including patients and physicians to become your friends. Your friends will appear on your profile. Interact with Other Members In addition to making friends, you will have the ability to leave public comments on other member's profiles and send them private messages. Create or Join Discussion Groups Members will also be able to create or join groups specific to their particular hair loss related interests. Unlike discussion threads that fall out of public view in time, discussion groups are easily found and moderated by the group designers and creators. Public Chat Rooms Interact live with other community members via Public Chat. Attaching Photos to your Profile You will have the ability to attach photos to your social networking profile and create and share photo albums. Creating Blogs You will be able to create your own blog articles to help educate others or to share information about yourself. You can also share photos in your blog articles. Your blogs will appear on your profile. Video Presentations Share high resolution videos documenting your hair restoration journey by embedding videos you've uploaded into discussion forum threads. You can also upload videos directly to your social profile. Instant Messaging Much like Facebook, you will have the ability to see which friends are online when logged in and then initiate an instant message chat window. You can choose to appear offline when you sign in if you are not interested in getting private chat requests. We look forward to hearing your feedback so that we can customize the new Hair Restoration Social Network to serve you best. Onwards and Upwards, Patrick Hennessey, Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog and the Hair Restoration Forum

Joe, Congratulations on your amazing journey from recovery to advocacy (forgive the support groupish tone of that :-) You're truly one of the early pioneers in hair transplant patient advocacy. You've saved a lot of scalps, including your own. I hope you're enjoying that rockabilly thick hairline. Onwards and Upwards, Pat

It's great to see such a thoughtful discussion not only about Dr. Keser but the credibility of large Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) sessions. FUE and its various providers have been debated and discussed, some times hotly, on this community for over a decade. Back ten plus years ago when FUE was first introduced online and aggressively hyped, before the technique was refined and scientifically reviewed, I was one of its most vocal critics. But fortunately over time credible physicians began investigating, adopting and refining FUE. We now have a much better idea of just how the FUE procedure can be optimally performed and what its rate of success can be when performed properly. Both Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), in which donor tissue is removed in a strip and disected into grafts, and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), in which donor tissue/grafts are harvest with a tiny punch - are here to stay. As an educational community it's vital for us to provide potential patients with information on the relative pros and cons of each procedure and help identify the highest quality providers of these procedures. I believe this should include recommending those clinics and physicians who have a proven track record of providing high quality FUE procedures in a responsible manner. Ultimately it is up to the patient to make the final decision on what procedure and physician to choose, if any. For those who decide to go with FUE we'd like to guide them to those who are going it responsibly and with optimal results. To learn more about the relative pros and cons of FUT versus FUE visit http://www.hairtransplantnetwo...-unit-extraction.asp To see videos comparing FUT and FUE visit http://www.hairtransplantnetwo...gical-procedures.asp I look forward to hearing more feedback from our community. Onwards and Upwards, Pat

A few weeks ago, we posted a paid job opportunity for an ongoing part-time editorial assistant and forum co-moderator. We had a tough choice to make between some great candidates and dedicated members. After careful consideration, Bill and I are pleased to announce that Tony who posts as 'Youngsuccess' on our forum will be getting more involved with this patient based community by becoming a part time 'editorial assistant and forum co-moderator'. Tony has a reputation on this forum for his incredibly level headed, balanced, and fair posts. He's also a 3 time hair transplant patient (view his patient website ) and has been a true patient advocate by providing candid and thoughtful advice to those struggling with hair loss. Tony will be primarily responsible for co-moderating this forum, writing updates for our Hair Loss Q&A Blog , newsletters and websites. This will give Bill more time and flexibility in managing several behind the scenes projects including a vastly improved discussion forum and social community, videos, and more. Tony graduated from Monmouth University in English and graduated from Drexel University with honors in Library Information Science. Given Tony's solid education, versatility and the supportive role he's played for hair loss sufferers on this forum, Bill and I feel confident that Tony will be an excellent fit for his new role on our community. Please join me and Bill in welcome Tony as our new Editorial Assistant and Co-Moderator.

I've come to realize that how we feel is largely determined by what we choose to focus on. When you look in the mirror do you focus on your hairline or on the qualities that make you a uniquely beautiful human being? Do you love yourself with our without hair? How important have you chosen to make hair to your happiness? I know that I, like so many on this site, let my life be hindered by fixating on my hair loss. I focused too much on what I was loosing rather than what I had. And I focused too much on fixing my exterior rather than my interior. All things being equal, I like having a decent hairline. I'm thankful that I've been blessed with first class hair restoration results. But with every passing year the amount of hair on top of my head becomes less important. This "Thanksgiving" I encourage you to look in the mirror and into your eyes rather than just your hairline and contemplate all that you have to be thankful for. Can you see your inner beauty beneath your scalp? If you can, so will others. Best wishes for realizing your inner and outer beauty. Pat

I greatly appreciate everyone's input and willingness to express their concerns. For years I have been looking for that gem in the rough clinic in India to finally recommend. With approximately one billion largely English speaking Indians you can imagine the amount of emails we get asking for a recommendation in India. I'm very excited about the very real possibility of finally being able to guide this huge number of hair loss sufferers to a world class clinic. I also appreciate Dr. Madhu's willingness to transparently respond to the concerns expressed by the members of our community. This willingness along with his very impressive documentation of his results and process is very encouraging. Onwards and Upwards, Pat

Due to various concerns and differences we've decided to go our separate ways. I wish Dr. Jeff Epstein and his staff well.

Bobman, You know I've seen my share of patient results. If we ever put together a before and after hall of fame you'll be at the front of the hall, close to the brightest light. As for me, after seeing the hair super stars of the past few years, I'll be putting my before and afters down the hall in a storage closet :-) Always amazing to see you and your transformation! You are indeed a super star in the annuals of hair geekdom. I'd wish you good luck but I don't think you need it any more. Pat

Bill, My first reaction in seeing your shaved head was - "My God, I work with a skin head Nazi with a zipper in his head". The Mr. T Mohawak photos didn't help either. Thank God I know you better than judge you by your appearance. Now get busy growing some hair you greedy devil and stop alarming the members of this community. Four weeks with staples? If you were a Catholic you'd earn enough penance to skip purgatory and go straight to hair heaven. Best wishes for a bumper crop Zipper Head. Pat

We do not tolerate any clinic, recommended or not, encouraging their patients to cheer lead for them in exchange for compensation. That is why the very first paragraph of our forum's terms of service that every member of this forum agrees to in joining this forum states - "All posters promoting or advocating a particular physician, procedure or treatment on this forum are required to divulge any compensation, monetary or otherwise, that they may be receiving in their posting signature. No links or references to websites or resources of a promotional nature are permitted on this educational forum." I believe that the vast majority of clinics do not engage in covert marketing on the forums. Those who have found themselves removed. Members of this community have also be hyper vigilant about detecting such covert marketing and have helped us detect, call out and correct such behavior.

Pats, This contract was signed not by you but by another patient of Dr. Armani's who suffered poor FUE results and is now in the process of having them repaired by a Coalition physician. This patient signed this agreement because he wanted to get his next surgical session for free. However, in time, when he was disappointed with his results and came to feel guilty about being a covert cheerleader for your clinic he came clean and sent the contract to me. I have spoken with him several times on the phone and I know that he was at first very fearful that he would be sued if he came clean and told the truth about the contract he signed with your office. He certainly didn't rip off any contract that you may or may not have signed. Pat's nice try but I don't know who in the world would buy your cover up story. When are you going to come clean and be honest? I had hoped you might have learned a valuable lesson from the lawsuit controversy. But it appears you haven't learned a dam thing and are playing the same old games that earned you and the Armani clinic the wrath of the online patient community.

Pat's I see that you conveniently avoid my questions and information just as you do others who ask questions to hold you accountable. So what's left - more hype, chest beating and spin? Since your claim that the contracts were only for you contradicts the information I have. I encourage you and all who are reading this topic to read the excerpts of this contract provided by one of your patients at " Free Transplants for Posting?". Pat's these excerpts from the contract should help jog your memory. If you come on to this forum you better be prepared to answer questions and not simply evade them and hype your services. Personally Armani and Co gets far more attention and wastes far too much energy on this forum than it deserves. There are many outstanding clinics who consistently and quietly do superb work without hype or controversy. So why should this forum devote so much attention to the Armani clinic - beyond protecting those who don't yet know the facts? Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Pat's it appears that you have still not learned that your spin is not fooling this community. Yet you continue to spin. Therefore you can expect to garner the same upset reactions. I suggest you stick to actual facts and answer questions if you are ever going to gain any semblance of credibility. Pat with out the "s"

This community has a reputation for integrity because we uphold and defend the right of hair loss sufferers to express their genuine opinions and experiences, while holding physicians accountable for their actions. However those who post must also be held accountable for their statements and actions so that our community is fair and just for all parties ??“ both patients and physicians. Thus when a poster makes an anonymous complaint about a physician it is only fair that the physician be given the opportunity to respond to such a compliant. However, current HIPAA medical laws restrict doctors from responding without the necessary permission provided by the patient. In addition, a forum member's anonymity often prevents a surgeon from knowing who the patient is and responding at all. Thus, in the interest of fairness, there may be times that we contact a poster and ask them to provide us with information to substantiate that they are a patient as stated. This may include the poster's full name, date of surgery, photos, and other documentation. This information will be obtained privately and a member's right to confidentiality on the forum will be protected. This information may then potentially be provided to the surgeon at our discretion so that the doctor may properly respond to the concern. The patient may also be asked to give the physician formal permission to discuss the particulars of their case. We also ask that patients contact their physician to resolve their concerns in private before they post their concerns on our forum. If the claims made by the poster do not prove to be genuine or are motivated by any attempt at coercion, we will make a statement to this effect on the topic where the poster has made such claims. Once our community has had an opportunity to view this update and for the public record to be set straight, we then consider archiving the post so that it can no longer be found or read. As members of this community, we all need to do our best to assure that parties with ulterior motives do not use our forum for their unfair agendas. Just as physicians and web publishers must be accountable to high standards, so must those who have posting privileges on our forum. We believe that it is best to take a case by case approach to each and every controversy as it arises. However, ultimately we as the moderators of the forum can't realistically be the final arbiters of 'truth'. We believe our role as the publishers should be to do what we realistically can to make our forum an even and fair playing field for all participants. However, our attorney has often suggested that we not intervene at all in third party disputes since the Communications Decency Act of (CDA) makes it clear that web publisher and forum hosts are not liable for the statements made by others on their forum (see below). Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider". Effectively, this section immunizes ISPs and other service providers from torts committed by users over their systems, even if the provider fails to take action after actual notice. However, while we are not required by law to intervene, we often have intervened in the interest of fairness. Like the world at large, our community is never completely free from controversy and dissenting opinions. Believe us when we say that we wish it were as such issues can be very exhausting. However, we are committed to balancing our hard earned reputation for running a fair and open forum with the need to assure that patients are free to share genuine experiences and physicians are not unfairly maligned on our community. Onwards and Upwards, Pat and Melvin - Publisher and Managing Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network Community

Pats (Eric), You are indeed spinning your self into a deep hole faster than a high speed oil drilling bit in sand. You need to remember that on this forum people will not be banned or spanked for calling you and Dr. Armani out nor will their genuine posts be removed. The smart members of this forum also have excellent memories. Wantego certainly does when he recollects that there was indeed a contract presented to me by a patient of your clinic that required him to post on a regular basis in exchange for a future free surgery and threatened him with a $3,000,000.00 fine if he divulged his covert working relationship. If you need me to jog your memory I can see that the highlights get posted here. I suggest you keep your comments focused on actual truthful facts and steer clear of spin and misinformation. The original Pat (without the "s") P.S. Why did you have to choose a posting alias on this and other forums that might confuse me with you?

At the end of the day we should all be on the same team - a balding band of brothers. By pulling together to insist on transparency and accountability we have helped set the bar for the hair restoration profession/industry very high. This transparency has also applied to those hosting hair restoration websites and forums. It has kept forum moderators and publishers accountable for there actions. Farrel Manne, the publisher of Hair Loss Help, learned the hard way that no one can control or manipulate the truth indefinitely (see " Concerns about missing Armani threads on hair loss help - Farrel?"). Hopefully Farrel will some day come straight and stop falsely blaming others for his self inflicted ordeal. We've all made mistakes. I've recommended physicians who I later regretted adding. I have caught plenty of Hell from this forum when I made such mistakes. But ultimately such mistakes were corrected. Let's step back for a moment and see the big picture. Looking back over the past ten years there have been many up hill battles and lawsuits. Early on in particular, many physicians were extremely resistant to idea of patients critiquing them online and determining who should be recommended. Many also did not want to adopt follicular unit grafting, which was much harder for the clinic but vastly better for the patient. But a minority of physicians who were truly patient centered and committed to quality accepted and supported our community through thick and thin. Together our patient/physician collaboration has helped revolutionize hair transplantation techniques and how patients find and share information about physicians and treatments. Together we have made hair restoration much safer and cost effective for all balding brothers who follow in our wake. I expect that this community will continue to face lawsuits and challenges in the future. There are many who still have not accepted this community's right to exist. But this online patient community is strong and can weather and withstand even the nastiest lawsuits from the world's biggest law firm - as long as we exercise our freedoms responsibly. See Free Speech and Accountability for more on this subject and lawsuit. It is you and the members of this forum who will keep the entire hair restoration industry accountable and on their toes - physicians, treatment providers and web/forum publishers. No one bats 1,000. But we all need to operate transparently knowing that our actions and decisions will be closely watched. Onwards and Upwards, Pat

lost my swagger. You're a real "arm chair quarterback". Where were you when we were paying tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers to fight the lawsuit? Oh yes, you were sitting back and spectating without spending a dime or months of your life fighting. Now you come online to criticize me and state that "this end is not a good one". Bill and I could have settled this situation months ago at far less cost and aggravation if we had been willing to "bow down". But we were unwilling to compromise the free speech and integrity of this community and continued the long and costly fight to assure that these rights would not be impaired. No doubt if I handed you a solid gold bar you'd complain that it was too heavy to carry.

PGP (aka Dr. Bosely), did you not read my above post?

Guys, As many of you may know, it is typical that when a lawsuit is settled both parties are sworn not to divulge the details of it. Thus while me and everyone on this forum are free to express our opinions about Dr. Armani and any other physician, I'm not free to discuss the final settlement or gloat about it. To do so would invite yet another lawsuit. However, thanatopsis_awry clearly understands why with the lawsuit gone the lawsuit topic has to go. I also appreciate that he knows my record and intentions and trusts them. I agree that some real gems were posted by many of us on the lawsuit topic. I appreciate everyones efforts to shine bright lights on all the issues discussed in the lawsuit topic. Together our vigilance and posts set the record straight and made it clear that our free speech would not be suppressed. I'm not sure that all our members fully appreciate the significance of what we accomplished here together. However, that topic has served its purpose. The lawsuit is gone and so will the lawsuit topic. But hundreds of topics and posts critiquing Dr. Armani and his techniques will remain. One need only click on our "Find" feature and search for "Armani" to see this. In addition, we are all free to again post our thoughts and experiences in existing or new topics on this forum regarding Dr. Armani or any other physician or technique. The bottom line is we fought the good fight at great expense and our rights to free speech on this forum remain intact 100%! Let's be glad for what we accomplished and move ahead.

Byehair, Your subject of this topic "Dr. Armani silences all critics" is complete conspiratorial bullshit. I have fought hard and long for years to tell the truth about Armani and Co, while people called me a fool for not promoting him. But as we all now know - the truth came out - despite all the cheer leading, spinning and efforts at damage control. Because of my many critical statements and those made by others on this forum, this community and myself were sued by Dr. Armani in June of 2008. Bill (our forum moderator) and I then successfully fought this lawsuit tooth and nail for months and at great expense. The end result - all the members of this forum, including myself, continue to have the right to express their opinions and experiences with Dr. Armani and all physicians. I never have nor will I ever let anyone put a muzzle on me or this community. I have not revised my opinion of Dr. Armani nor any of my many comments, which can be easily found by using our "Find" feature to search for them. Byehair get your facts straight before you make and spread ignorant and incorrect assumptions.

Hopeful, I certainly share your concerns. Lord knows I spent a great deal of time contributing info to this Armani Lawsuit topic as did many others. But I decided that once the lawsuit was resolved that the lawsuit topic will have served its purpose - once everyone has their final say. However, much of the information in this topic exists in the hundreds of other posts about Dr. Armani and his procedures on this forum. If posters use the "Find" feature to search for "Armani" they will find hundreds of posts expressing opinions and experiences regarding Dr. Armani and his clinic. Posters are also free to post the same or similar comments in other new or existing topics as well - if they think it is appropriate. Believe me I would not agree to any resolution that compromised the hard fought for integrity of this community or hindered any of our rights to free speech. For more on this subject visit "Free Speech and Accountability on this Forum". Onwards and Upwards, Pat

During the past several years this community has fought several lawsuits that were brought by physicians who were upset with comments made on this forum. Rather than compromise, we have fought these lawsuits to preserve the integrity of our community. These legal battles have been expensive. Last year alone the Hair Transplant Network community paid over $100,000 in legal fees to preserve the right of forum members to post their genuine opinions and experiences. The freedom of expression that we all enjoy on this forum is far from free. But the integrity of this forum and the need to hold physicians accountable for their results and actions is worth the price. We fully expect to continue to defend this hard fought for freedom for all our forum members no matter what the price. Ultimately we want our forum to be free and open as well as fair and just to all participants both patients and physicians. Therefore just as we expect physicians to be held responsible for their actions we expect those who post to be responsible for their actions. 'Free Speech' is only protected by the law when it is free from intentionally malicious and false statements. Thus if we find that a post or poster is not genuine we reserve the right to remove such posts. However, we will continue to vigorously defend the right of this community to host comments the good, the bad and the ugly about any and all subjects and clinics (recommended or not) when the poster/post is genuine. Over the past ten years this community and its members have helped revolutionize the hair transplant profession. We have demanded the very best in techniques and results and many leading physicians have risen to the challenge and provided them. At the very heart of these advances has been public ACCOUNTABILITY. The members of this forum community have held the hair restoration profession and the publishers of this community accountable for their actions. Thus physicians operate knowing that today's patients may be tomorrow's poster. We also carefully choose the physicians we recommend based on input from this patient based community knowing that our decision will be publicly scrutinized. It's free speech on this forum that makes this accountability possible. That is why free speech is essential and why we will continue to pay the price needed to defend it. Thanks to all the members of this forum for being the heart and soul of this community. We encourage you to post your thoughts and suggestions on the issue below. Pat

Joe, I can only imagine how demanding you will be in evaluating results with laser vision :-) I actually did lasik in Vancouver about ten years ago. It was the most positive life changing medical procedure I ever had - next to hair transplants and my calf implants, of course. Look for my calf implant before and afters on the soon to debut CalfImplantsNetwork.comm Enjoy the sights, Pat