Pat - Community Publisher
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Posts posted by Pat - Community Publisher
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Desperately Seeking Hair,
Apparently you are one of the few members of the patient based community to have the courage to voice your concern that Farrel, the owner and moderator of the Hair Loss Help, is sweeping criticisms of his advertising client - Dr. Alvi Armani - under the rug on his forum.
Dr. Armani sued me and this community for enabling members the right to criticize his work and lack of ethics. Apparently Farrel decided it was more convenient to sweep negative comments about Dr. Armani under the rug than stand up to Dr. Armani.
So who in the online patient community actually cares about keeping forums credible and free of covert manipulation? Those who have the balls to say so publicly are free to post a reply below - at least on this forum.
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Thanks to everyone who shared their input regarding Dr. Rosanelli's recommendation. I also appreciate Dr. Rosanelli responding to our requests for more photos of his patient results, in particular those exceeding 2,000 FU grafts.
Having visited his clinic ( see visit highlights ) and other clinics in the Bay Area after extensive research, I'm convinced that Dr. Rosanelli and his large experienced staff do very solid follicular unit grafting, with the capability to do large sessions that are unmatched in the area.
I also believe that his photographic documentation of his past work has been lacking. However, he has gained a newfound appreciation of the importance of taking multiple good photos and has invested in new digital photo gear. I expect his future photos will be more inline with what we would all like to see.
Ultimately we are not reviewing Dr. Rosanelli and his staff for their photography skills but their skill and capability to provide state of the art follicular unit hair transplantation. I believe they have this capability and will provide hair loss sufferers in the Bay Area with a very solid option for surgical hair restoration if they choose to do surgery in the Bay Area.
I would like to move ahead with recommending Dr. Rosanelli and his impressive staff to hair loss sufferers in Northern California. In time if he and his staff demonstrate the ability to perform dense packed and ultra refined sessions exceeding 2,500 with demonstrated excellent results, he will be eligible for consideration for membership in the Coalition.
Onwards and Upwards, Pat
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Chrisdige,
Congratulations on your positive experience with Dr. Distefano. I hope that he has indeed discontinued using a multibaded instrument for removing the donor tissue. As I pointed out in my above post in October of 2007, I have serious reservations about such a donor removal method, as do virtually all leading physicians - some of whom used a multibladed knife years ago but have long since discontinued its use.
I hope that Dr. Distefano has joined his colleagues in discontinuing this donor removal process. If he has, I invite him to share his patient results and his current surgical techniques with this forum community.
Best regards, Pat - Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network
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I want to commend Bill, our Associate Publisher and Forum Moderator, for doing an excellent job of getting virtually all physicians who are recommended on this community to post every month in the forum " Results Posted by Leading Hair Restoration Clinics ". This past month, October, all but only one recommended clinic posted an album showing their patient results. This is unprecedented and goes a long way toward getting ALL of the physicians recommended on this community active on this forum - rather than just a few!
Onwards and Upwards, Pat
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Dear Forum Members,
As many of you know, we gather as much information as possible about a physician, their staff, technique and track record before they are even considered for recommendation on the Hair Transplant Network. Part of our review process involves getting input from patients and the members of this forum community. To learn more about this review process, click here.
I would appreciate this community's input on the potential recommendation of Dr. Rosanelli on the Hair Transplant Network. At this time, Dr. Rosanelli is only being considered for recommendation, not the Coalition. To see our standards for recommendation, click here.
This past April, I visited and observed Dr. Rosanelli in live surgery and was very impressed with his dedication to high quality follicular unit hair transplantation and his personal attention to each of his patients. To see the highlights of my visit, view the "Visit to Dr. Tom Rosanelli in San Francisco".
Dr. Rosanelli has been performing hair transplants exclusively for almost 20 years and is a Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery. As a sole practitioner, Dr. Rosanelli takes provide in providing his patients with personal attention and provides each of his patients with his personal cell phone number.
Dr. Rosanelli and his dedicated and experienced staff of 10 medical technicians operate out of San Francisco, CA. While Dr. Rosanelli has an experienced staff large enough to perform over 3000 grafts in a single session, Dr Rosanelli believes that sessions under 3,000 grafts provide his patients with optimal graft survival and growth.
Dr. Rosanelli uses a single blade to excise the donor area to minimize the risk of transection and uses a double layer closure to reduce wound tension and the appearance of the donor scar. Dr. Rosanelli believes using the trichophytic closure technique is best reserved for the last surgery in order to maximize use of the donor area for subsequent sessions. All follicular units are dissected and trimmed under microscopes and carefully placed into the recipient sites by his experienced staff to maximize hair growth yield.
Dr. Rosanelli uses blades as small as .8mm to carefully create recipient incisions to mimic natural hair direction and minimize trauma to the scalp.
Given Dr. Rosanelli's dedication to high quality follicular unit hair transplantation, I believe he should be considered for recommendation.
Patient and surgical examples can be found below:
3908 Grafts in Multiple Sessions with Dr. Rosanelli
5377 Grafts in Multiple Sessions with Dr. Rosanelli
3617 Grafts in 3 Sessions with Dr. Rosanelli
1225 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Rosanelli
3819 Grafts in 2 Sessions with Dr. Rosanelli
2320 Grafts in 1 Session with Dr. Rosanelli
I welcome input and comments from forum members regarding his potential recommendation.
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Bullitnut,
Congratulations on your upcoming surgery with the SMG. I hope and expect that you will see a dramatic improvement.
As you know, first hand, it's important that the online patient community be vigilant and hold physicians accountable for their actions. I know that Bill believes passionately in protecting patients from poor work and supports their right to freely express their real experiences online.
That is why Bill, like me, is not a fan of Spencer Kobren - who despite posing as a "patient advocate" continues to collect money from physicians like Dr. Armani and others who were rejected for good reason by this community. Some of these physicians, such as Dr. Armani, have sued us for defending the right of patients to tell the truth about them (see Armani Lawsuit Against the Hair Transplant Network ).
So while we spend tens of thousands of dollars resisting coercion from these clinics, Spencer Kobren simply collects their money.
Physicians like Dr. Armani love Kobren's IAHRS (International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons) because there is no public accountability. Kobren long ago discontinued his discussion forum. Now when patients complain to him he can simply email them back and feign concern and offer that he will investigate matters.
From what I've seen a physician either needs to virtually stab a patient to death or not mail Spencer their membership fee to get taken off the IAHRS.
Yet Spencer Kobren continues to grandstand as a "patient advocate". If I know him, he had some one spread the news of his gift to you far and wide.
I expect Kobren will be reading this as he regularly reads this forum to find out what clinics we have visited so he can hound them tirelessly to join the IAHRS. He himself doesn't visit the clinics but he sure knows how to talk a big game on the phone.
So I think Bill had every right to point out the hypocrisy of Spencer Kobren and pull back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz to reveal the man manipulating the levers and blowing all the smoke.
Call me jaded. But after watching Spencer Kobren's game over the years I long ago realized not to take his posturing as reality.
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In addition to the feedback posted on this topic, I've gotten overwhelming votes of confidence in Dr. Pathomvanich from several leading hair transplant physicians.
Clearly we have a winner on our hands who will provide world class care to those visiting our community in Asia.
I'm pleased to announce that Dr. Pathomvanich is now recommended on the Hair Transplant Network. Please view his recommendation profile by clicking here.
Onwards and Upwards, Pat
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Valued Members of this community,
We would appreciate your input regarding the potential recommendation of Dr. Pathomvanich of Thailand on the Hair Transplant Network.
As some of you know, Dr. Pathomvanich has earned great patient feedback and reviews on this discussion forum. I encourage you to click on the "Find" button and do a search for "Pathomvanich" to read what has been posted to date about him. I think you will find the feedback is overwhelmingly positive.
Given his highly evolved follicular unit procedure, dedication to state of the art hair restoration and large well trained staff - his glowing patient reviews come as no surprise. In my opinion, he is a super star in Asia and if approved by this community for recommendation would be our first recommended physician in Asia.
I think it would be great to offer potential patients in Asia and Australia such a strong recommendation for world class work.
We welcome your input regarding his potential recommendation on this community. Please feel free to reply below. To learn more about our patient based process of reviewing physicians for recommendation, click here.
Dr. Pathomvanich and his experienced full time staff of 11 assistants regularly perform large densely packed sessions of highly refined follicular unit hair transplantation exceeding 3000 grafts, when appropriate for the patient. Dr. Pathomvanich has been performing hair transplant surgery as the primary part of his practice for over 19 years, the last 6 of which have been exclusive.
Dr. Pathomvanich is very hands-on and is involved in every step of the procedure from harvesting the donor strip to placing many of the grafts himself. All follicular units are dissected and trimmed under microscopes and carefully placed into the recipient sites by him and his experienced staff to maximize hair growth yield.
Using a single blade, he carefully removes the donor donor strip with a technique for minimizing transection of precious donor follicles that has recently been published in the professional journal "Hair Transplant Forum". Dr. Pathomvanich employs the trichophytic closure technique using retention stitches plus running absorbable stitches which he believes produces the smallest and most optimal scar.
Dr. Pathomvanich is a firm believer that natural hairline design is critical to producing world class results. He uses single hairs exclusively to re-create a natural looking hairline and is a pioneer of the laser assisted hair line design technology. In addition to his artistic eye, Dr. Pathomvanich uses lasers to assist in determining proper hairline placement on each patient.
Dr. Pathomvanich customizes his approach for each patient using a combination of custom cut blades and needles to allow for a perfect fit of the grafts into the incisions. Dr. Pathomvanich uses tools as small as .8mm for Asian hair (smaller for Caucasians) to minimize scalp trauma and exclusively uses the lateral slit technique. In using perpendicular (coronal/lateral) incisions, he can densely pack up to 50 FU/cm2 into the balding area safely when appropriate for the patient.
Many leading physicians such as Dr. Jerry Wong have visited his clinic in Thailand and were very impressed what they observed.
Given Dr. Pathomvanich's extensive experience and his ultra refined techniques, I believe that once he garners sufficient positive feedback on this forum from actual patients he should be considered for membership in the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians. To view the membership standards for the Coalition, click here.
View some of their patient and surgical photos below:
Photos of Dr. Pathomvanich and staff performing a hair transplant surgery.
3211 Grafts after 7 Months with Dr. Pathomvanich
2078 Grafts with Dr. Pathomvanich
3752 Grafts with Dr. Pathomvanich
2995 Grafts with Dr. Pathomvanich
Female Patient - 3092 Grafts in 2 Sessions with Dr. Pathomvanich
4111 Grafts in Two Sessions with Dr. Pathomvanich
We welcome input and comments from forum members and leading physicians regarding his potential recommendation. Thanks in advance for your thoughtful input.
To view our standards for recommendation, click here.
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Right on Bill. The medical staffs truly are the "unsung hereos" and make or break the clinic.
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Kudos to all the members of this community who have driven change in the hair restoration profession and guided their fellow hair loss suffers to the very best.
Please Grow Please, sorry I missed you. But you can still mail me that check :-)
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Sometimes a patient reminds me of just how much our community can change a person's life for the better. It's easy to get caught up in all the technical aspects of running this community and forget how it is changing actual lives everyday. But today while I was visiting Dr. Konior's clinic in Chicago a patient came by to meet me in person.
He had called me on the phone a few years ago to get my advice. He had old school plugs that were too low on his forehead and his social life had been on hold for almost twenty years. He had chosen to no longer date or even swim due to being self conscious about his appearance. His hair loss and plugs had made him a virtual social cripple.
But he had researched hair transplantation extensively and was almost ready to believe that it was possible for him to restore a normal look and life for himself. It was clear from the photos he emailed to me that his plugs were too low and would need to be removed rather than simply camaflouged. The ideal solution was for a skilled plastic surgeon to excise his corn row hairline and do a brow lift to pull his hairline up higher so that follicular units could then be transplanted to create a natural hair line.
There are very few hair restoration surgeons who also have the skill and experience to do browlifts. But this man was fortunate to have one of them, Dr. Ray Konior, in his home city of Chicago. I encouraged him to consult with Dr. Konior and listen to his sound advice.
Now three years later, this man took the day off work to come by and thank me in person for helping him find Dr. Konior and a new life. He looked fantastic and he was beaming. He was a new man with a great new life.
As Dr. Konior, myself and this patient sat in the room it was clear that like a winning team we had all hit a great home run together. If all the Hair Transplant Network had ever accomplished was changing this one man's life it had to be worth it.
It was a beautiful moment that should remind all members of this community of the life changing impact our efforts make even when we don't see them or know of them. God only knows how many others have had their lives improved by the advocacy of you, me, the doctors, medical techs, staff and this entire community.
This patient in his words intends to "pay it forward" soon by sharing his photos and story. So the good will and help provided by this community will live on and on and on.
Best wishes to everyone for experiencing great results and then helping others to achieve the same.
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Sometimes a patient reminds me of just how much our community can change a person's life for the better. It's easy to get caught up in all the technical aspects of running this community and forget how it is changing actual lives everyday. But today while I was visiting Dr. Konior's clinic in Chicago a patient came by to meet me in person.
He had called me on the phone a few years ago to get my advice. He had old school plugs that were too low on his forehead and his social life had been on hold for almost twenty years. He had chosen to no longer date or even swim due to being self conscious about his appearance. His hair loss and plugs had made him a virtual social cripple.
But he had researched hair transplantation extensively and was almost ready to believe that it was possible for him to restore a normal look and life for himself. It was clear from the photos he emailed to me that his plugs were too low and would need to be removed rather than simply camaflouged. The ideal solution was for a skilled plastic surgeon to excise his corn row hairline and do a brow lift to pull his hairline up higher so that follicular units could then be transplanted to create a natural hair line.
There are very few hair restoration surgeons who also have the skill and experience to do browlifts. But this man was fortunate to have one of them, Dr. Ray Konior, in his home city of Chicago. I encouraged him to consult with Dr. Konior and listen to his sound advice.
Now three years later, this man took the day off work to come by and thank me in person for helping him find Dr. Konior and a new life. He looked fantastic and he was beaming. He was a new man with a great new life.
As Dr. Konior, myself and this patient sat in the room it was clear that like a winning team we had all hit a great home run together. If all the Hair Transplant Network had ever accomplished was changing this one man's life it had to be worth it.
It was a beautiful moment that should remind all members of this community of the life changing impact our efforts make even when we don't see them or know of them. God only knows how many others have had their lives improved by the advocacy of you, me, the doctors, medical techs, staff and this entire community.
This patient in his words intends to "pay it forward" soon by sharing his photos and story. So the good will and help provided by this community will live on and on and on.
Best wishes to everyone for experiencing great results and then helping others to achieve the same.
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Invited Dinner Guests
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Bill and Nurse Neena - now that's one very happy patient!
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Bill with Mystery woman
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During the party a doctor named "Dr. Quackaplaticus" crashed the party with four "surgettes" who shamelessly passed out fliers for his non surgical workshop. Apparently he believes that its more important for the surgical techs to look good then his patients. While Dr. Q will certainly never be recommended on the Hair Transplant Network we did let him and his "surgettes" stay for obvious reasons.
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Ailene, Dr. Ron Shapiro and Dr. Melike
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Photos from the 10 Year Anniversary Party.
Dr. Vogel and his wife Nancy
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As Bill mentioned, this year's four day ISHRS physician meeting in Montreal was non stop 24/7. I'm just now recovering from the sleep deprivation.
On Saturday and Sunday we recorded interviews with 17 different leading physicians that will be presented on our websites. Bill attended almost all the seminars during the four day conference and will soon be sharing the highlights on this forum. However, most of what the issues and controversies the physicians discussed have long since been debated on this forum for years.
In addition, this years highest honors - the Golden and Platinum Follicle Awards - were given to two Coalition Physicians, with Dr. Jerry Cooley winning the Platinum Follicle Award and Dr. Paul Rose winning the Golden Follicle Award. Both Dr. Rose and Dr. Cooley have worked very hard over the years to not only provide optimal and ultra refined results for their patients but to elevate the standards within the hair transplant profession. Congratulations to both of these superb physicians and men. Thanks for Dr. Bessam Farjo as well for serving his profession this past year as the President of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS).
Bill and I have also had great success in getting virtually ALL physicians recommended on the Hair Transplant Network to agree to post at least one photo album each month showing patient results. Members of this community deserve to see the results from all recommended clinics on a regular basis rather than only from the same small handful.
We will soon see a big increase in patient results being posted by a much wider range of clinics on the forum Patient Results Posted by Leading Hair Restoration Clinics. Getting all clinics actively sharing their results, will be healthy for this community. You deserve it.
Patients and doctors also had a great deal to celebrate during our ten year anniversary party Thursday night.
The quality of work and information being provided to patients today is vastly better than it was ten years ago. I believe that the Internet has enabled patients to share their experiences and advice and really hold physicians accountable for the work they do or do not do. This transparent accountability has given clinics an even greater incentive to provide only the very best results if they want to continue to garner educated patients online.
There certainly were many beautiful people at the party. But the real value of this party was to celebrate how a long standing collaboration between educated patients and ethical physicians and their staff has elevated the hair transplant profession/industry. It has been a long up hill climb in the face of resistance from many doctors over the years but together we have taken standards much much higher.
But there is no stopping or resting on our laurels. The climb will continue, as will the resistance from many doctors (including some disgruntled doctors who handed out fliers protesting this community at the meeting). But I expect that during the next ten years those physicians who are unwilling to operate in a transparent and ethical manner and share their results on forums will become marginal also runs at best. Most patients today simply know better than trust advertisements rather than to search for the truth online.
I want to thank the members of this community who have generously given their time on this forum to share their experiences and advice over the years. Without you there would be no patient movement and no Hair Transplant Network. You have held the entire hair transplant profession and this community accountable by demanding the very best and you're getting it.
We have come a long long way together! I know that together we can make the next ten years even better for our fellow hair loss suffers.
Long live this collaboration between active and educated patients and ethical and committed physicians and their staffs!
Pat
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Mark and Adrian,
Great to hear you will be at the meeting and the party. I look forward to meeting both of you in person.
Onwards and Upwards, Pat
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Tim,
Wow, the new Hair Force One would even have a get away car! That could be useful.
I like the upgrade but we'd probably have to have MHR and Bosley as sponsors to be able to afford it. I guess I'll just have to make due in the little "Hair Force One" that could.
For those who are wondering what "Hair Force One " is visit the topic " Follicular Road Tripping ".
Pat
P.S. Kman - Can't you slip away from your friends in Montreal and tell them you have a "dinner date"? It's going to be a party that you won't want to miss.
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TheEmperor,
I don't know what you think you're "the Emperor" of. But it's obviously not search engine optimization. The HTN did not gain "prominence in the 90s, by faking search engines to show up first in the query list" as you claim.
It ranks well because its been around forever serving thousands of hair loss sufferers with in depth information. It is also linked to by numerous hair loss sites. No tricks needed.
I expect Google remove the HTN listing for Dr. Lehr once it re indexes its database and realizes that that his page is no longer active on the HTN.
Pat
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Thanks to everyone who has shared their input regarding Dr. Carman. Based on all the information we have gathered over time, I believe that Dr. Carman deserves to be recommended on the Hair Transplant Network.
He is now recommended and his profile can be viewed on the Hair Transplant Network.
I expect we will all see many impressive results from Dr. Carman and his patients for years to come.
Kudos to Dr. Carman for doing great work and actively participating on this forum.
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rkreddy,
Since Dr. Lehr is no longer presented on this community, I suggest you use the "Find" feature on this forum and search for posts referencing "Lehr". Unfortunately there is not much information about him or his patient results. I suggest you then do the same research on this forum regarding Dr. Feller and make your own determination on who to go to.
Best wishes for your second procedure.
Pat
Concerns about missing Armani threads on hair loss help - Farrel?
in Hair Transplant Reviews
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B Spot, The focus of this topic is the negative posts about Dr. Armani that disappeared on another forum, along with the posters who made them, not your bruised ego.
Like the hit the gopher game, when the truth is knocked down in one place it tends to pop up and show its face some where else - like this topic. Let's let others have the opportunity to share their information on this topic.
Apparently you decided, without any prompting from me or Bill, to edit your posts and express sarcasm.