Pat - Community Publisher
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Posts posted by Pat - Community Publisher
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Over ten years ago I shared my before and after photos online and began helping hair loss sufferers find their way to the best surgeons available. In time, I was joined by thousands of hair loss sufferers who generously shared their experiences and advice on this community.
Together we revolutionized how patients find and research the very best hair restoration treatments and physicians. We have also held physicians accountable for their work and required them to meet the highest standards of care to win our support and business.
The revolutionary idea of patients critiquing physicians and their work publicly was resisted by many physicians in the early days. Some still resist and even sue this community when they are criticized. But we have held our ground and continue to thrive.
The true leaders in hair restoration surgery have come to realize that an open and honest patient based forum community is their best friend. It enables them to cultivate educated patients not based on expensive marketing hype but based on real patient feedback and online word of mouth.
Over the years the cream has risen to the top and are recommended on the Hair Transplant Network. These physicians know that their recommendation requires them to stay at the top of their game because their patients may be posting their experience within hours of their surgery.
This community over the past ten years has helped thousands of patients achieve optimal results and enabled the leading clinics to dramatically lower their marketing overhead and prices. It has also given the hair restoration profession a powerful and compelling incentive to do the best work possible.
None of this would have been possible without the members of this forum community. You have been the driving force in the hair transplant patient advocacy movement. It is you, in collaboration with the true leading physicians, who have revolutionized the hair transplant profession.
It's virtually impossible to truly thank you enough. But I know that the "true believers" of this community know that helping their fellow hair loss comrades is the greatest reward and thanks possible.
We have come a long way together and we have much to celebrate. Bill and I want to invite the active members of this forum community to be our guests for dinner and drinks at our tenth anniversary party in Montreal, Canada on Thursday evening, September 4th.
Montreal is the location for this year's annual five day meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS). Since the majority of our recommended physicians will be attending this big meeting, we chose to have the party in Montreal during the time.
This will be a great opportunity for members of this community to meet dozens of the world's leading hair transplant surgeons in person and over drinks. We would also appreciate your help in encouraging all our recommended physicians to post their results on this forum on a monthly basis.
Please feel free to reply below to RSVP. Bill will then provide you with additional details about the party.
We look forward to meeting some of you in person over dinner and cocktails. With your help the next ten years will be the best ever for patients and those clinics who provide the very best results.
Onwards and Upwards,
Pat
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Thanks for everyones input. Like Bill and many members of this community, I'm impressed with Dr. Carmen all around.
As some of you know, Dr. Carmen has a strong background in plastic surgery and trained intensively with Coalition member Dr. Bill Reed. He now works with Dr. Reed and his excellent staff doing ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation. I know that Dr. Reed is very pleased with Dr. Carman's ethics, work ethic and final results.
I agree that it is time to formally present Dr. Carman to this community for consideration for recommendation on the Hair Transplant Network. Then in time I expect that he will ultimately be invited into the ranks of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.
I look forward to everyone's input.
Pat
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Spex,
The only photos I have are already posted on the album. But I think that from the surgical photos the patient's degree of baldness is pretty apparent. However, if Mick has pre op photos I invite him to send them to me so I can add them to the album.
Onwards and Upwards, Pat
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During the summer of 2007 I had the privilege of spending two days in surgery with the both Dr. Bessam and Nilofer Farjo and watched them perform two excellent and ultra refined surgeries.
Mick at their office recently sent me the one year results from one of the patients I observed. I have added these impressive results to the photo album of my visit. I invite you to see this patient's one year results. Mick intends to take the photos of the other patient's one year results in the near future.
In my opinion, the work the Farjos are now doing is on pare with the very best clinics in North America.
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Arrie,
It will certainly be no issue for leading clinics to meet these requirements. Those who want to earn the respect and business of the online patient community need to be actively involved with our community. Visibility can be bought online with banners and click ads but credibility must be earned. That is the culture of the Internet.
Creating photo albums is as easy as creating an email with attached photos. There is no valid reason for a clinic to not post their patient results each and every month.
Those who are not willing to do so will need to consider promoting themselves with sandwich boards, newspaper ads or perhaps message banners streaming behind airplanes.
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Joe,
I expect clinics to follow the lead of H & W and other leading clinics who have been actively presenting impressive work and post both albums with immediate post op results and also albums with completed results from A to Z. I also expect that photo albums will include plenty of useful detail such as donor strip measurements, graft and hair counts and estimated densities.
I will be sending written guidelines and instructions to all recommended physicians in the coming week.
I hope that the members of this forum will help us actively monitor the albums that just have immediate post ops and request follow up photos over time.
Onwards and Upwards, Pat
P.S. thanatopsis_awry, I agree that this is going to be huge and will take accountability and transparency to an even higher level. There will be no resting on laurels, plaques or diplomas on this results based community.
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Patients deserve to see the ongoing patient results of any clinic they are considering. All clinics recommended on the Hair Transplant Network will soon be given a strong incentive to post impressive patient results on this forum on a monthly basis in order to maintain their recommended status.
In the age of online accountability and transparency, no clinic can expect to earn the respect of the online patient community without sharing impressive patient results on a regular basis. This community is interested in promoting only those clinics that can and will publicly present impressive patient results on an ongoing basis.
Note to recommended clinics ??“ all patient photos that you post on this forum will also be added to your recommendation page and the Hair Transplant Network photo gallery by our webmaster. You will then be able manage and deactivate any of your patient photos by logging into your online admin area.
We look forward to seeing hundreds of impressive patient results posted on this forum by all recommended clinics in the coming months.
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Guys, I hear what you are saying about seeing more large sessions. That is why Coalition membership is reserved only for those who have expanded their capability to provide 3,000 plus graft sessions to patients when appropriate. To see the Coalition membership requirements, click here.
Dr. Rosenberg is not currently being considered for Coalition membership. But I believe she is doing refined and very solid follicular unit grafting. I expect that she will also expand her session sizes and in time be eligible for membership in the Coalition.
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Thanks for everyone's input. While we all have a healthy skepticism about clinics that we have not seen on the forums, I believe that Dr. Rosenberg and her experienced staff have earned the right to be recommended on the Hair Transplant Network.
With time I expect we will see many impressive results from their patients in the future.
I'm glad that the very large Toronto metro area now has a solid and ethical choice right in their own backyard. I expect Dr. Rosenberg and her staff will do everything they can to confirm that their ongoing recommendation is merited.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Rosenberg and her staff as our new recommended clinic in Toronto. To view her recommendation profile, click here.
Best wishes,
Pat
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PJ,
Thanks for bringing up this topic. As you might imagine from my signature, I couldn't agree more. Thanks to everyone else for adding their illumination to this issue.
In my opinion, simply presenting graft counts is outdated and makes no distinction between follicular unit grafting in which the native 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair grafts are kept intact and sub follicular unit grafting in which these native follicular units are sub divided. In addition, some clinics use a limited amount grafts that contain two follicular units that are so close together that they are referred to as "follicular families" or "double follicular units". These clinics believe that such follicular family grafts create a better illusion of density.
I believe arguments can be made in favor of doing sub follicular unit grafting, follicular unit grafting, and for some patients the use of a limited amount of follicular unit families.
The final choice is up to the clinic and patient. But the patient deserves to know exactly what they are getting.
Consumers get to read the ingredients and nutrition info on food labels. Patients should also get detailed information so that they can make apples to apples comparisons.
Better information is more empowerment. All clinics can provide graft counts and even donor strip measurements if the patient based community demands it.
It's up to you to ask for it and ask why its not provided in clinic photo albums when it's missing.
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I appreciate everyone's input. Thanks for taking the time to review Dr. Rosenberg's photo albums.
For clarification, we did recommend a couple of clinics in Toronto in the past. However, after Dr. Seager's death, I discontinued our recommendation for the Seager clinic. Since then, I did visit the Seager clinic in Toronto last year as well as other clinics in Toronto.
The Seager clinic is now being run by Dr. McKenzie. The clinic still subscribes to using "chubby" follicular grafts, which they believe assure higher rates of graft survival and growth. The medical techs also creates the vast majority of recipient site incisions and then immediately places the grafts. This technique is reffered to as "stick and place".
Relative to ultra refined grafting, these chubby grafts are large and require relatively large and invasive incisions that preclude doing modern dense packing. Frankly, I think the Seager clinic and their patients would be well served to acknowledge that leading clinics have been performing ultra refined grafting with high rates of growth for several years now, without cutting "chubby" grafts that contain extra non vital epithelium tissue.
I also dropped a clinic in Toronto last year after visiting their clinic and observing their surgery. In my opinion, their surgery had not evolved with the times. I do not intend to divulge the name of this clinic as I agreed to discreetly remove them.
In my opinion, based on all the information I have gathered about clinics in Toronto, Dr. Marla Rosenberg is the front runner.
It would be great to provide the many hair loss sufferers in the Toronto area with a solid recommendation in their own city, which is currently lacking on the Hair Transplant Network.
I believe that Dr. Rosenberg will serve this community very well in Toronto.
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.
We are currently considering Dr. Marla Rosenberg of Toronto for recommendation on the Hair Transplant Network. At this time, she is not being reviewed for Coalition membership. We would appreciate your input regarding her possible recommendation.
At present we do not recommend any clinic in Toronto. Currently Dr. Rosenberg is the only physician being given serious consideration for recommendation in Toronto.
Dr. Rosenberg has been performing hair transplantation as the primary part of her practice for 7 years in Toronto, Canada. She has the staff and experience to perform over 2,500 follicular unit grafts in a single session when appropriate for the patient and operates on only one patient daily in order to give them her undivided focus and attention.
In most cases, Dr. Rosenberg uses a single blade to harvest the donor strip to minimize the risk of transection during removal. On occasion and depending on the patient's donor, Dr. Rosenberg will use a double blade which she believes is just as effective as a single blade when used at an angle in minimizing the risk of transection. While she uses the trichophytic closure technique for some patients, she believes a standard closure is optimal for some, depending on each patient's needs and long term hair restoration goals. Dr. Rosenberg closes the donor area with sutures using a single layer running stitch which she feels is optimal for minimizing the appearance of the scar.
Dr. Rosenberg's highly trained staff of 10 technicians averaging 12 years of experience dissects follicular unit grafts under microscopes and then places them delicately into recipient sites under her direct supervision. Dr. Rosenberg will use the occasional DFU (double follicular unit ??“ 2 follicular units grouped close together) to create a greater illusion of hair density in the forelock and crown area when appropriate for the patient.
Dr. Rosenberg believes in customizing a hair transplant for each patient. Using instruments as small as a 20 gauge needle, she creates a mix of sagital and coronal incisions. Dr. Rosenberg believes this works best to mimic the angulation and orientation of natural hair and maximize naturalness and the illusion of coverage and density.
To get a visual overview of Dr. Rosenberg's surgical process and technique, visit Surgical Walkthrough Photos.
Given Dr. Rosenberg's extensive experience and commitment to high quality follicular unit hair transplantation, Bill and I believe that she should be considered for recommendation. See our standards for recommendation.
Patient and surgical examples can be found below:
2104 Grafts with Dr. Rosenberg
2234 Grafts with Dr. Rosenberg
1937 Grafts with Dr. Rosenberg
5566 Grafts in 3 Sessions with Dr. Rosenberg
2000 Grafts with Dr. Rosenberg
2233 Grafts Post Op with Dr. Rosenberg
1329 Grafts Post Op with Dr. Rosenberg
We welcome input and comments from forum members regarding her potential recommendation.
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Congratulations on the new office with plenty of room to grow into. Of course, it's really what happens within the walls than on the walls that counts, except if we are talking about the flat screen TV as Dewayne pointed out.
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By asking me not to speak while you allow other anonymous posters to continue their rants and attacks is hardly fair. You should have locked the thread.
Why have you let posters like Something and Hooray attack me with ad homonym attacks? Have you read their disgusting posts? You should have deleted their posts or suspended their accounts for such behavior but you didn't. Do you honestly think the nasty posts they wrote about me were in good faith and germane to the discussion? I would think that as a moderator you would have put a stop to that. Instead you let it ratchet up.
Bill,
I happen to agree with Dr. Feller that when people are making personal attacks on him for sticking his neck out to express his reservations, he should be allowed to respond.
I do agree that some of the comments made by Something and Hooray, including quoting Dr. Feller out of context have been unfair and designed to provoke him. He had every right to defend himself.
This topic has deteriorated into personal attacks and needs to be closed at least until cool heads prevail.
Bottom line - Bill and I have asked Dr. Umar to provide this community with answers to the below questions:
We suggest Dr. Umar start a new discussion thread and thoroughly explain:
1. How the "Umar procedure" works and how it differs from techniques used by other surgeons.
2. Body hair growth cycles and their longevity when transplanted to the scalp.
3. How he qualifies candidates for surgery.
4. BHT success rates in his experience, including typical growth yield and overall success in the 150+ cases he's performed.
We look forward to an ongoing educational process that is free of personal attacks.
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Baldie,
Do you recall the scene in the Wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled back to reveal a man pulling levers to produce a big smoke filled facade? In the hair loss world that man would be Spencer Kobren in my opinion.
When you visit the IAHRS.org site or his American Hair Loss Association you get the impression that they are large non profit organizations run by the doctors themselves. But in reality it is Spencer Kobren behind the curtain collecting checks and pulling levers.
It has been insulting to visit doctors' offices around North America to observe their surgeries ( click here, to see some of these visits) and find brochures for the IAHRS at the front desk that state "The International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons is the first and only organization comprised of selectively screened, skilled and ethical hair transplant surgeons . . . "
The irony is that while I'm visiting these hair transplant clinics to assure that the members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians are actually screened for quality, Spencer Kobren has typically not visited these clinics, yet claims that his club, the IAHRS, is the ONLY group that screens physicians.
In fact, Kobren's screening process seems to largely involve monitoring this forum and who is added to our list of recommended physicians and then calling them to solicit them to join the IAHRS. "Screened" indeed.
I have yet to research and add a doctor on our community who was not solicited aggressively by Spencer Kobren.
I guess it wouldn't be so bad if he only solicited doctors who were actually good enough to be recommended on the Hair Transplant Network. But unfortunately he accepts money to promote several clinics that were either rejected or removed from our community at one time or another.
In my opinion, Spencer Kobren is clever and slick and talks a good game but lacks in any real substance or integrity.
And since I expect you will be reading this Spencer, I suggest you make the following change to your slick IAHRS brochure to make it less deceptive -
Change "The International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons is the first and only organization comprised of selectively screened, skilled and ethical hair transplant surgeons . . . "
TO -
"The International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons is a pseudo non profit organization comprised of physicians who Spencer Kobren solicited mostly after reading about them on the Hair Transplant Network. While Spencer Kobren has never visited the vast majority of these clinics he did stay at a Holiday Inn last night . . . "
Spencer, feel free to respond to my suggestions by replying to this topic.
P.S. Spencer Kobren discontinued his own discussion forum years ago and I haven't seen him post on any forum in years. Perhaps he decided he didn't want he or his physicians to be subjected to the reality checks that forums like this provide.
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Bruce,
Thanks for your helpful response. I agree except that FUE, does create a scar. But since the round punches used to punch out the follicles are typically less than 1mm the scars then to be so small that they are typically not visible unless viewed under very close inspection.
In addition as the small round wound heals it typically contracts thus reducing the scaring area to less than 1mm.
One other advantage of FUE is that healing and recovery time is typically faster than strip surgery. However, another disadvantage of FUE is that the donor area typically needs to be shaved down. For patients who typically wear their hair longer this can be an issue.
To view a comparison of FUE and strip surgery, including video of FUE being performed, click here .
Cottonnc, best wishes for selecting the procedure that is optimal for you.
Pat
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I appreciate everyone's impassioned input. M & M and Wylie, thanks for stepping in and interjecting some good points without jumping into the ring like an angry relative on the Jerry Springer Show.
I believe today's dramatic episode is wrapping up (It's now around 11pm on a Saturday night) and it's time for me to do my "Hairy Springer" impersonation.
Here goes:
Folks, we're all here to get hair not pull each others out. I think when the facts and issues are divorced from the personal attacks I see many genuine and passionate concerns.
I feel that strip and FUE both have a place as legitimate hair transplant options. Modern strip surgery is a proven cost effective method for restoring hair in the balding areas. It will leave a long and hopefully pencil thin scar that will be of no cosmestic concern to the patient. I know that has been true for me and hundreds of thousands of others.
Of course, many over the years have been left with scars in the back of the head that were as wide as 2 cm or even wider. Such scars are then a cosmetic issue. In even rarer cases the patient may have even experienced nerve damage. Fear of such scarring largely fueled the development and interest in FUE.
Fortunately, when performed by truly qualified physicians using optimal donor and closure techniques, cosmetically significant scarring from strip surgery has become rare.
FUE has certainly been proven to work. But personally I'm still not confident that it has as high a successful growth rate as strip surgery when done properly performed using microscopes. FUE also typically costs more for the amount of hair transplanted.
Many of the leading physicians recommended on this community offer both and patients and their chosen physician can decide which technique is best for them.
BHT (Body Hair Transplantation - body hair to head) is newer and, in my opinion, lacks the depth of evidence to fully determine its true rate of success both short term and long term.
However, I think all of us would like to believe that it will ultimately be successful. Clearly for some of Dr. Umar's patients it already has been life changing success.
However an enormous amount of work and tedious extraction was required to achieve these results.
I believe Dr. Umar is genuine in his commitment to making BHT a proven success. Perhaps his extensive experience he enabled him to now have a high rate of success in appropriately selected patients.
However, I think it is fair to error on the side of being conservative and give Dr. Umar and his patients more time to share evidence of both their successes and also the results that may not be as hoped for on this forum.
I hope that in the near future Dr. Umar, even without formally being recommended, garners patients from this forum who are appropriate candidates and yield great results.
I'm willing to be patient and I think this community is willing to be patient and watch and see as well. I trust that given Dr. Umar's strong belief in BHT and FUE that he will persist in continuing to present evidence of his work.
In the mean time, I would really appreciate Dr. Umar sharing his assessment of the success rate of his BHT procedures to date as well as the long term characteristics of his patients' hair and its typical growing cycles.
Let's all take a deep breath and relax and let the evidence continue to unfold. I look forward to learning much from Dr. Umar and his patients in the coming weeks.
So be good to each other out there and don't pull on each others hair, because all hair, body or scalp, is precious ;-)
Hairy Springer
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Dr. Feller,
I appreciate your input and the concerns you have expressed. I have long shared your concern that FUE and BHT not be oversold, as it certainly was by physicians other than Dr. Umar.
I would never present Dr. Umar's BHT/FUE procedure on this site as a mainstream alternative for patients with good scalp donor nor would Dr. Umar. One of the reasons I'm impressed with Dr. Umar, in addition to his dedication and skill, is his honest presentation of the benefits and limitations of his procedure.
With tens of thousands of hair loss sufferers visiting this community each week, some of them need an alternative to conventional strip surgery. In my opinion, Dr. Umar can serve this niche. I think there should be a place for him and his procedure on this broad based community.
For those in particular who have been "through the mill" and have no other options for restoring a natural look other than using body hair, I'd like to be able to provide them with a viable option. As long as these patients have a realistic understanding of the pros and cons of this procedure and its risks and limitations, I think it is time to make it available and known.
Best regards, Pat
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Given Dr. Umar's impressive work and his willingness to actively participate on this community I think he deserves serious consideration for recommendation.
I have created a topic entitled " Potential Recommendation of Dr. Umar".
Those who would like to comment on his possible recommendation, please visit that topic and comment.
Thanks for everyone's input.
Pat
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Dear forum members,
We'd like to gather your input and opinions regarding the potential recommendation of Dr. Sanusi Umar of Redondo Beach, California on the Hair Transplant Network.
Dr. Umar has established a reputation for being arguably the world's foremost expert on BHT (body hair transplant ??“ transferring body hair follicles to balding areas of the scalp). In recent weeks he has presented numerous examples of his BHT procedure on this forum (see below for links to these photo albums), in which patients who had depleted scalp donor hair, achieved remarkable improvement with body hair transferred to their scalp. His patients have also come forward to present their impressive FUE results.
In an effort to learn more about BHT, I recently visited with and observed Dr. Umar performing his surgery. I was very impressed with his work and Dr. Umar's dedication to personally doing all the tedious FUE/BHT work at very modest prices. See the highlights from my visit to Dr. Umar's office, click here.
Dr. Umar developed a passion for alternative hair transplant procedures due to a botched 400 graft strip surgery he endured years ago. His personal dedication has helped motivate him to excel while enduring unfair criticism from some of his BHT competitors.
Dr. Umar has a background in dermatology and has been perfecting FUE and BHT procedures since 2005, with over 150 BHT procedures performed to date. Recognizing that not everyone is suited for BHT, Dr. Umar uses very strict criteria in determining who is an appropriate candidate.
In Dr. Umar's experience more body hair is required to provide the same amount of coverage as normal scalp hair, due to the long resting phase of body hair. Dr. Umar often takes a comprehensive approach by creating a unique blend of scalp hair and body hair used as "filler" when appropriate. Dr Umar also extracts and places all FUE and BHT grafts himself.
Using a 0.9 mm or less punch, Dr. Umar first scores the skin and then uses a needle to separate the root of the follicle from the surrounding tissues. Dr. Umar believes this process reduces scarring and minimizes the risk of transection that might result if he attempted extend the punch down to the base of the follicle for extraction.
In my opinion, Dr. Umar's use of BHT gives qualified patients with depleted scalp resources a viable alternative in restoring their hair and he should be considered for recommendation.
Dr. Umar's Patient and Surgical photos can be found below:
15000 BHT and FUE Hybrid for a NW6 at 9 months with Video
10000 BHT Extreme Repair Case with Video
3000 FUE and BHT Hybrid at 7 Months
22000 Grafts (15000 body, 6000 beard, 1000 head) Repair Case at 6 Months
Additional Photos Added by Request
1200 Grafts scalp FUE - African American Male - 8 Months
I welcome input and comments from forum members regarding his potential recommendation.
To view our standards for recommendation, click here.
To learn more about this communities process of prescreening physicians, click here .
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Hairthere,
I appreciate your reply. Bill and I are very open to hearing the good, the bad and the ugly about all doctors, including those who may be in the Coalition. In the past three years I have removed over a dozen doctors from the recommendation list. Most of the time this was not known online. They were simply removed with no fan far.
In some cases they were removed based on patient comments or in other cases after I visited their clinic and found it was not what it should have been.
We add doctors as a community and we can remove them the same way. Just keep in mind that there are 700 members of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery and at least that number of physicians again who are not members but who perform hair transplant surgery. The Coalition has thirty four physician members who in my opinion and based on all the evidence I could gather in ten years are the true cream of the crop. They represent only 2.5% of all doctors performing hair transplantation.
Are they perfect, of course not. Will some patients prefer some of them over others, absolutely. But I do believe they are all truly some of the very best.
However, none of them can rest on their laurels. They must continue to evolve and operate transparently knowing that any one of their patients can and often does report back on this forum about their experience.
There is no regulation in this industry. The closest we have is patients holding this web community and all doctors accountable to the highest standards.
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hairthere,
If you want to play armchair quarterback and make blanket statements that you're not willing to back up then don't make them.
Have you spent years on the road visiting well over 50 clinics in North and South American and Europe to assure that those in the Coalition do in fact provide outstanding work? Do you get hundreds of private reports from actual patients each year? Do you attend all the major scientific meetings?
No, I didn't think so. But you view photos from a minority of doctors who post online and now you see the big picture?
We expect the doctors to be accountable for what they do. We should also expect those with posting privileges to be accountable for what they say. Provide the names of those Coalition members you think are "marginal" or shut your pie hole.
Pat
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Newgrowth,
Welcome to our community. A big congratulations on your great transformation and kudos to you for surviving the ordeal you went through prior to Dr. Umar.
I hope you become a regular member of our community. Feel free to create patient weblog documenting your journey if you'd like.
I'm curious. How does your body hair feel, manage and grow on your scalp? Does it feel and grow like your regular scalp hair? How far does it grow in length? You are certainly on the cutting edge of new procedure.
Best wishes for continued growth and for enjoying life to the fullest.
Pat
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Bradman,
By all means keep your consult and go in with wide eyes and see it all for yourself. He has a photobook that you can view that has impressive results. It's just that the photos tend to be the traditional front view before and afters. The online patient community tends to want to see multiple angles and immediate post op photos.
Keep us posted. Pat
Potential Recommendation of Dr. Timothy Carman of La Jolla, CA
in Hair Transplant Reviews
Posted
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.
At the request of this community on this thread, I agree that it is now time to formally present Dr. Timothy Carman of LaJolla, CA for recommendation on the Hair Transplant Network. Then in time I expect that he will ultimately be invited into the ranks of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.
We would appreciate your input regarding his potential recommendation.
As some of you know, Dr. Carman has a strong background in plastic surgery and trained intensively with Coalition member Dr. Bill Reed, finishing his one year fellowship in hair transplantation in 2006. He now works with Dr. Reed and his excellent staff doing ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation. I know that Dr. Reed is very pleased with Dr. Carman's ethics, work ethic and final results.
Dr. Carman's passion is demonstrated by his active involvement in our forum community. In the last several months, he has answered almost one hundred hair loss and hair transplant related questions, and has presented evidence of his ultra refined technique with great reviews from our patient and physician members.
I also recently visited with and observed Dr. Carman in live surgery and was very impressed by his passion and commitment to performing exclusive hair transplantation. See my Visit to Dr. Carman's Clinic in La Jolla, CA
Dr. Carman shares the same experienced staff with Bill Reed averaging over 5 years of experience, and has the ability to perform over 3000 all follicular unit grafts in a single session when appropriate for the patient.
Dr. Carman shares Dr. Reeds philosophy of putting the patient's best interest above technical dogma and as well as his intense compassion and commitment. Using cutting instruments as small as a 20 gauge needle, Dr. Carman believes creating a combination of sagital (parallel) and coronal (perpendicular) incisions depending on the area of baldness and position of the native hair, best mimics the natural angulation and direction of the natural hair. He believes that in using this approach, he can easily work around existing "native" (natural) hair without requiring shaving.
Dr. Carman uses a #10 single blade scalpel to harvest the donor strip to minimize transection. 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. Carman uses the trichophytic closure technique for all hair transplants he performs and utilizes a single running suture so that the tension is on the underlying fascia rather than the skin. He believes this minimizes and uniforms tension on the wound for maximum healing and minimal scarring.
Given Dr. Carman's impressive credentials and commitment to ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation, I believe that he should be considered for recommendation. See our standards for recommendation.
Patient and surgical examples can be found below:
2015 Grafts with Dr. Carman
2176 Grafts with Dr. Carman
2207 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman
2300 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman
1929 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman
1821 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman
3515 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman
2893 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman
2820 Grafts Post-Op with Dr. Carman