website of top surgeons

[rp1979]

Is it just me or do you think there is not enough before and after photos examples on the websites of top surgeons. I mean if I were a potential patient I would like to have the oppportunity to flip through hundreds of photos in order to evaluate the work of a surgeon. I think it's rare to see anymore than 20 examples of patient photos on websites of top surgeons.

[rp1979]

Is it just me or do you think there is not enough before and after photos examples on the websites of top surgeons. I mean if I were a potential patient I would like to have the oppportunity to flip through hundreds of photos in order to evaluate the work of a surgeon. I think it's rare to see anymore than 20 examples of patient photos on websites of top surgeons.

[Jotronic]

rp1979,

 

Good question but you must understand that any clinic has a hard time getting photos together. Some say they are only cherry picked and I can't really speak to that save to say that we really want our patients to share but it is really tough getting people to say "sure, post my face on a website". Men (and even more so, women) are really private about having had a hair transplant due to the negative stigma that is attached to it. In addition, with almost 3/4 of our patients not even coming in from Canada we can't ask patients to fly back to our clinic for a few photos. I wish it were different but it is what it is.

 

As far as your numbers I can say that we have over three times that with 70 patients in our photo gallery and serveral also in our video gallery. We'd have a couple hundred more if we were to use photos taken by our patients but we do not in the name of consistency but the good thing is that a lot of them share themselves on this and other websites showing not just the final result but the progress in between point A and Z.

[NervousNelly]

The age old question.

 

Maybe many of them are just too busy and make enough money. Myself if I were a top notch surgeon I have have photos plastered everywhere. That is just me though. I love marketing and would try to go to the extreme, but if you can only do 1 surgery a day and are already busy why bust ass to get more business?

[the B spot]

This is something I really think confuses the hell out of many.

 

Aside from H&W and maybe a few others, HT Doc's websites are simply too vague and out-dated, IMO.

 

I think you will be seeing some changes in the future, because at some point in time, you simply exhaust your "word of mouth or walk-in" clientele or the greater share of the industry simply passes you by.

 

I remember the thread about Dr. Shapiro's website, where someone stated that the pics that they saw in the office were mind-blowing compared to some of the pics on the website.

 

I am glad that they are working on a new website in order to allow us the opportunity to view MANY patients in great detail.

H&W are currently doing a great job of providing clear pics and video's, and others should follow their lead.

 

It is something that ALL of our clinics should pay attention to.

 

Take Care,

J

[NervousNelly]

Once competition gets a little stiffer and you start to actually see some elite surgeons overseas charging $1-2 per graft you can count on the better websites from North American docs.

[nobuzz4me]

Good thread,

 

Food for thought:

 

OK, lets say someone like Dr. Feller, who is booked out months ahead, makes major website changes to draw in more business (his website is fine, this is just an example).

 

He does lets say one or two surgeries a day, what would he do with the extra demand created??

 

He could charge more, or he could train some assistants to take his "overflow". I have no problem with this since new Doctors need training. But, as soon as a Doctor goes too far down this road, he will not be my doctor.

 

The next step beyond that is to become a mini-hair mill. Most of these great surgeons realize that would only hurt thier reputation in the long run, even though they could make more money. Its called good ethics, and the great ones have it.

 

Supply and demand dictate for these guys, too much advertising produces demand they cannot handle. Thier best advertisement is thier results, word of mouth and patient testimony, all of which can be found for free on forums.

 

Like B-Spot said, go to the office and you will find all the photos you need, see a few patients if you can or talk to them by phone. Websites are just a tool to use to get you to come for a consult.

[rp1979]

As a noobie coming into the world of HT, I would like to do online research and have email correspondance as much as possible before paying for a plane ticket and taking time off work to travel to clinics across the country for a consultation.

 

I want to reiterate what nervousnelly is saying about top doctors being too busy and making enough money. I think it's true and understandably so. I've contacted 6 top US clinics and I've experienced the following:

 

-one doc is charging a fee for an office consultation, fine by me but I would like to see more pictures please

-one doc would like me to take fin for a year before coming in for an office consultation

-one doc currently advertises in his website saying he offers consultation in a city close to where I live, but when I called I found out that this info is obselete.

-other docs/clinics are slow (over a week) to reply to an email/online consult.

-in general I think it's very difficult to request a conversation with some top docs over the phone.

 

fact of fiction?: top doctors have the market cornered.

[hairbank]

Good Thread!

 

I agree, other than a select few, many of the recommended surgeons' websites are a little lacking when it comes to pics...........especially as many HT's as they do! I guess I would recommend to all clinics to possibly up the effort in asking for updated photos of the journey?? Joe does make a good point, how many of us are willing to spend the time and money necessary to fly back for a photo op??

 

All the more reason I am a proponent of this forum, and others, where actual HT recipients post their work. It's far from perfection but good enough to see what Doc's are performing solid work consistently.

 

BTW.......I have no problem when Docs post here showcasing their work and actually wish more of them would do it.

 

Yes Nobuzz.........it's a balancing act for sure! If a clinic/surgeon is marketed so heavily that it causes a bottleneck in procedures, then they have to staff up and grow to handle it only it's not like quality HT surgeons grow on trees and you can just go pick another to compliment the business.

 

rp1979 - Yes, you need to have as much info as possible before scheduling the HT. I guess I never really considered traveling to the clinics for a consult because I did not have the time and money to spend. Ideally, it would be great to be able to do this. Too bad to hear you're having difficulty in consulting. Most times you will be talking to a consultant, not the Doc, though I believe several Doc's also do their own consulting.

[Pat - Community Publisher]

This is an excellent topic. Although the Hair Transplant Network has the largest collection of hair transplant photos on the Web (over 600 sets of patient photos) there is still much room for improvement.

 

We recently revamped our database system to enable recommended physicians to login and upload large number of photos using multiple views (front, top, sides and back) as well as before, immediately after surgery, during intermediate growth stages (2 to 6 months) and final after photos.

 

Clinics can also provide hair counts in addition to graft counts and detailed text comments.

 

I just sent an email to all of them today encouraging them to use these enhanced features to update their photos.

 

Some clinics have trouble getting final result photos because patients move on with their lives and don't come back to provide final photos. Others simply don't want even their hairlines shown online.

 

I will continue to work at getting physicians to present better photos on our websites and on our forum.

 

Pat

[rp1979]

jotronic and hairbank: no need for patients to fly back for a photo shoot. But I think it's fine to use patient self-taken pictures of their scalps (with no face) after a year postop and email back the photos, it's MUCH better than nothing eventhough format style of the shot may be inconsistent.

 

A side note: why can't docs just post ALL of the pictures they'd show during the office consult on their websites, especially the faceless ones?

 

nobuzz: i'm not even asking for any top doctors to make major changes to their websites. just add more recent photos ( labelled with a DATE and # of grafts) to continually show the results they can produce to this day. As you correctly said, some top docs are booked months ahead but at the same time continually have banner ads on hairlosshelp and hire people to post on forum threads, which i feel is a much more agressive form of marketing than simply supplying more examples/photos of the kind of good results the doc can consistently produce.

 

Getting back to the topic, the most convenient way for prospective patients to evaluate a doctor's work and especially his/her ARTISTRY (which is SUBJECTIVE), is by looking at many many photos online.

 

Pat: Thank you for your response, for this website, and for taking action on this issue.

[Guest]

Pictures are a great sales tool for the doctors but I'm not sure they are so great for prospective HT patients. Sure Bosley can show hudreds of pictures that look miraculous but we all know that story.

That is why this forum is so popular, real people sharing nonbiased opinions & results, although some that are really happy are a bit biased. That brings us to word of mouth, really the best marketing tool any doctor could have!

So IMO reputation is just as important if not more important than pictures.

I must admit that alot of the pictures I have seen on this forum is what has fueled

this recent obsession of mine to get a HT.

[Jotronic]

rp1979,

 

"jotronic and hairbank: no need for patients to fly back for a photo shoot. But I think it's fine to use patient self-taken pictures of their scalps (with no face) after a year postop and email back the photos, it's MUCH better than nothing eventhough format style of the shot may be inconsistent."

 

I agree it is too much to ask but I disagree on using their personal photos in the gallery. We want our after photos to be as consistent as possible with the before with regards to angles, lighting, back ground etc. Even with this policy it is difficult because of ambient lighting conditions, time of day, patient's coloring their hair after the fact, etc. but to add personal photos would only further muddy the waters. We leave the personal photos to the patients and the websites they build to show off their results. We link to a couple of dozen of them but admittedly the list is not up to date. I have dozens more to add but it takes a lot of time to collect all the links then organize them with the proper information for presentation. I'll do it sometime in the next few months though and when I do I'll mention it online.

 

The best thing about our gallery is that we do not use tricks to present the results which I think is wrong. Should YOU ever decide to take use of our services then you are more than welcome to share your progress and results with full face shots and all angles to show what is happening which I'm sure you'd be open to because of your call for change. In fact, I'm sure you'd be open to it no matter whom you choose so whatever you decide to do I look forward to your documentation. I have a feeling it will be pretty detailed which can be nothing but a good thing

[Bill - Seemiller]

As a noobie coming into the world of HT, I would like to do online research and have email correspondance as much as possible before paying for a plane ticket and taking time off work to travel to clinics across the country for a consultation.

 

rp1979,

 

And this is what we wish for in ALL noobies coming into the HT world...if only everyone would be as knowledge based and plan oriented so that they felt comfortable in making the RIGHT decision for them. Too many people jump the gun and get surgery based on hype or emotional excitement and end up disappointed with their results either because they went to a bad clinic, OR because they went to a good clinic with expectations that were too high. Of course, even then, one could argue it's up to EVERY clinic to educate a patient BEFORE taking their money and doing surgery. Some clinics do a better job at this than others.

 

Now...onto the topic of updated websites and photos. It is indeed a difficult topic...BUT, I think regardless of what challenges a clinic faces or excuses they have, and updated website with updated pictures and accurate information is VITAL to the patient and even MORE vital to the clinic. I suppose everyone's heard the saying "it takes bucks to make bucks". yes, there is a time commitment to updating their website and heck, for even contributing and posting on this forum. I am thankful for people like JoTronic, Spex, Janna, Dr. Alexander, Dr. Paul Shapiro, and other various clinics for taking the time to post photos and documentation right HERE on this forum. Now I haven't checked the websites of all of these clinics, but they are obviously doing what it takes to keep people updated with current photos and information.

 

Certainly we all would admit that the best form of advertising for a clinc is patients posting photos of themselves and their progress. Then, a noobie can comfortably make a choice of a doctor based on many patient results posting their own experience and photos, without worrying about whether or not a certain clinic is only posting their showcases. Now I've been around here long enough to see who's posting showcase only work and who's posting everything...however, it can be confusing to a noobie. That's why this community is so vital...people can see real results from real people, not like the before/after pictures and "magical" transitions like the Bosley infomercials. An HT is a gorey process...no doubt about it...and there is nothing NATURAL about it. BUT...once the surgery is over, the wounds are closed and healing, and the hair begins to grow, then it becomes natural.

 

I'm sorry my post is a bit all over the place...but I had several different thoughts and had to try to blend them all together

 

Bottom line: I wish more patients and clinics would post on this forum showing their results. Most of the time, the big name clinics come up...so even when I'm recommending clinics, I can think of a few top clinics that always appear here. Now this is GREAT for the clinics that go that extra mile...but I'm afraid that other clinics are being forgotten because they simply don't make an appearance here....coalition member or not....if I haven't seen any work by them, I don't typically mention their name other than a general statement that appears on the coalition site that states they have met the expectations of the coaltion. Now I'm a firm believe of what the coalition stands for and trust in Pat and stand by all that he does...but the bottom line is, everyone (including Pat) wants to see clinics get involved here...why? It benefits EVERYONE...patient and clinic alike!

 

Bill

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Bill,

 

I couldn't agree more. I've been trying to level the playing field and get all top clinics actively involved on this forum and our sites. But frankly many of them "just don't get it" and or their office staff is too lazy to make the effort.

 

When I visit their clinics I'm often shocked at the impressive photos I see in their office that they never share on our forum or in our photo gallery. It's really a shame.

 

Some physicians and clinics are simply better at promotion than others. These few Web hip clinics tend to get almost all the attention and discussion.

 

I guess it comes down to "you snooze you loose".

 

I will continue to try to educate physicians and encourage them to get engaged. But so often they just aren't comfortable presenting/promoting themselves.

 

Perhaps if they heard these concerns from members of this community and potential patients they will wake up?

 

Pat

[hairbank]

Originally posted by rp1979:

jotronic and hairbank: no need for patients to fly back for a photo shoot. But I think it's fine to use patient self-taken pictures of their scalps (with no face) after a year postop and email back the photos, it's MUCH better than nothing eventhough format style of the shot may be inconsistent.

 

 

rp- Joe beat me to the punch on this one.............the only way a Doc could use updated photo's on his website is if he TOTALLY controlled the before/afters. Otherwise there's really no quality assurance.