Which accreditation to trust?

[DualPower]

There seem to be a number of accredting organisations. Some international and some country specific. BAHRS, IAHRS, American Hair loss Association, ISHRS etc.

 

Should membership of one or more of these inspire confidence as the doctor has to demonstrates a certain level of expertise and experience to become a member? Or, is it just a case that if a doctor is prepared to pay the associated fees then they can become a member.

 

If it is a case that membership is based on experience, which of these should be considered the "standard" by which to go by?

[chris39]

That's a slightly political question . Check out all the organisations you mention , and you'll find out the qualifying conditions for each .

[Bill - Seemiller]

I think in order to answer this question you have to understand what each organization is and what they do. For example, the ISHRS is an organization for doctors. It is a very large and well respected organization amongst the physician community and helps to educate and train physicians from the novice to expert. All of occasions to join include a membership fee and they physicians license. There is no prescreening based on results. Thus, while this is a vital organization I would not use it to select a hair transplant doctor.

 

The American hair loss association and IAHRS are the same thing. Add to that the bald truth website which is also part of the same thing. All of these organizations and websites are owned by a gentleman by the name of Spencer Kobren. He allegedly has some set of standards and recommends doctors based on the standards. In some ways the way he runs his websites similar to the way we run ours. That said, how he actually prescreens doctors and includes them on his list is a bit of a mystery to me. Our prescreening and recommendation process is much more transparent which includes feedback and input from the patient community.

 

In the list, you also forgot to mention our community which includes a recommendation on The Hair Transplant Network and The Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians (CIHRP). Our recommendation and Coalition standards are listed on the site and physicians are not approved for recommendation or the Coalition without first garnering input from this forum community. We are very serious about recommending only those physicians who have a proven track record of producing consistent an excellent results.

 

While we do a lot of the research for you and only recommend those doctors to meet our high standards, we also strongly encourage patients to do their own due diligence in researching all doctors they are considering. That's why we have a discussion forum which enables patients to share their experiences good or bad about any and all doctors. This forum also helps us decide which doctors to include on our recommendation list and not.

 

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

 

Bill

Edited May 12, 2016 by David - Moderator