Assessing the importance of the transplant team as a whole

[Hair038]

When deciding to have a HT we usually focus on which doctor is best for our given situation. But what about the nurses and technicians assisting the doctor? Shouldn't we be giving consideration to their skills and experience? Is it even possible to assess the support team at a clinic?

I don't think there's any clinic out there where the doctor is performing all of the extractions, incisions, and placements. And obviously the level of involvement between the doctor and the support team can vary quite a bit. But I came across some Youtube content where Joe Tillman was having what I believe to be is his latest procedure (an FUE procedure) at H&W. Now just from the footage alone, Dr. Wong performs only the incisions and the technicians/nurses perform the extractions and placements (with Dr. Wong supervising). This is confirmed in the comments section of the video where someone asks about the level of doctor involvement and (I'm assuming it's Joe) answers by saying that at H&W it is normal for the doctor to do only the incisions and have the techs do the extractions and placements. And to be fair to the video, it seems like the technicians are really really experienced.

Again this shared responsibility and doctor supervision model is used to varying degrees in all clinics. But it got me to thinking, how does one assess the quality and skill of the technicians and nurses? When you book a procedure, you know what doctor is going to oversee the procedure but what are you able to learn (if anything) about the support team? And, in the example I mentioned above, it seems to me that in some ways the support team could be considered more important than the doctor in some ways, if it's the support team that's essentially doing 2/3s of the physical procedure. 

[Gasthoerer]

7 hours ago, Hair038 said:

I don't think there's any clinic out there where the doctor is performing all of the extractions, incisions, and placements.

While I agree the team is very important, there are quite some clinic with the surgeon doing all the work himself. Just out of the top of my head:

- Heitmann, Keser, Pekiner, Konior/Nadimi (almost all) or the HLC collective (even though they are a team, its surgeonS only)

[Al - Moderator]

This is why you need to stay away from the hair mills that sometimes do 5 to 10 patients per day where the techs are doing all the work. You never know who is actually going to be doing your surgery.  Just because you know of someone who had a good result, it doesn't mean you will get a good result because he may have simply gotten a good tech working on him that day. You don't know if the techs have been working in teams together for a long time or if they are just brought in as part time workers with hardly any training and paired together that day without ever knowing each other before that day.

 Something similar is also true with general practice Drs or some plastic surgeons who only do hair transplants on a part time basis as a side business or add on business. They hire part time techs to come in on days that they have a hair transplant surgery, so the techs can be different each time or they have only worked on a small number of surgeries and don't have a lot of experience.

You are much better off going somewhere that has a relatively stable team who has been working together for a number of years with a lot of Dr participation in the surgery, not just "overseeing" while the techs do all the work.

 

[DrTBarghouthi]

Our teams are essentially our capital. You can only do so much in a given day and we surely rely on their expertise, ethics and level of care/passion they put in. I always think that consistency is the biggest indicator of a well managed and well qualified team that works in harmony. 

[Future Hair Doc]

@Dr. Vladimir Paninedoes all the work himself.

I think it's essential to have a good surgical team on your case, which includes the techs, etc. 

@Dr Blake Bloxhamdoes a great job of explaining this:

https://fellermedical.com/how-important-are-hair-transplant-technicians/

[Future Hair Doc]

10 hours ago, Gasthoerer said:

While I agree the team is very important, there are quite some clinic with the surgeon doing all the work himself. Just out of the top of my head:

- Heitmann, Keser, Pekiner, Konior/Nadimi (almost all) or the HLC collective (even though they are a team, its surgeonS only)

There are some legal/regulatory issues in the US that require the surgeon perform certain procedures...this isn't the case in many other countries, especially Turkey, India, etc.

[Dr. Neil Verma]

The doctor is responsible for the case from start to finish.  The team is critical to the procedure.  Its important question to ask and understand what part of the procedure the Doctor performs and what part the technicians perform as well as what is their experience doing it.