HairlossTalk
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2004 International Society of Hair Restoration Surgeons Conference
Article by Dr. Tony Mangubat
Hair restoration surgery has undergone enormous changes in the past decade. The general acceptance of follicular unit grafting has made vast improvements over the hair transplants results prior to 1990 and virtually all of contemporary hair transplant results today are undetectable by the lay public. That begs the question, why does the majority of the lay public today have such a poor image of our specialty? I suggest that it is a multi-faceted problem that involves not only the lay public but also our physician peers who are not HRS surgeons and our own attitudes about ourselves and our specialty.
The lay public is constantly reminded of the poor hair transplant results of the 1960-1980 eras. Thousands of these old results still haunt us. Our predecessors were secretive about their techniques resulting in excruciatingly slow technical progress. Meanwhile the hair transplant marketing machines promised natural results and hundreds of thousands of patients elected to have the state-of-the-art procedure of the time. So many of these pluggy, corn-rowed, and unsightly results have left indelible impressions in the public's mind. There are many things we can do as a specialty to make inroads in changing these perceptions and it begins with education.
Our physician peers who are not HRS surgeons have very little idea of what we are able to accomplish today. Discussions with several of my phsycian patients tell me that they had to rely on the internet to get the essence of what HRS is about today. Until recently, the newest textbook available was dated 1996. Like the lay public, most physicians do not see HRS as a specialty and they have no appreciation for what has been accomplished in the past 15 years. We need to prove to our peer physicians that we are as serious about our specialty as they are about theirs. That like hear surgery, organ transplant surgery, plastic surgery, oncology, internal medicine, pediatrics, etc. HRS makes a difference in our patients' lives. How we interact with our peers makes a statement and I will discuss some of the things that can make a difference.
Lastly, we need to expand our specialty. ISHRS membership has hovered around 600 physicians for the last several years. I venture to guess that there is a least 10 times that number who perform HRS in the world. Unfortunately, many of these non-member doctors do not practice with the intellectual advantages we enjoy simply because they are not members. The free flow of information we enjoy is extrordinary and a 180 degree about-face from only a decade ago when the ISHRS was formed. We now have an obligation to every practicing HRS physician and every newcomer to our specialty to ensure they have access to the most up-to-date knowledge of our specialty; to ensure that every hair trnasplant they perform is done with contemporary techniques and is done with the patient's best interest in mind.
There are those amongst us that feel the competition is currently too great, that they will starve if we increase the number of HRS surgeons today. I must passionately disagree. The world population is almost 6.4 billion people; 3.2 billion are men and boys; approximately 1.6 billion males will develop androgenetic alopecia. If there are 10,000 HRS physicians in the world today, we can infer that there are approximately 160,000 potential male patients for each surgeon at any given time. Most surgeons will never exceed performing 10,000 surgical procdures in their entire career (400 cases annually for 25 years). Keep in mind this does not include the numerous female patients with hair loss. The world population continues to grow at approximately 2.3 humans every second. I suggest that there are more patients who need our services than there are surgeons to care for them.
In summary, we need to actively take our specialty to all that are interested in it if we are to be successful in changing public opinion. Education is the critical element: educating the public, educating our physician peers, and educating ourselves. The message mus be simple; that HRS is a unique specialty, that we can produce reliably excellent results, and that we make a difference in our patient's lives. This presentation will center on the specifics of what we must do to get that message across and to make it believable.
E. Antonio Mangubat, MD.
Article by Dr. Tony Mangubat
Hair restoration surgery has undergone enormous changes in the past decade. The general acceptance of follicular unit grafting has made vast improvements over the hair transplants results prior to 1990 and virtually all of contemporary hair transplant results today are undetectable by the lay public. That begs the question, why does the majority of the lay public today have such a poor image of our specialty? I suggest that it is a multi-faceted problem that involves not only the lay public but also our physician peers who are not HRS surgeons and our own attitudes about ourselves and our specialty.
The lay public is constantly reminded of the poor hair transplant results of the 1960-1980 eras. Thousands of these old results still haunt us. Our predecessors were secretive about their techniques resulting in excruciatingly slow technical progress. Meanwhile the hair transplant marketing machines promised natural results and hundreds of thousands of patients elected to have the state-of-the-art procedure of the time. So many of these pluggy, corn-rowed, and unsightly results have left indelible impressions in the public's mind. There are many things we can do as a specialty to make inroads in changing these perceptions and it begins with education.
Our physician peers who are not HRS surgeons have very little idea of what we are able to accomplish today. Discussions with several of my phsycian patients tell me that they had to rely on the internet to get the essence of what HRS is about today. Until recently, the newest textbook available was dated 1996. Like the lay public, most physicians do not see HRS as a specialty and they have no appreciation for what has been accomplished in the past 15 years. We need to prove to our peer physicians that we are as serious about our specialty as they are about theirs. That like hear surgery, organ transplant surgery, plastic surgery, oncology, internal medicine, pediatrics, etc. HRS makes a difference in our patients' lives. How we interact with our peers makes a statement and I will discuss some of the things that can make a difference.
Lastly, we need to expand our specialty. ISHRS membership has hovered around 600 physicians for the last several years. I venture to guess that there is a least 10 times that number who perform HRS in the world. Unfortunately, many of these non-member doctors do not practice with the intellectual advantages we enjoy simply because they are not members. The free flow of information we enjoy is extrordinary and a 180 degree about-face from only a decade ago when the ISHRS was formed. We now have an obligation to every practicing HRS physician and every newcomer to our specialty to ensure they have access to the most up-to-date knowledge of our specialty; to ensure that every hair trnasplant they perform is done with contemporary techniques and is done with the patient's best interest in mind.
There are those amongst us that feel the competition is currently too great, that they will starve if we increase the number of HRS surgeons today. I must passionately disagree. The world population is almost 6.4 billion people; 3.2 billion are men and boys; approximately 1.6 billion males will develop androgenetic alopecia. If there are 10,000 HRS physicians in the world today, we can infer that there are approximately 160,000 potential male patients for each surgeon at any given time. Most surgeons will never exceed performing 10,000 surgical procdures in their entire career (400 cases annually for 25 years). Keep in mind this does not include the numerous female patients with hair loss. The world population continues to grow at approximately 2.3 humans every second. I suggest that there are more patients who need our services than there are surgeons to care for them.
In summary, we need to actively take our specialty to all that are interested in it if we are to be successful in changing public opinion. Education is the critical element: educating the public, educating our physician peers, and educating ourselves. The message mus be simple; that HRS is a unique specialty, that we can produce reliably excellent results, and that we make a difference in our patient's lives. This presentation will center on the specifics of what we must do to get that message across and to make it believable.
E. Antonio Mangubat, MD.