FDA to Speed up Approval of Devices - Pilofocus?

[hellouser]

I wonder how and if this will benefit Dr. Carlos Wesley's use of devices for piloscopy? See article below:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-...-speed-approval-of-medical-devices-1457580969

 

[buckthorn]

I wasn't able to read the article on my phone, but - "medical devices", wouldn't he still have to go through the trials, given it's purely for cosmetic purposes. I have always been interested in Wesley's piloscopy device as an instrument to REMOVE unwanted grafts already placed in a recipient area. People think I am crazy, but if you want a bunch of grafts removed, wouldn't one tiny scar be more desirable than 1,000 white dots?

 

[MickChong]

I wasn't able to read the article on my phone, but - "medical devices", wouldn't he still have to go through the trials, given it's purely for cosmetic purposes. I have always been interested in Wesley's piloscopy device as an instrument to REMOVE unwanted grafts already placed in a recipient area. People think I am crazy, but if you want a bunch of grafts removed, wouldn't one tiny scar be more desirable than 1,000 white dots?

Pilofocus working in reality would be far better than FUE or FUT, as both of the latter leave scars which makes shaving down impossible.

One may question why we would want to shave down given we've gone to the trouble of having a hair transplant? Well, with progressive loss, the transplant may end up looking a complete **** making it necessary. That's always the same problem with hair transplants, that's why pilofocus would be a massive step in the right direction.

 

[MickChong]

The problem is that there's still no proof that pilofocus can deliver the same quality, let alone better, results than a traditional FUE. Dr. Wesley is still practicing/perfecting use of the tool (and who knows if he'll tweak the design again), and we then have to keep waiting to see if the survival rate is better. I feel like all of this will take another few years to come to fruition, unfortunately, and that's with no approval interference. I guess this is a way of saying I don't really have that much hope for pilofocus.

Let's see in the next couple of years how this will develop, it's too early to lose hope.

 

[MickChong]

I'm sure Pilofocus will work out - eventually. But it's going to take a decade or more before it's widely available, and I question the ability to do large transplants with it.

ARTAS is much more interesting, I think, and will probably revolutionize hair transplants once the machine can both extract AND transplant (a trick they are currently working on and will probably release in the next couple of years). Each successive upgrade makes the machine better, and I think it will produce results equal to or even better than the best hair transplant surgeons in the very near future. This should bring the cost of a hair transplant down, as the machine will be faster and less labor-intensive than the traditional hair transplant.

Sure, but the idea with Pilofocus was to provide a scarless option meaning the patient could confidently commit to a procedure knowing that he could still shave down if he were to incur further losses. Artlas, as good as it may become, is not scarless.