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Carol Ko, Staff Writer | August 16, 2013
From the August 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
The Wild East
Downward pressures on the hair removal market means that the profit margins largely depend on substantial patient volume. Experts warn that this phenomenon encourages these centers to cut corners, potentially putting patients at risk.
But experts also argue that a lack of proper standardized guidelines around training is also putting patients at risk.
“Ironically, people talk about the wild west. We have the wild east. You look at states that have good regulation around safe and effective use of medical lasers and really, the states leading that charge have been on the west coast,” says Dupré.
Dupré’s stance isn’t based on hometown loyalty, since he’s based in the east in Pennsylvania. “[Pennsylvania] has no real guidelines at all,” he says. “Today, you could be a street sweeper and you could be operating a laser on a patient tomorrow.”
To add to the confusion, certain well-meaning pieces of legislation may actually make this training hazard worse. Some states, for example, require that lasers be operated only in the presence of certified doctors, but don’t have training certification guidelines for those doctors, overlooking the fact that your average physician has little or no knowledge of how to operate a laser. Experts agree that proper laser training is a must whether the person operating the machine has a medical degree or an A.A. from a junior college.
The lack of regulations around who can perform these procedures has resulted in many patients either not getting the results they desire or, in getting more than they bargained for, suffering burns or scars from these devices. “Dermatologists and plastic surgeons I have spoken with estimate that 20-30% of patients they treat are seeking revisionary work to correct an ineffective or harmful procedure,” says Millennium Research Group’s Seath.
That said, from an overall market standpoint, the lack of regulations has actually had a positive impact on procedure volumes and unit sales.
While there have been criticisms by physicians regarding the lack of regulations throughout much of North America, there are also many physicians who feel that the onus is on the manufacturers of the devices to provide adequate training to their customers.
Laser manufacturer Lumenis offers extra safety features and invests in training to try to take a more proactive approach to customer laser safety. “You could kill somebody with a pencil if you wanted,” says Lee Pannell, vice president of sales and marketing at Lumenis. “It’s not just that it’s an unsafe device. If the wrong person uses the device in the wrong way, there can be complications.”
