Consultations are one of the most important parts of a hair transplant. A statement which may confuse some people. But it's really straightforward.
It's in consultation that doctor and patient meet (either in-person or virtually) and get a chance to exchange information in order to arrive at a diagnosis, a plan, and of course, a relationship of trust. I think it's only when these three things combine, that the conditions to move forward have been gathered.
Of course it's also crucial that the patient is actually a candidate for surgery. Something which lies in the doctor's knowledge and experience to find out...and in his honesty to be straightforward enough that the patient knows exactly what is his current condition, what's his prognosis and the best course of action to achieve the best possible outcome.
Sometimes that outcome is simply to live with it, to understand that his alopecia is too advanced, too far gone. The donor area is too bad in quality or too small for the recipient area and that there is nothing we can do that would render a satisfactory result.
More often than not, there is something we CAN do, and it also lies in the doctor to make it clear to the patient. To understand his skepticism and to break it down, doubt by doubt. I believe doctors should be adamant in insisting on helping patients who actually want to be helped, but are still on the fence, either because they were already botched in the past, a friend of them had a bad result, they've been misinformed or simply because they don't believe it would work.
I do all my consultations personally and think it's definitely the best way to do the greatest job possible and to be of service to my patients. When you handle the patient and his case from start to finish, you're much more focused on his case, you know exactly where you are at all times, and I think the patient's experience is improved.
Globalization has made it so that nowadays most of my consultations are made online. Something which is not ideal, but is the second best thing we have. We have patients from all over the world (something which I enjoy quite a lot) and it wouldn't be feasible to make everyone travel here just for the initial consultation. Interestingly enough, it's something quite a few still do. However, for most patients, it's done online.
I've gotten good enough at it that I can diagnose a patient fairly accurately. Enough to book surgery and confirm everything on the day before when he comes to the clinic. There are still a couple of patients who sometimes I can't be sure they're candidates for surgery, so those I have to ask to come to the clinic to understand if they're candidates for surgery, even if they live far away.
My consultations are fairly straightforward. Patients have to fill out a form with the information I need and send in their photos. In the consultation form page there's an example of the pictures I need patients to take. I then receive all the information and make my assessment. Usually I can get back to patients in under 24 hours, but that's not always possible. Since I do answer each online consultation personally, it depends a lot on how busy my day has been and how many consultations I have to answer already.
At the time of this writing, I see I have 5 consultations to reply to. Which is not bad, but it does take about 15 minutes to answer each one.
Better get to work. ;)
Until next time,