Demandforce Launches Online Booking Functionality
Demandforce has launched Demandforce Online Booking, a new functionality that enables businesses to manage their appointment schedules more efficiently and makes it easier for their clients to schedule appointments online.
Demandforce Online Booking allows businesses to display their real-time availability on their websites and social media pages using an intuitive Demandforce calendar widget. Clients can self-schedule appointments and receive an instant notification when the appointment request is received and confirmed.
Additional Online Booking features include:
- Real-time availability: Display real-time business availability on an intuitive calendar widget that’s fully synced with businesses’ management system.
- Fully-customizable settings: Predetermine which appointment types, procedures, and providers clients can view and schedule.
- Embed calendar on any site: Place the Demandforce calendar widget on business websites and social media pages to increase appointment bookings.
- View appointments all in one place: See all appointment requests by web source in one view, and instantly accept, flag, or reschedule them all from one dashboard.
In addition to improving the client experience and allowing 24/7 scheduling of appointments, the all-in-one nature of the Demandforce Online Booking process helps businesses save time and resources previously devoted to finalizing and confirming online appointment requests.
BTL Launches Emsculpt NEO
The first procedure to combine radio frequency heating and high-intensity focused electromagnetic waves into a single therapy, Emsculpt NEO from BTL, has launched. It is FDA-cleared to eliminate fat cells non-invasively.
Emsculpt NEO is a single solution that simultaneously melts fat while building muscles, BTL says, making it a faster, more economical and more efficacious solution than combining multiple procedures. Treatment is appropriate for patients up to a BMI of 35. Four treatments are recommended over the course of four weeks.
On the heels of the launch of Emsculpt NEO, BTL collaborated with Cedric Gervais for the release of the song “NEO,” featuring Maggie Szabo. The song seeks to empower those listening to dance, move, and take control of their bodies.
“My inspiration for creating this song is, as a DJ, I travel and perform all over the world, so my personal health is something that I take very seriously and work very hard at,” Mr. Gervais shared. “I was excited to collaborate with Emsculpt NEO. We’ve created a fun, energetic, upbeat record with strong, confident lyrics for everyone to move to. I’m excited to launch the new single ‘NEO’ with Maggie Szabo.”
“Baby Botox” Boosts Skin Texture
Using many tiny doses of botulinum toxin injected in a grid pattern just under the surface of the facial skin may improve skin texture and roughness, according to a study in the November issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
The “Microbotulinum” technique is a safe and effective method of facial rejuvenation, yielding objective improvements of about 20 percent in skin texture, microroughness and pore size, report researchers led by Alberto Diaspro, MD, MSc, of the Rigeneralab Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Turin, Italy.
In the standard Botulinum toxin technique, a few injections are made to treat common problems such as frown lines, forehead creases and crow’s feet around the eyes.
The new, less-invasive technique uses a series of tiny “blebs” of botulinum toxin A injected just under the skin surface. The injections follow a one-centimeter grid pattern, extending from the forehead to the cheek and down to the jawline.
“This targets the superficial fibers of the facial muscles and weakens their insertion into the undersurface of the skin, which is responsible for the fine lines and wrinkles on the face and neck,” Dr. Diaspro and colleagues write.
The researchers used a specialized, high-resolution “skin scanner” system to provide objective data on how the Microbotulinum procedure performed in improving the skin appearance. Graded on a 10-point scale (0 being best, 10 being worst), average skin texture improved from 6.0 to 4.0, while scores for skin “micro-roughness” improved from 7.5 to 5.0. There was a similar significant reduction in enlarged pore size.
The improvements were backed up by subjective ratings: 90 days after micro-dose treatment, 95 percent of patients were satisfied or very satisfied with their results. As in any botulinum toxin procedure, the effects were temporary, lasting up to 120 days. After that, treatment would need to be reported in order to maintain the improvement.
The results of the Microbotulinum technique appeared best in middle-aged patients. Dr. Diaspro and colleagues believe it will be most appropriate for patients ranging from their mid-thirties to early fifties. The researchers emphasize the need for further studies.
Take Five ColoreScience’s Mary Fisher
It’s fair to say that 2020 was a year unlike any other and one that shook up aesthetic practices and skincare companies. Despite the bumps in the road, Colorescience managed to switch gears seamlessly and help their partners weather the storm. Mary Fisher, Chair and Chief Executive Officer at Colorescience, chatted with Modern Aesthetics® magazine about these changes and what the future may hold for the company, its partners, and its customers.
1. Oh, What a Year
“We were coming into the year very strong with our Total Protection franchise expansion and on the heels of the FDA’s recommendation that the only active ingredients in sun protection that are generally recognized as safe and effective (GRASE) are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. These ingredients are all we have ever worked with and are at the heart of what we do. We had a strong January and February, and in March, we saw the impact of shutdowns related to COVID-19.”
2. Weathering the Storm
“We are a majority female workforce. The moment we got the sense that the schools were closing, and our workforce needed to be at home, we made dramatic and quick adjustments. Once our partner practices started shutting down, we furloughed most of the company so our team could quickly take advantage of assistance programs and we maintained a smaller team to take care of our customers.
“Our VP of Professional Business, Heather Goodchild, did not miss a beat in supporting our partners despite the circumstances and we were agile, quickly moving to virtual support. We hosted webinars so physician partners could talk to each other and we could listen. There was no definitive consensus on a protocol that they believed would make it safe for sales representatives visit their practices. They were focused on figuring out how to continue to provide uninterrupted treatment for patients. In an August 2020 survey of 297 practices, we found that 50 percent of medical aesthetic offices were allowing vendor representatives into their offices. However, 90 percent of the medical aesthetics industry was still sending representatives into practices, clearly a disconnect. We listened, took care of our partners, and identified new ways to align ourselves with our partners in a way that made sense.”
3. The New Normal
“We plan to stay virtual and support our partners on their terms, understanding their needs. We will meet our consumer where she searches and become a source of new patient introductions to our practices. We experience excellent attendance at partner virtual events and some are beating previous year’s ‘in-person’ event revenues. Virtual events are not the only way Colorescience has helped with shifting needs. Our online Professional Academy helps train staff and allows partners to sign-in any time to learn about products, programs and protocols, earn certificates and bonus products for completion. Our quarterly live marketing webinars deliver updates and current best practices for social, email, and beyond that partners can immediately apply to their own businesses. We also offer branded professional partner webpages for offices to send to their patients/clients. Sales from these pages are profit-shared, with Colorescience managing inventory, logistics and shipping. These have helped to generate revenues for professional partners who have lost foot traffic in the retail portion of their practices.”
4. No “I” in Team
“With our newly launched Elevate program for our partners, we now have teams of specialists who provide greater support based on the partner’s needs. In a traditional sales team model, the individual representative is a generalist, but now we have specialists. It is not one person doing all things. Each team now includes an Area Director who leads the team, a Business Development Strategist who works with decision makers to set goals and strategy for Colorescience in the practice, an Implementation and Training Manager who works on staff training and development as well as marketing and implementation of our patient-focused programs such as Lasting Beauty Rewards and the Finishing Touch Protocol, a Crew Operations Specialist who assists with order management and works on providing systems support, and a New Business Development Manager who identifies, onboards and plans for success with new partners.”
5. What’s Next
“We are a smaller team, but we have surpassed our COVID-19 forecast expectations and are above prior year for the third quarter. We have always been the sunscreen brush people, but now we have all-mineral protection in so many more formats, and 80 percent of our sales are from patented products.
This year we added shades to our best-selling Total Eye 3-in-1 Renewal Therapy SPF35 product and continued to build upon our Total Protection family of products. Total Protection with Enviroscreen Technology is our platform that provides comprehensive protection against UVA/UVB, pollution, blue light, and infrared, while also hydrating the skin and protecting with advanced antioxidants. Most importantly, these formulas are aesthetically elegant, so people want to apply them daily. We believe that the best defense against skin damage is a mineral suncare offense, and we keep our mission close as we forge forward with our team and continue innovate and bring to market proven, effective products that deliver healthier skin.”
My New Favorite Thing: Planatome Technology
With Sachin M. Shridharani, MD, FACS
“A traditional scalpel blade has visible imperfections, such as jagged edges, which cause surgically induced trauma to the skin and call for frequent blade changes due to becoming dull during surgical cases. This causes a ripple effect by adding time in the operating room, physical stress on the surgeon’s hands and body, incidence of injury during blade changes, and increasing anesthesia time.
Through applying a patented process that was originally developed for finishing the surface of silicon wafers in the advanced manufacturing of computer chips, Planatome Technology transformed the 100+ year-old scalpel by creating a nano-perfected cutting surface. The result is a patient-focused surgical blade that provides an ultra-smooth, precise, and consistent cutting surface, minimizing surgically induced tissue trauma by eliminating grind defects found on all standard scalpels.
I have been using blades that have been treated with the Planatome Technology for incision creation and deepithelialization of breast tissue during mastopexy and breast reduction surgery along with body contouring procedures (abdominoplasty, thigh lift and brachioplasty) and have experienced not only ease of use for incision making, but also fewer blade changes during surgery compared to a standard blade. Having access to a surgical instrument that benefits both the surgical outcomes for my patients and the surgical process for me and my staff has been a game changer.”
Sachin M. Shridharani, MD, FACS
Plastic Surgeon
Founder and Director of LUXURGERY, New York, New York
Disclosure: Dr. Shridharani is conducting a study for Planatome.
Promising Results from Dysport Dose Escalation Study
Top-line results from a Phase 2 dose escalation study show that significantly more subjects treated with Dysport at all four doses achieved a composite two grade improvement responder rate than those treated with placebo at one month.
The study accessed the duration of effect and the efficacy and safety of a single dose of Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) at four different doses versus placebo for the treatment of moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows (glabellar lines).
Data for secondary endpoints, reported by Galderma, demonstrate promising results for a potential prolonged duration of effect correlated with higher doses.
The multicenter, randomized, dose-ranging, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study enrolled 401 subjects ages 18 to 65 with moderate to severe glabellar lines at maximum frown. Study participants were randomized 4:1 to receive a single dose of Dysport (50U, 75U, 100U, or 125U) or placebo and followed for nine months.
Paul Carniol, MD Named AAFPRS President
Paul J. Carniol, MD, founder of Carniol Plastic Surgery in Summit, NJ, is the new President of The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS).
Dr. Carniol formally took office as AAFPRS President on October 17, 2020 and will serve the 2020-2021 term year.
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