Top tips for building a patient base in aesthetic medicine

In this video, Skin Cancer & Aesthetic Medicine Doctor Dianne King provides her advice for GPs and Skin Cancer Doctors who want to build a patient base in cosmetic treatments.

Dr Dianne King is a GP with a special interest in medical aesthetics and skin cancer who built her own skin clinic in Hobart. In this video, she gives her advice for other primary care doctors who want to get started building a patient base for cosmetic treatments.

"When we started off in aesthetic medicine, we didn't push it on our patients," says Dr King. "I think patients take offense when you raise things like 'I think you could do something with injectables' or 'Your skin is not good'. You need to take a more subtle approach.

"So when I started out, I had my nurses [mention to the patient] that there are other things we can offer here. [Otherwise, patients] feel like they've been put into a corner and upsold.

"We also had banners around the surgery when we started introducing aesthetic treatments, making people aware these things were being offered. Whatever advertising we do has to be very much patient driven, not doctor driven.

"The best things you can do in terms of getting your staff on board are to offer them treatments when you're training. It's good to get your confidence and skill up by offering treatments to your staff or your loyal staff members.
They will see the benefits of the treatments and then they will recruit patients themselves.

"[Another tip for when you start out is to have] a range of cosmeceuticals and sunscreens that you offer as point of sale. Once a patient has had a skin consult, they're very keen to get onto something straight away. And having them able to get some vitamin C serum, sunscreen, and a derma roller as soon as they've left your consult room is a good start."

Dr King goes on to provide several pearls of advice pertinent to doctors. See all this and more in the full video below.

Watch the video with Dr Dianne King:

For further information on this topic, you may be interested to learn more about HealthCert's Professional Diploma program in Aesthetic Medicine - aesthetics training for GPs, online or with workshop.