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new book on Aesthetic Medicine: Practicing For Success

Chicago-Based Consultant Leads the Agenda For
A New Era In Medical Practice Marketing

January 12, 2004. Sudbury, Mass. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Inc. has announced February 1, 2004 as the release date for Aesthetic Medicine: Practicing for Success, a first-of-its-kind medical practice management guide. The guide is a comprehensive resource to building a non-payor or aesthetic services practice or practice segment, most specific to plastic surgeons, facial plastic surgeons, dermatologists and ophthalmologists.

“Success in this field of medicine is about image, targeted market development and most importantly, patient communication and patient satisfaction,” says author Marie Czenko Kuechel, MA, whose expertise lies in medical patient education and public education media initiatives, and the application of these in practice development. “Success today requires not only meeting expectations but also that providers develop on-going relationships with their patients. Targeted, appropriate communication keeps providers visible, allowing them a greater advantage in retaining patients and in generating referrals from satisfied patients.”

Kuechel’s theory and agenda in the book is a blending of solid, ethical practice philosophy and the imperative to recognize, meet and maintain the needs of one’s target market, all tied together with sound business principles of policy and planning.

“In the book and in practice, I state emphatically, and believe wholly, that the success of any practice of medicine, including aesthetic medicine, is first built upon an ethical caring provider who has the appropriate training, credentials and a true passion for practicing in his or her specialty,” says Kuechel, who began her career in medical communications at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, in 1992.

“The first lesson I learned in my career is the difference between committed credible providers in aesthetic medicine and those imposters who exist simply to make a buck. With the recent rise in consumer interest in aesthetic medicine, many inappropriate providers have flooded consumer media with their slick messages, and unfortunately some credible providers have felt the need to do the same to remain competitive. But no credible provider in aesthetic medicine, or any segment of medicine needs to resort to slick marketing,” Kuechel notes. “Being competitive means being both a compassionate, skilled provider, and a savvy business proprietor. Moreover, traditional marketing appeals and deals don’t work in growing a successful and respected medical practice.”

“A surgeon can no longer perform a facelift and consider a patient completed in the cycle of care. The current growth of non-invasive anti-aging and aesthetic treatments will continue to accelerate as more patients accept these treatments but also as new treatments being introduced. This category presents a whole new market for many aesthetic providers, and is covered extensively in this book,” says Kuechel.

Included in the book is a preface from James H. Wells, M.D., a plastic surgeon practicing in Long Beach, Ca., and the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons from 2002-2003; a preface from David P. Van Dam, MD a dermatologic surgeon in private practice in Barrington, IL who Kuechel helped to become on of the region’s most noted providers of Botox® therapy not only in volume, but in patient satisfaction; and an afterword by plastic surgeon James G. Hoehn, MD of Albany, NY, a former ASPS president and current general secretary of the International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery.

Kuechel’s philosophy of patient education, communication and satisfaction as the core of successful practice does not end with providers of aesthetic medicine. In June of 2004, she and Chicago plastic surgeon Diane L. Gerber, MD, FACS will have released, also under publishing house Jones & Bartlett, a comprehensive and candid consumer guide titled 100 Questions and Answers about Plastic Surgery.

Interested readers of both books will quickly learn two things: Kuechel definitely has a passion for the industry of aesthetic medicine, and is unyielding in her commitment to only credible providers and companies in the industry. For more information about Aesthetic Medicine: Practicing for Success and author Marie Czenko Kuechel, MA, visit Jones & Barlett Publishers, Inc. at http://healthadmin.jbpub.com/catalog/0763732664/ or visit www.czenkokuechel.com.

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