Concierge MD

Concierge MD goes by many names, boutique medicine, retainer medicine, executive health, VIP medicine, and personalized medicine. By any name, Concierge Physician is the solution for doctors trying to maintain their integrity and independence in today’s difficult healthcare environment. Concierge Physician is a new style of practice with old roots, in which doctors limit their patient base in order to provide patients with personalized service, high quality care, 24-7 availability, and other amenities. In exchange for this enhanced personal attention, patients pay the MD an annual fee. This concierge fee enables MD to increase their compensation while managing their workload. In addition to receiving an annual fee, most concierge MDs continue to receive reimbursements from health plans and private pay clients. Concierge MD is a relationship between a patient and a primary care physician in which the patient pays an annual fee or retainer. This may or may not be in addition to other charges. In exchange for the retainer, doctors provide enhanced care. Other terms in use include boutique medicine, retainer-based medicine, and innovative medical practice design. The practice is also referred to as membership medicine, concierge health care, cash only practice, direct care, direct primary care, and direct practice medicine. While all Concierge MDs practices share similarities, they vary widely in their structure, payment requirements, and form of operation. In particular, they differ in the level of service provided and the amount of the fee charged. There are an estimated 5,000 concierge, or membership medicine doctors throughout the U.S. Concierge MD care for fewer patients than in a conventional practice. All generally claim to be accessible via cell phone or email at any time of day or night or offer some other special service beyond the normal care provided. The annual fees vary widely, from $600 to $5,000 per year for an individual, with the lower annual fees being in addition to the usual fees for each service and the higher annual fees including most services.

Epiderme

Epiderme is the one-stop for skin care. Moisturizers help keep skin youthful with elasticity. The epidermis is the outer layer of the skin. The epidermis helps the skin to regulate body temperature. The epidermis with the dermis forms the cutis. The epidermis is composed of four to five layers of skin, depending on the region of skin. The epidermis contains no blood vessels and nourishment of cells is by diffusion in the deepest layers from blood capillaries extending to the upper layers of the dermis. The amount and distribution of melanin pigment in the epidermis results in skin color variation in Homo sapiens. Melanin is in the small melanosomes, particles formed in melanocytes from surrounding keratinocytes. The size, number and arrangement of the melansomes varies between racial groups, but while the number of melanocytes can vary between different body regions, the number of melansomes remain the same in individual body regions in all human beings. In white and oriental skin, the melansomes aggregate but are small in size. Comparatively, in black skin, the melansomes are larger and distributed more evenly. The number of melansomes in the keratinocytes increases with UV radiation exposure, while their distribution remains largely unaffected.

Laser Acne Treatment

Laser surgery has been in use for some time and reduces the scars left behind by acne, but doctors have done little research on lasers treatments for the prevention of acne. Doctors use the laser to address the following: to burn away the follicle sac from which hair grows; to burn away the sebaceous gland that produces oil; to induce oxygen in the bacteria, thereby killing them. Since lasers and intense pulsed light sources cause thermal damage to the skin, there are concerns that laser or intense pulsed light treatments for acne will induce hyperpigmented macules (spots) or cause long-term dryness of the skin. In the United States, the FDA has approved several companies, such as Candela Corp., to use a cosmetic lasers for the treatment of acne. However, efficacy studies have used very small sample sizes (fewer than 100 subjects) for periods of six months or less, and have shown contradictory results. Because laser treatment are relatively new, protocols remain subject to experimentation and revision, and treatment can be quite expensive. In addition, the company that produces some Smoothbeam laser devices recalled their products due to coolant failure, which had resulted in painful burn injuries to patients.

Rash

Rashes involve changes in the color or texture of the skin. Doctors can determine the cause of a rash from its visible characteristics and other symptoms. Dermatitis is the name of a simple rash and means inflammation of the skin. Contact dermatitis presents from things the skin touches, such as: dyes and other chemicals in clothing; chemicals in elastic, latex and rubber products; cosmetics, soaps and detergents; and poison ivy and oak.