HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

you are a remarkably astute individual for your 24 years of life.

you have penciled the hair restoration industry fairly accurately. there are only two consumer advocates out there. one is pat hennessey and the other is spencer kobren. Both require payment for their recommendation. Neither does an on site visit to the recommended physician's office. Neither inspects the physician's work in person. Both make recommendations based on photographs and physician interviews. They listen to public opinion, but not as highly as they should.

Recommendations by consumer advocates are powerful. They give the public a feeling of safety and confidence. Hence they can be dangerous to the public if they are given too freely.

You must understand that it is not easy to speak out openly against groups that routinely over sell surgeries, do poor quality work, and leave patients in despair. There is a great risk of legal reprisal. These groups want the freedom to operate in our society without hindrance. They hire attorneys to protect their right to conduct business. The state medical boards turn their backs on these operations and the majority of physicians who understand the harm these groups inflict refuse to take a stand out of fear from legal action.

Here’s another reason that consumer advocates are not able to do their jobs effectively. Consumer advocates are paid through sponsorship from physicians and drug companies. The consumer advocates are afraid that if they are too outspoken critically, they will loose sponsorshipfrom the drug companies and the physicians. In fact, this is exactly what occurred in the past.

Consumer advocates could do a much better job. I feel that chat rooms offer the greatest potential, but only if they are not unfairly censored. Since we refuse to pay the sponsorship fee on one forum, we are not allowed to post at all on that chat site. We were banned.

why not start your own physician recommendation list. You can be more selective in who you choose. If you can get your website ranked, you can begin charging for this recommendation. Remember, physician recommendation lists are actually just advertising for physicians. Pat is making over 15,000.00 per month on this website through his recommendation list. Now he’s started a coalition for physicians in which he is charging over 10,000 per physician who joins. Its big business for him.

Spencer has the IAHRS. For 10,000 per year you can join this group. That’s 300,000 per year for Spencer. On top of this he has his radio program, which he allows advertising on at a fee to some physicians and hair care products. He even allows sponsorship from topical treatments that are questionable in their ability to reverse hair loss.

i agree that Dr. Woods and Campbell have set themselves apart from the majority of other physicians and groups. they have placed themselves on a pedestal and refuse to be affiliated with others. in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with this. the problem is that their methods will not be passed on to the physicians who do good work and practice ethically. I certainly agree with their efforts to conceal their methods from the mainstream. Why arm the same physicians who have done poor quality work and over selling with a new tool for unveiling their destructive behavior.

i do not rule out the possiblity of working with Dr. Woods and Campbell. i would love to effect such a relationship. i still speak with them on occasion. I think they have set up a training program for physicians and are ready to start their new group. This is very exciting as it will spread the word about their technique and offer it to many other cities. Unfortunately, it makes it less likely that they will want to work closely with me.

They will face some problems however. Not all physicians are created equally. Some are very good and some are not so good. Some have higher ethics and some are driven more by money. It will be hard to cherry pick the best ones. I wish them luck with their endeavor. In the end, they have the patients’ best interest at heart. This is the main thing.