Blog – Hair Loss, Hair Transplants, Hair Replacement, Hair Restoration – Hair Sciences Center, Denver Colorado, Dr. James Harris, MD, FACS

Archive for the 'What I'm Hearing' Category

The Power of the Practical

Just back from St. Louis and the second annual Hair Restoration Surgery Workshop. As professional learning experiences go, this one is pretty remarkable. In its first year, it was at waiting-list status weeks ahead of the event…and this year’s curriculum quadrupled the course offerings of 2009.

As to what makes it valuable…

First, it is a collaborative effort of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) and the Practical Anatomy section of the St. Louis University School of Medicine Department of Surgery (website). Suffice it to say, the courses they present are real time and real world, whether the audience is Emergency Medical physicians, Brain and Spine specialists or groups like ours.

Second, this workshop focuses on enhancing the skills of both restoration specialists and the assistants so essential to a best-practices setting. It addresses the core components of restoration surgery from the team members’ professional perspective, and dialog on process improvement flows freely.

I was honored to be one of seven specialists serving as faculty for the 2010 workshop. We each worked alongside participants during “live” morning labs and manned “Ask the Expert” stations to address transplantation questions. During afternoon sessions, we spoke on general topics — medical management, anesthesia considerations, graft calculation, pre- and post-op care — then shared our specific areas of expertise.

Mine, as you may have guessed, were heavily FUE-related. Following an overview on follicular unit extraction, I led a “Critical Thinking” session on FUE vs. strip harvesting. Each has its place…but what’s the “tipping point” for selecting one over the other? As you’ve probably heard me say before, the answer is as individual as the patient before me.

All in all, I feel very good that we achieved the goal Workshop program director Dr. Sam Lam set from the start: to demonstrate practice standards that contribute to “more ethical, artistic, technically precise, safer and more compassionate hair restoration.”

Not a bad return on a three-day weekend.

Going to Guadalajara

I’m writing this from Denver International Airport, having navigated the check-in lines and security lines and the 20-person line at the coffee kiosk. That “journey” took a little more than an hour…just a couple less than it will take me to fly to Guadalajara, Mexico.

I’ve been invited by two respected colleagues—Drs. Arturo and Hector Sandoval. I met them in Amsterdam last year at the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) sessions where I presented clinical research on the success of FUE (follicular unit extraction) using the PowerScribe. They’re not only eager to learn more on behalf of their own clients, but to share their experience with other specialists in Latin America.

It looks like 2010 will be a busy year for presentations like these. In April, we’ll be in Orlando with the ISHRS for a five-day conference. I’ll be part of the 40-member faculty lecturing mornings and conducting surgical clinics each afternoon. In August, I’ll head to Brazil for the Brazilian Association of Hair Restoration sessions in Rio Janeiro.

While such destinations are certainly inviting, it’s the progression of hair transplantation procedures that’s the real draw for me. Even two decades ago, dealing with hair loss was a personal challenge with a limited range of solutions. We’ve all seen the “plug pictures.” So to see international experts collaborating on advances to assure better and safer outcomes is powerful.

Now, I’m off to catch some sunshine.