October 26, 2006--McOscopies
I don’t know about you but I need a break. I’ve had it with staying-the-course no longer being operative; political ads featuring Playboy Bunnies; gay marriages in New Jersey of all places; Mark Foley and Father Mercieca; Kurt Cobain making $50 million last year even though he’s dead (Einstein, by the way, earned $20 million); Barry Diller pulling down $295 million even though he’s still alive (from, can you believe it, QVC!); and now, I suppose inevitably, Madonna and Oprah.
There’s just so much that I can handle in a day. So I was relieved to stumble on some good news—I learned that the next time I need my Botox, rather than having to wait for an appointment with my dermatologist and then having to sit in his waiting room along with a bunch of adolescents with acne, I can head off to the nearest mall and get my wrinkles filled in at Klingers Advanced Aesthetics. (See NY Times article linked below.)
Considering that the “cosmetic medical procedures” industry now takes in $12 billion a year, I suppose it is surprising that it has taken this long for McDermatology to appear.
They’ve got this Botox business down to such a science that even nurse practitioners can zap it into your lips. So why not mall it? No matter that Botox is a toxic bacteria that paralyses muscles (ironing out wrinkles in the process when it works as advertised) and thus not infrequently leads to serious complications. And I don’t just mean that you wind up in the parking lot looking like Joan Rivers.
If you think Klingers is an amateur operation, which along with Botox treatments also serves cappuccinos, think again. Their operation in the Chevy Chase Mall pays a fee to Johns Hopkins Medicine which for the money offers consulting services for their “aesthetic medicine protocols.” The Texas Southwestern Medical Center provides similar assistance at the Klingers store in the posh NorthPark Mall in Dallas, saying that since “we are in an era of medicine where we have to go where the customers are,” we should do it right and, of course, make a few bucks in the process.
That seems to make sense for medical customers but what about us poor patients? Wouldn’t it be great if we could pop off to the Kings Plaza Mall and do some shopping, get a colonoscopy, and after that grab a bagel and take in a movie?
There’s just so much that I can handle in a day. So I was relieved to stumble on some good news—I learned that the next time I need my Botox, rather than having to wait for an appointment with my dermatologist and then having to sit in his waiting room along with a bunch of adolescents with acne, I can head off to the nearest mall and get my wrinkles filled in at Klingers Advanced Aesthetics. (See NY Times article linked below.)
Considering that the “cosmetic medical procedures” industry now takes in $12 billion a year, I suppose it is surprising that it has taken this long for McDermatology to appear.
They’ve got this Botox business down to such a science that even nurse practitioners can zap it into your lips. So why not mall it? No matter that Botox is a toxic bacteria that paralyses muscles (ironing out wrinkles in the process when it works as advertised) and thus not infrequently leads to serious complications. And I don’t just mean that you wind up in the parking lot looking like Joan Rivers.
If you think Klingers is an amateur operation, which along with Botox treatments also serves cappuccinos, think again. Their operation in the Chevy Chase Mall pays a fee to Johns Hopkins Medicine which for the money offers consulting services for their “aesthetic medicine protocols.” The Texas Southwestern Medical Center provides similar assistance at the Klingers store in the posh NorthPark Mall in Dallas, saying that since “we are in an era of medicine where we have to go where the customers are,” we should do it right and, of course, make a few bucks in the process.
That seems to make sense for medical customers but what about us poor patients? Wouldn’t it be great if we could pop off to the Kings Plaza Mall and do some shopping, get a colonoscopy, and after that grab a bagel and take in a movie?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:10 AM
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