MSD Insider 0:00

Welcome to MedShark insider with Bill Fukui, your expert host on all things medical marketing and SEO.

Bill Fukui 0:08

Welcome everybody to another episode of The MedShark Insider. And today we’re going to take a little different approach to the some of the content we’re going to be providing. And it’s not necessarily from a practice management perspective. But something that I think boils down to what our patients, our consumers, what is it that they’re asking? And really, how do we need to be addressing some of the questions that they have. And today I have a plastic surgeon, Danielle DeLuca-Pytell, who is, I’ve known for gee, a number of years now. And she has her own private practice. And I’m going to have her introduce herself and a little bit of background that she has. But also we want to get into some of the questions that consumers are having. And really, how do we address some of those common questions, that I think it’s really important, because, you know, this is this, is something that I think practices have to deal with every day, and how you position certain things makes a huge difference in terms of their understanding, and also your credibility. So welcome, Dr. Pytell, how are you today?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 1:20

I’m doing just fine. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast Bill. It’s really nice to be here. So as you mentioned, I am a plastic surgeon, I’m a board certified plastic surgeon currently in private practice in Troy, Michigan. This is sort of my second life as a plastic surgeon, because the first half of my career was in New York. And in that second half, I am now five years into my own private practice, even though I’m nearly 20 years into being a plastic surgeon. So we can talk about business of medicine as well, because I seem to have a lot of different models of background for that. My private practice is a boutique setup, where we are looking to take care of one patient at a time with integrity and extreme quality. And it’s a pleasure to talk to you about some of the things that I’m really passionate about in plastic surgery.

Bill Fukui 2:12

Yeah, no, that that sounds great. And you’re right, you have a different background than than many of our surgeons. And I think some of your perspective is actually a little bit different, and also, I will also say that there’s I have clients of, you know, all types, but I will say female plastic surgeons, there’s a, there’s a specific thing about that when it comes to consumers. And I’d like to address some of that. But you had also mentioned being board certified. Right, being, you were very intentional about that.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 2:46

Yes.

Bill Fukui 2:47

Why, why, why the intent of being, you know, mentioning board certification, whether you’re introducing yourself to me or anybody, why is that important?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 2:57

Sure, it’s, it’s almost a difficult thing to answer because you can come at it from so many different ways. But essentially, board certification is a stamp of approval from the highest ranking medical specialties. And it proves that you have gone through an accredited residency and then you have passed the final verification process or, or final test, that you are a safe and competent plastic surgeon. So I am very proud to be a board certified plastic surgeon, it took a long time to get there we have first a written exam. And then we have a grueling oral examination where we collect all of the cases that we do over a seven month period, we submit all of the cases to the American Board of Plastic Surgery, they select five cases for us to prepare in depth. And basically, they can look at the way that we have cared from patient for patients from really top to bottom. And that includes lab results. It includes all of your notes, it includes medical photography, and if any of those things are missing, then you also have to prepare extra cases. So unfortunately, I had a patient not consent for photos. So I had to prepare eight cases. This took up an extremely large part of my life. In addition to having to prepare your own cases, you then have to go defend them against a panel of board examiners. So all the people that are interested in being board certified travel to Arizona, it’s over a long weekend. And you have different oral examinations, where you have a set of unknown questions where you’ll be asked about typical plastic surgery cases and how you’re going to manage them. And then you present your own cases. And it is really, really intense to speak to people who have had years of experience about how to manage a case, maybe it’s it’s about plastic surgery you don’t really do, but you have to demonstrate that competence. So that Again, people know that you’re safe. And what’s really important about this is that plastic surgery is recognized by the ACGME, which is the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. So plastic surgery is an accredited medical board, like internal medicine or pediatrics. What is not an accredited board is the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, that is not the same caliber. So for plas- for plastic surgeons, this is an important distinction. And for consumers, we can’t educate them enough that there is a difference between being board certified by the plastic surgery boards, and the cosmetic surgery boards. Actually, in California, there was a law that said that cosmetic surgeons cannot advertise this board certified because their training is not equivalent. And they really are protecting the consumers in California to ensure that those patients are not being duped by a false board.

Bill Fukui 6:00

You know, you, and I actually have been in medical advertising and marketing for gee, like 30 years, right. And it, and even people that are in the business, vendors and such, they’re not as even knowledgeable about the the specific, there are, there’s a limited number of medical specialties that are recognized. Right, and not every medical specialty, quote, specialty is actually recognized as a quote, specialty. And I think that’s really important to know, that, that they, they’ve identified these as critical to having a criteria to determine board certification, because it’s not, not every medical practice has the ability to have a board certified, you know, you know, somebody to certify them as being, you know, like you said, qualified, highly qualified, going through a credentialing process. And actually, you brought up something that I think is important for even our board, plastic surgeons that they may not even recognize, is actually Google’s recognizing that now, Google’s actually recognizing, for the first time that it now offers what it refers to as local service ads, these local service ads, you have to be verified, you have to go through a credentialing process with Google in order to advertise as a, quote, plastic surgeon, right. And one of the criteria is exactly what you just said, you have to be American Board of Plastic Surgery certified, you have to be a board certified plastic surgeon in order to do local service ads. You know, and I think that even in and of itself is a is a, you know, measuring stick as to the importance Google’s put enough importance,

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 8:04

Yeah,

Bill Fukui 8:04

that you have to be board certified, I think that even says says a lot.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 8:09

Yeah, and I was really excited that BluShark recognized the importance of this for my business, and immediately flagged you’ve got to get in on this. And it it took a couple of weeks for Google to recognize me as being a board certified plastic surgeon. So you you go Google, that’s impressive,

Bill Fukui 8:26

Yeah, no, and I love all, all of that I think it helps differentiate, and maybe it’ll never completely and unmuddy the waters, there will always be some of that. But I think anything that that Google, that the states or, to help consumers distinguish the difference, and help identify the difference, you know, the qualifications, because everybody has, you know, like the board, you know, these certificates on the wall behind them and stuff.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 9:01

Yes, I have lots

Bill Fukui 9:03

And you’ve got lots, right? But the average consumer needs to know what, what they need to know. Right?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 9:09

That’s right. That’s right. And, you know, we our society is very, our societies are very small, like there’s only so many board certified plastic surgeons in this country. And, you know, we have a voice, but, you know, it’s our voice, unfortunately, is not as loud as others. And it you know, this is the kind of stuff the news media loves to hear about some sort of a disaster when it comes to, you know, cosmetic or plastic surgery. So everybody knows, unfortunately about the young mother who died having liposuction, and that liposuction was performed by a pediatrician. And that pediatrician might have been a board certified pediatrician, but certainly wasn’t a board certified plastic surgeon. And those were the tragedies that can be prevented by just taking the time to do a little bit of homework and figure out is the person that It’s helping me really qualified to do so.

Bill Fukui 10:02

Right. So, in layman’s terms, if you’re talking to a patient, and they say, well, what’s the difference between a cosmetic surgeon and a plastic surgeon? Is there a difference?

Yes.

How do you address that.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 10:14

So, so, cosmetic surgery is one of the many branches of plastic surgery. And all, all plastic surgeons have the opportunity to be cosmetic surgeons and are all trained in cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgeons can come from a variety of different specialties. So the other word that I mentioned, the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, not a a, an ACGME recognized board allows people to come in from pathways such as general surgery, or emergency medicine, or other non core special, surgery specialties. And the problem with this is that they don’t have the same kind of background and training that plastic surgeons have. And in addition, they don’t have the opportunity to take care of complex wounds, or to do reconstructive surgeries, all of those things play into how you care for a cosmetic surgery patient. So my practice of cosmetic surgery has been helped immensely by my prior life as a reconstructive breast surgeon and my prior life as a wound care surgeon. And I laugh sometimes because, well I don’t laugh at this actually I get kind of frustrated. I, if I have somebody who has an unfortunate complication and requires some wound care, I now kind of go overboard and explain like you have a wound, I can heal wounds, this is part of my training, do not be concerned about it, it’s going to, you’re still going to have a good result, it’s just going to take a little bit longer to heal. Because unfortunately, I do have a lot of patients who if they have a question or problem, they don’t pick up the phone and call me. And everybody gets my cell phone number. So there’s no problem, you can always call me. But they go to their Facebook group, or their social media group. And very well meaning people will say things like, oh, your plastic surgeon can’t possibly help you with that when you have to go see a wound care specialist.

Bill Fukui 12:12

Yeah.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 12:12

Plastic surgery, you know, we, we do wound care. Like that’s, that is, that is part of the that is part of our core specialty. And I’m being told by somebody who asked Dr. Google that no, I need to go to the Wound Care Center. And the Wound Care Center is run by nurses, which is not a problem and they can put on dressings. But again, they don’t know how I did the surgery. They don’t know what I, what I’m doing what my plan is. So there’s just a lot of buzzwords that people need to I guess they need to be aware. And one of the things that I think is so important, is to make sure, I mentioned before that I have a very unique individualized practice, I spend a lot of time talking to my patients, I want to get to know them, I want to understand where they’re coming from. Because for me, plastic surgery is a relationship, I meet you. You tell me about yourself. You tell me what your goals are, I examine you, if we’re a good fit, and I can help you, then you know, we’re going to be a match. And I’m going to help you along your journey. Nowhere along that journey, do I ever want somebody not having enough trust in me that they would go to the internet to look for their answer. But a lot of practices, and some of the ones that, you know, are part of the medical tourism issue in Miami, they, they’re kind of like a little factory people come in, they get seen by a coordinator, or maybe they don’t see their surgeon until the day of surgery, they get sent on a plane, they go home, there’s nobody to care for them afterwards. So we’re really putting a stop to that. And really putting, first and foremost, that relationship is important. I love the idea that somebody sees me on social media and wants to have surgery with me. But if you live, you know, 1,000 miles away, maybe that’s not the most convenient thing. And if somebody does come and want to have surgery with me from out of town, then I, you know, it’s a commitment, you really need to stay in town for a while because I can’t just let you go. Because if you’re not in front of me, if you’re not in the same state, I’m not gonna be able to help you if a problem arises. Not that problems arise all the time. But nobody wants to be the one person who’s suddenly in the middle of nowhere without their plastic surgeon.

Bill Fukui 14:22

You know, that’s a, that’s a great point. You know, and especially when you’re talking about, we live in such a social media world today, especially our patients, our patients, cosmetic patients, absolutely live in kind of a social media environment. I think I was actually at a society meeting. Actually, I just flew back from a medical meeting. And there was a study that had the average American will spend over three hours a day on their social media platforms. That’s the average American.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 14:55

Yeah.

Bill Fukui 14:56

And I think our plastic surgery and cosmetic patients are actually spending more time than the average.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 15:02

They might be.

Bill Fukui 15:02

If I had to guess, right? So I love the fact that you’re you’re really trying to do what’s right by this group, this group of consumers that, you know, there’s way more information, and hate to say, there’s a lot of misinformation. You know, when it comes to the internet, and especially social media. I think that, you know, having access to surgeons, that are willing to speak, you know, candidly, I’m not here to sell you anything, right. I mean, that’s the goal is, and that’s what you take up as an oath is really to, do the right thing.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 15:41

That’s, I mean, that’s the core of our profession. And if you can’t, if you can’t do that, then there’s a big problem going on.

Bill Fukui 15:54

There’s a problem. Yeah. So it’s kind of maybe a separate question. Take it to the next level, I’m a consumer. What steps, I understand the board certification, but how do I go about finding? If I’m going to try and compare providers? I’m, I know, I want to proceedure, right. And it could be liposuction, tummy tuck. In my case, it would be liposuction.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 16:20

Everybody says that!

Bill Fukui 16:22

But, but what would the steps be? What would you recommend, if it was a friend or somebody, that’s how would you go out and find the right plastic surgeon for you?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 16:37

Sure. So you can search for a board certified plastic surgeon in a couple of different ways, you can go to the American Board of Plastic Surgery website, and you can type in your zip code, and you can look for plastic surgeons in your area. There are two national organizations for board certified plastic surgeons, the ASPS or the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, they have the same find a surgeon tool finder, and we also have the aesthetic society, same way, if you don’t know anything about those websites, and you don’t know how to, how to select someone, you know, asking a trusted medical professional, asking your, your family doctor, or you know, somebody who’s in the area that has, that maybe goes to your local hospital that might have seen this person working. It’s, I do understand that some people’s voices are louder than others. And the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has a really nice do your homework campaign. But if you don’t know that, it’s out there, it’s hard to find. But if you do a, if you do a search for board certified plastic surgeon in my area, and you find the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, or the aesthetic society, it’s as simple as putting in your zip code. Beyond that, I think it’s like, it’s like a big purchase for anything. You have to, you kinda have to try things on, you have to visit some, some people you have to see if you’re a match, you have to go to their office and see how you’re treated. How to, how does this person that picks up the phone respond to you when you call? How do you feel when you walk in their office? Does the surgeon take enough time to talk to you, do they answer all of your questions? I think that even that among among surgeons is very different. I’m a big talker, so I like to spend a lot of time getting to know my patients and, and understand kind of what their, what they’re looking at, and what they’re looking for, because I can do an awesome surgery. But if I haven’t figured out what their expectation is because I haven’t spent enough time talking to them, then it doesn’t matter how great my surgery is, if their expectation is that something else was going to happen. So, you know, for directing this for consumers, start by the aethstetic society or the ASPS website, find some people in your area, go on a couple of different consultations and see what fits best.

Bill Fukui 19:04

I love the idea of just not going to the first one, you know, having the first one you go to be the one I love. The idea of going to, two, three is, until you feel like you, you could make the decision. Right,

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 19:18

Right.

Bill Fukui 19:18

I found the right one. And I think once once they reach that point, then you know that could be on the second or third one. It may be the fourth or fifth one who knows right?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 19:29

It could be the first, it’s kind of like buying a house. You know, what happens if the first house you go to is the one you love. But you have to keep going and making sure. Especially if this is something you’ve never done before or you don’t know somebody who’s ever had plastic surgery, if you do we have a lot of word of mouth referrals, then, you know, that might make it a little bit easier. If somebody comes with an extremely high recommendation, then, I mean, that’s the kindest thing that someone can do for me or send me another patient. So-

Bill Fukui 19:55

Yeah.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 19:56

That’s another way if you if you aren’t sure So to find a good surgeon fit.

Bill Fukui 20:02

Well, that sounds great. You know, one of the things that I have found, me personally, I am gravitated towards female providers. I don’t know why. But my dentist, my, my orthopedic surgeon, my, my general practitioner, they’re all women. I just feel like they have a better bedside manner. I think they listened to me better. I think they generally listen better, at least compared to when I had male counterparts. Is there any benefit? That I mean, for me, like my daughter’s finishing up her fifth year residency program in in New York City. And I’m like going, Well, yeah, I’d go to her, you know, kind of thing. I would trust her. Is there any studies or anything about female plastic surgeons because I still think it’s, it’s still a man’s world. I think most of the providers when I looked statistics are, it’s still dominated by by male providers.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 21:14

It sure is. So that was a beautiful segue into a great study that was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looking at long term outcomes for surgical results for, from men versus women surgeons, now its not plastic surgeons, it’s all surgeons. So it includes general surgery, urology vascular surgery. But what they have shown is female, female surgeons, have better outcomes at 30 days, 90 days and a year. So they report outcomes in terms of whether or not there are complications, whether or not there are deaths. And statistically significant. Women’s surgeons in every single time marker have better outcomes than male surgeons. So while I would love to say that means, of course, you should come to me because I’m going to have better outcomes. What does it really mean? It really means that there’s, that women do something different. And especially in surgery, that has always been a male dominated field, we need to look at our female surgeons and figure out what’s different about the way that they either communicate with their patients, the way that they do their surgeries, that gives them this leg up on, on men.

Bill Fukui 22:25

And that, you know what, and I, and it’s not a gender thing, it’s how do we make medicine better? Right, at the end of the day, that’s that’s what it is. And if there are some of those differentiators, then like you said, we need to look at that, you know, what are they doing that’s different? And maybe it, that my main thing, my thing is, are they just listening better? You know

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 22:51

I think that might be, part of it might be that they’re listening better. I know, in plastic surgery, there’s only 16 or 17% of board certified plastic surgeons that are women, the number is consistently increasing, because our residency programs are half and half now, half men, half women, but we’re still the minority. But the majority of our patients seeking plastic surgery are female. So it’s very interesting having a provider of plastic surgery. And I don’t like that word, because I spent a long time becoming a doctor, but a physician or surgeon who is a woman taking care of a woman. So I had always noted in my clinic, that my follow up visits always took so much longer than my male counterparts. And when I was moving from my practice in New York to my practice in Michigan, I teamed up with a friend of mine from medical school, who was a man and I followed him around for the day. And I would go into his follow ups with him and they would last about a minute. And I would say, are all your follow ups like this? He said, yeah, I go in, I check them, if they’re fine. They never have questions, I come out. 100% of the time I go into a room. People want to talk to me about how they’re feeling, what’s different than they thought it was going to be, challenges that they’re having, they want to have a discussion. And I think that by basis of me having the same gender, you know, a lot of I have a lot of similarities with my patients. I- I’m a mother, a lot of my patients are mothers, I have children, a lot of people just have children. We have those commonalities. And I think that sometimes my patients feel more comfortable asking me these questions then they might ask a male surgeon. And I think that there’s a big a big part of that. You know, I think also that when you come from a place where you have something in common with your patients, and you break down that hierarchy of like doctor/patient, and you come at each other from more of a same, the same footing. It makes it easier for conversations to happen as well. And I typically want to know if there’s anything going on, so that I can be better. You know, are you having any issues? What did you think about your pain level? You know, was it a hard recovery, was it not a hard recovery. So I’m not really looking to race through my, my follow ups. But I will say it’s, it’s different. Because even with my assistants in the office, we’re all women, but I will have them go in first, and I’ll say, how’s everything going, oh, she has no problems, no questions. And I go into the room. And suddenly, you know, there’s four or five things that they didn’t want to talk about with my assistant, they wanted to wait and talk about with me, which, which is fine. But I just think it’s, it’s having that commonality that allows them to open up and you know, when you do that, I think you can get better results, because I can explain things that maybe they’re holding on to that, that they didn’t think about, or they didn’t understand or, and I can give good feedback. Like, you know, we’re not all, we’re not all shaped the same. So I have a lot of patients who will say, oh, I still feel like I do a lot of tummy tuck. So my belly still feels big, or still feel swollen. And I’ll show them like, look at how strong you are. Look at where this fat layer is, you know, think about what your abdomen does, like you’re not, you’re not supposed to have a board flat abdomen all the time, you’re supposed to be able to have expansion, if you’re eating a big meal. Or if you have something that causes some intestinal gas, you have to be able to expand. And of course, you’re going to be more flat in the morning, and you’re going to be fuller at night. And all these things are so normal. So this moment of normalization that I can do with with people, but also let them know like you’re okay. Like, that’s what, that’s a big part of my job, too.

Bill Fukui 26:36

You know, you even have the I don’t know if it’s, if it’s a slogan or whatnot, being the the girlfriend, plastic surgeon, right?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 26:46

Yes, yes, I am your girlfriend, the plastic surgeon, soon to be trademarked.

Bill Fukui 26:50

And you know what, I think that’s so appropriate. Because when I get practices when I actually, when we Secret Shop practices, and we train intake staff, intake staff, most of the time when I ask, what’s the most common question that that patients will ask when they call in about any given plastic surgery procedure or cosmetic procedure? And they’ll say, cost, right, it was like the first thing that everybody- oh, it’s cost. Everybody has cost, right? And then, you know, some of them will say, you know, when they do that, they automatically just put them in a categor, you know, they categorize them as, oh, they’re just price shopping, right? They’re just price shopping, when you kind of already pointed out. Not everybody, knows what, what to ask, right? Or what to say or, and cost is almost kind of a common denominator, right? It’s, I can say cost, and maybe hopefully, we can get a conversation going where I can actually ask more details or whatnot. But when you just shut me off when I just say, you know, what’s the cost of something, and then nothing, nothing goes from there. Right? It’s like you’re, you’re, when you go in as a surgeon, all of a sudden, you peel back the onion. Whereas all, if all we did was just take what they said and leave it at that, we never really get to, to that person. Right? We-

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 28:24

Right, you know, and it’s not all, and it’s not, I’m going to circle back to the cosmetic surgery part. It’s not all about, you know, the cost of the surgery. Like you have to really think what you’re paying for. So when people for example, they travel out of the country, because it’s so much less expensive to have surgery if you go to Mexico because you get a vacation and a flight and you stay at the hotel. But what are you getting? You’re not getting, like my patients have access to me forever. Like you have a surgery with me. I’m your surgeon forever. So you have a question, you can come back you, you can pick up the phone and call me. You want your medical record, you can have your medical record. You don’t have that kind of access. And God forbid you have a complication, then you’re really stuck. And it the strain on our emergency rooms is really significant. I read another study, when we were talking about this on a, on a national level that the Miami Airport routinely runs out of wheelchairs. So a person who is perhaps elderly or has a disability who needs a wheelchair to go through the airport. People that are flying into have Brazilian Butt Lifts are taking all the, all the wheelchairs and then there’s issues with them sitting on planes, they don’t want to stay in their seat because they’re not supposed to sit on their bottom like this is, this is sort of the definition of poor planning to me like Yeah, it sounds like a bargain upfront. But you have to you have to kind of think it through and put all the pieces together. And it, it’s really not. You shouldn’t, you shouldn’t use your coupons and your groupons for your cosmetic surgery, like save those for when you’re shopping for shoes, and you know, look at what you’re paying for.

Bill Fukui 30:03

Yeah, no. And I think there’s a, and I think as I will say, just my own opinion, I think people are, you know, anytime there’s a big wave like this social media wave, everybody just kind of jumped on board. But I think over the course of time, consumers become a little bit more skeptical. Skepticism, it takes a period of time, it’s the euphoria or this, be the first one and everybody jumps on board. And then all of a sudden, when you start seeing all these other issues, like you’re just bringing up, now all of a sudden it, I think, generally, people that we talked about Dr. Google and other stuff, I think people are becoming a little more skeptical of the things that they’re seeing online, even though there’s a lot of misinformation and stuff. I think more and more of them are coming in and asking the right questions. There was a time with Google even where people didn’t go to Google, you know, when people went to Google, they, they looked up a plastic surgeon’s website. And then they went to that plastic surgeons website and typed in. I’m interested in this, and then they they posed the questions, right? What’s the recovery time? Or can you do this? Or I’ve got this, what would you recommend, you know, those kinds of things. Now, they’re going straight to Google to ask that, you know, they’re almost bypassing, and they’re just asking those, quote queries, to Google. And Google’s pulling in, you know, and even with AI and everything, it’s just pulling in information to help feed up the, you know, the best information they can, but it’s still not a board certified plastic surgeon kind of thing

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 31:52

Correct.

Bill Fukui 31:53

So I don’t know, we, I could talk about that topic all day long in terms of, you know, social media and consumers how they’re, they’re managing medicine through the internet, and virtual, all this other stuff. Well, let me ask you, do you do much in the way of like, virtual kinds of stuff or, you know,

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 32:15

Yeah s-

Bill Fukui 32:16

getting with clients, you know, patients in that way.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 32:19

So we figure, you know, we figured out during COVID, that we could see patients virtually, and we could get almost everything taken care of in an electronic visit. So I see my weight loss patients through telemedicine after I’ve met them for the first time in the office. And I will see patients who, who do not live close by for a long term follow up. I have done some consultations prior to meeting people virtually, but at some point for my practice, I need to lay hands on them. So there’s only so much that I can do virtually. But I think you know, the convenience of, of how do you access your, how do you access your surgeon, you bring up a really good point, because I know that I listened to an ad on the radio all the time about I think it’s ZocDoc, that, you know, you can find a board certified provider in your area and somebody who takes your insurance, somebody that will listen to you. It’s very the the way that we, the way that people obtain their medical care has evolved so rapidly over the last couple of years. I mean, there’s an urgent care on every corner, and they, and people go to urgent care with things that really should be, they should be at an emergency room. And they don’t know the difference as to why they go to one versus the other. They’re going because they assume the wait is going to be shorter order urgent care. But they may not have a well staffed staff. So I, I have a whole lot of thoughts and opinions about the way that medicine is progressing currently, and I won’t go into those details, but it’s, I think it’s I think it’s interesting. You know, I don’t need to have my patients drive to my office and sit for a relatively quick visit to know if the weightloss medicines that they’re using are effective or not. They can tell me if they’ve lost weight or not. And I can tell them if they should increase their dose or not. So that’s been something that we can pretty easily do with with telehealth. I have found that sometimes post operative checks are hard because, poor connections, poor lighting sometimes you really can’t see what’s going on. But for just just for a check in like Is everything okay, you know, that’s fine, but I’m really a hands on person.

Bill Fukui 34:47

Yeah, no, and I think, I think the judgment you know, in terms of when and where to apply tele telemedicine or telecommunication in healthcare. I think you know, I think better safe than sorry. Right. And, and I would always prefer the, but in certain circumstances or in certain, you know, processes, it’s appropriate, right? If,

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 35:17

Yes

Bill Fukui 35:17

There is some value and I’d rather do that than a patient just not even come in, or not do the follow up because it’s too inconvenient, at least can, do this right? At least fill a gap where otherwise they wouldn’t even come in and, or see me at all. I wouldn’t have any, you know, it’s, it at least does that.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 35:17

Yes, I agree with you.

Bill Fukui 35:18

And I will say on the urgent thing, I just have to add this. I had a co-worker, one of my employees. He was actually having a heart attack. And he was on the phone with his mother One morning he was, and he was saying, you know, he’s, you know, having pressure against his chest, not breathing very well. And his mom said, You have got to get to the hospital now. Hang up the phone, call 911. He’s like, No, I’m okay. And of course, it’s denial. Right? They’ll, so he’s like, no, no, no, I’ll go to the urgent care down the, you know, down the street, there’s just one right down the street. So he does he goes to the urgent care, and then they have to air lift him from the you know, from the urgent care over to the hospital through helicopter. Craziest thing. He’s calling me on his cell phone. When he’s in the helicopter.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 36:39

Oh, my gosh.

Bill Fukui 36:40

Saying, I’m not gonna be in today. I’m going, what are you doing calling me? Go go to hospital? What are you doing?

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 36:50

Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s funny, we have you know, we had somebody who unfortunately lost the tip of their finger in an accident, and you know, that’s a hospital trip.

Bill Fukui 37:01

That’s a hospital trip.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 37:02

You know, go just go right to the emergency room. Because you’re, it’s, it’s a little more complex. It’s not a sprain. It’s not, you know, I have a really bad headache kind of thing or, a urinary tract infection. You know, those are the quickies, but are like a simple laceration, something that could be easily closed by someone. Yeah.

Bill Fukui 37:24

Well we have to definitely have a separate conversation at another time. There’s so many, I enjoy our conversations. We could talk about a ton of different stuff. But I appreciate all your insights, especially for the general consumer. You know, the general consumer is what we’re all about here, anyway, we can talk about the business of medicine, but it still boils down to the consumer. So I appreciate all your time today and great comments. And we’ll just have to schedule another one to talk about some other stuff.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 37:57

Sounds good. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate the time to talk to you, Bill and everybody too.

Bill Fukui 38:03

Well have a great afternoon,

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 38:04

You too

Bill Fukui 38:04

and we’ll chatting with you soon.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 38:06

Sounds good. Bye bye

Bill Fukui 38:07

Ok, take care.

Dr. DeLuca-Pytell 38:08

Bye.

MSD Insider 38:09

Thanks for joining us for the MedShark insider with Bill Fukui. Join us next week for another dive into all things medical marketing. All episodes can be streamed at www.medsharkdigital.com/medshark/insider