Executive Medicine Directory

Executive Medicine Directory The complete directory of Executive Medicine in the United States is online. Executive Medicine goes by many names, boutique medicine, retainer medicine, executive health, VIP medicine, and personalized medicine. Finding the right Concierge Doctor is the most important step for patient considering the best care. Concierge Doctor 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 physicians an annual fee. This concierge fee enables physicians to increase their compensation while managing their workload. In addition to receiving an annual fee, most Executive Medicine Physicians continue to receive reimbursements from health plans and private pay clients. Executive Medicine 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 Executive Medicine 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. Executive Medicine 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. Some concierge practices do not accept insurance of any kind. These are as cash-only or direct primary care practices. By refusing to deal with insurance companies, these practices can keep overhead and administrative costs low, thereby providing affordable healthcare to patients. They become concierge only if the practice assesses an annual or monthly fee instead of or in addition to a fee for each medical service. Other concierge practices do take insurance, even Medicare, but ask for an annual fee for additional services exclusive of insurance plans. This annual fee is not a substitute for medical insurance, and generally does not cover consultations outside the practice, laboratory procedures, medicines, hospitalizations, or emergency care from other providers.

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.

Surgical Weight

A fat loss surgeon performs bariatric surgery, bypass surgery, gastric banding and obesity surgery. Surgical weight control is an option for very overweight who cannot lose pounds with only a healthy diet and exercise. Weight loss surgery limits the amount of food a person can intake. Some operations also restrict the amount of food the stomach can digest. Many people who have fat loss surgery lose weight quickly. If patients follow all diet and exercise recommendations, most can keep the weight off. Like all surgeries, fat loss surgery has risks and complications, including infections, hernias and blood clots. Men who are at least 100 pounds overweight and women who are at least 80 pounds overweight are eligible for this surgery. If candidates somewhat less overweight, surgery still might be an option if they also have diabetes, heart disease or sleep apnea. Bariatric surgery, or weight loss surgery, is a type of procedure that doctors perform on people who are dangerously obese. This procedure achieves weight loss by surgical reduction of the size of the stomach by means of an implanted gastric banding device, through removal of a portion of the stomach or by re-sectioning and re-routing the small intestines to a small stomach pouch as gastric bypass surgery. Long-term studies show the procedures result in significant long-term weight loss, recovery from diabetes, improvement in cardiovascular risk factors and a reduction in mortality of 23 percent to 40 percent. The U.S. National Institutes of Health recommends bariatric surgery for obese people with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 40.

Implants

There are many kinds of implants. The artificial pacemaker helps to regulate heart rhythms. Lithium-ion batteries may provide long-lived provision of energy to such devices. A bio-implant is a biomaterial surgically implanted to replace damaged tissue. Common areas of application include orthopedic re-constructive prosthesis, cardiac prostheses, the skin and the cornea. A breast implant alters the size and shape of the breasts. There are two primary types of breast implants: saline-filled and silicone-gel-filled implants. Saline implants have a silicone elastomer shell filled with sterile saline liquid. Silicone gel implants have a silicone shell filled with a viscous silicone gel. Dental implants are a kind of implant that exist both inside and outside the body. An oral surgeon embeds the implant in the bone of the mandible or maxilla and the top of the implant is visible from within the mouth. In orthopedic surgery, implants may refer to devices over or within bones that hold a fracture in place. Prosthesis is a more appropriate term for devices that replace a part or whole of a defunct joint. In this context, implants may be within or outside the body.