Think of consultations as a test drive for enhancing your plastic surgery experience. Just as most of us (at least I hope) wouldn’t blindly buy a car without seeing and testing it first, the same practice should be applied to picking a board certified plastic surgeon. For my breast surgery patients, consultations are the time when we explore cosmetic goals, “try” on different breast implants and discuss the ins-and-outs of the surgical procedure. As I am often trying to improve the consultation experience for all of my patients, I wanted to tell you all about the new TouchMD software we adopted to help us do just that.
TouchMD is essentially patient education software that is a great resource for patients before, during and after the consultation using custom content tailored to their specific treatment. For example, let’s say a breast enhancement patient comes in but isn’t quite sure the best procedure(s) to give them perky breasts. With TouchMD, we can upload the patient’s before photos to their unique profile where we can help illustrate procedure options in a visual way (TouchMD has drawing tools to help patients visualize their results). As we discuss the various breast enhancement options (breast augmentation, breast lift, breast reduction, etc.). We can look at the results from actual previous patients, procedural videos and surgery-specific details that can help in deciding if a procedure is best for the patient.
Once a patient leaves our office, we don’t want it to feel like school where we send you off with a ton of literature to review and study. With TouchMD, patients can easily access ALL of the materials we discussed during the consultation, in the privacy of their own home. Using any computer, tablet or mobile device, TouchMD stores all consultation photos (including previous patient before and after pictures), notes and any specific details we discuss about the procedure. Don’t worry, TouchMD uses a secure network and unique log-in, so your information can be viewed privately or shared with only those you want to share it with. We just want each patients experience to go smoothly before, during and after surgery and TouchMD helps us from the start.
Being an advocate for patient safety, it’s best to be thorough in your research for any surgical procedure. We certainly want to do our part to help alleviate any anxiety and that’s something we believe TouchMD helps to support. Take your time in reviewing materials discussed and be confident in your final decision! If you’re interested in any of the breast procedures we perform or learning more about TouchMD, contact Southern Plastic Surgery, P.C. to set up your complimentary consultations today. For the latest plastic surgery news and updates, follow me, Dr. David Whiteman, on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.