I also pay close attention to quality of life, appearance, and functionality, and work to address these concerns in the short term as well as in the future.
I present the full spectrum of treatment options, from surgery to nonsurgical therapies when appropriate. It always does after a bad cycle.As a strong advocate for patients, I believe my job is to help each person I meet make informed decisions about their care. The future is bright, and the economy will pick up. Hopefully in 2017 we will continue to forge ahead strongly. As a result, I see us riding out this recession comfortably. Some of the conditions we treat here are more in the class of want and in a recession people tend to spend less on what they want and focus on their needs having said that, we find ourselves in a unique position because there are not many people offering the same quality of services that our clinic provides. LaserDerm Clinics falls into a service category that is between a want and a need. Nigeria is now officially in a recession. We have, however, operated within the standards required for the medical profession in Nigeria and have gone ahead to register with the Medical Council of Nigeria, which regulates the industry. In Nigeria, the industry is in its infancy and hopefully we can create the necessary regulations here in collaboration with the medical council. Regulation has been a key word in the industry in Europe recently. People carrying out these procedures need the proper medical backgrounds in anatomy and physiology. Lasers, botulinum toxin injections, fillers, and so many other procedures can do permanent damage. It is about guaranteeing patient rights and safety. It is only in the last couple of years that other countries have sought to tackle this lack of regulation and put in place rules about what treatments can be carried out and by whom. This has been challenging, and understandably so, as it is such a novel industry. Through advocacy we seek to engage the relevant authorities to introduce some form of regulation and framework so that a minimum standard is maintained. The lack of regulatory frameworks in this industry is a problem globally and not just in Nigeria. How would you describe the regulatory framework for this industry? This standard of quality and innovation is what the LaserDerm brand stands for. We have over four medical doctors and while training is always an expensive venture, it is vital to us to maintain a particular standard that can be cross-referenced with any foreign practice in the world. We also fly in specialists to conduct in-house training. We engage in rigorous in-house training for all our doctors and send them to the UK and US annually for training. We offer various treatments that require unique and particular skills and constantly need to ensure that we adhere to the global standard. We understand that the training of our doctors is critical to the success of our practice. Those of us in the industry are passionate about training. There is obviously some training here however, when it comes to aesthetic medicine it is close to nonexistent. The field is still a new and novel area of practice.
In the aesthetics field, training can be improved tremendously. How would you describe the current level of medical training in Nigeria, especially in aesthetics? With the equipment, training, and skillset required, the business is a capital-intensive one. We finally moved into our ultra-modern office in Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, in 2016. We left Ikeja and set up in a location in Victoria Island due to growing demand from our clients.
The aesthetic sector is an innovative one, and we have had to invest in extremely sophisticated equipment and ensure the equipment is appropriate for black and ethnic skin and constantly replaced or upgraded. In partnership with a few investors, we opened our first clinic in Ikeja in April 2012 and slowly grew to our current position. I ran a similar cosmetic medical practice in the UK for a number of years and wanted to replicate something similar in Nigeria as it was lacking at the time. LaserDerm Clinics has been in existence for a little over four years. How has LaserDerm Clinics Limited evolved since its establishment?