By credentialing doctors for us, removing the customary gatekeepers (receptionists, medical assistants), and shrinking wait times, Persana lets aesthetic treatment-seekers skip straight to the good part: the consultation.
The vetting process
If I’m being honest, when I first heard about Persana and the heavy hitters involved—Drs. Ben Talei, Mike Nayak, Rod Rohrich, Kami Parsa, Guy Massry, Mary Lupo, Michelle Henry, Doris Day—it felt a little cliquey in a cool-kids’ table, you-can’t-sit-with-us sort of way. All lovely individuals, in my experience, but as a collective? Formidable.
When influential doctors refer patients to their equally influential peers, are they providing an invaluable medical service, pumping up each others’ practices—or a little bit of both? In fairness, some of these doctors do have personal relationships offline. And it’s not unusual for them to refer patients back and forth. Dr. Henry maintains that recommendations from respected doctors are “ideal,” and believes that Persana can “help patients cut through the deceptive social-media marketing that often steers them in the wrong direction when making decisions about aesthetic physicians.”
When I ask Dr. Azizzadeh about Persana’s vetting standards, he intuitively addresses the elephant in the room: “We didn’t want this to just be a group of friends [vouching for each other], so the vetting process has a lot of objectivity.”
Before inviting a physician into the network, the Persana advisory board, which includes some of the names listed above, authenticates their medical license and board-certification status. (Doctors have to be board certified in a relevant specialty: dermatology, plastic surgery, otolaryngology with fellowship training in facial plastic surgery, or ophthalmology with fellowship training in oculoplastic surgery. Hair restoration surgeons must be boarded in one of the aforementioned core specialties and belong to either the International or American Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.) Persana’s board also assesses each doctor’s online reputation (via their website, patient reviews, and social platforms) and “confirms they’re in good standing, without any recent or major malpractice actions,” Dr. Azizzadeh adds.
While there is arguably some inherent bias in this—and every vetting system carried out by humans—the background check aims to save us some legwork. After all, who better than a doctor (or panel of them) to spot the cracks in another MD’s facade? They know the subtleties of training, licensing, certification, research, and results. They know where to look for potential skeletons. (Still, it’s wise to do your own homework before fully committing to a physician.)