President’s Message ===================== * Jennifer H. Martinick 1. Jennifer H. Martinick, MBBS (Jennifer{at}martinick.com) 1. Perth, Australia
![][1] Dear fellow physicians, thank you for the honour of electing me as your president for the next year. I look forward to working with you all towards achieving common goals for the betterment of the patients we serve, our profession, and the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. While building on our long established and valued roles of promoting education, research, ethics, and camaraderie, I am committed to ensuring that the ISHRS remains both prominent and relevant in our changing and challenging economic and social environment. Having been a member of the Society since 1994, I feel privileged to have been part of the changes that have seen surgical hair restoration evolve to today’s completely natural looking hair transplants. These outstanding results are a direct outcome of many of our senior members selflessly sharing their experiences with other colleagues at annual scientific meetings. Our members who have contributed to this refinement of surgery, wider social acceptance of hair transplants, as well as ongoing research and education towards attaining excellence, deserve recognition. Our new members reap the benefits of all their wisdom and can now rapidly learn to practice this procedure—a procedure that has come of age. As with any branch of surgery, there is a learning curve; it is only natural to assume that the surgeon who has been practicing for 10 or more years is more experienced than one who has been practicing for 1 or 2 years. To this end, I hope to establish an ISHRS Fellow members’ category at the Bahamas 2012 meeting. Becoming a Fellow is something to which we can all aspire. Basic learning, regular attendance at scientific meetings, maintaining high ethical standards towards our patients, as well as various contributions to all that the ISHRS has to offer including articles in the *Forum,* presentations at meetings, and serving on committees over a period of years will pave your way to becoming a Fellow. Such an initiative, which requires united commitment, energy, and resources, delivers benefits for the patients we care for and for our valued members. To supply relevant educational needs, we rely greatly on the feedback from members and over time these needs change and evolve. Today, many new doctors are concerned that while they are passionate about medicine, managing a practice is daunting. While achieving and maintaining high surgical standards are integral to a sustainable and successful surgical hair restoration clinic, practice management does not usually come naturally. This is why I am keen to explore the possibility of educating our members in practice management, which would help a physician to build a thriving, well-run practice. Communication is a necessary component to every modern medical practice. Generation X and Y make up a significant portion of our practice; they use mobile phones, email, and social media to communicate. They also profoundly influence the interpersonal recommendation process. I aim to encourage ongoing skills transfer and greater mentoring of new doctors. Successful transfer of technical skills, industry knowledge, and commercial skills can potentially make a huge difference to the viability, stability, and prosperity of our members’ practices and ultimately the global relevance of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. I look forward to working together to build an even stronger Society and welcome your comments and suggestions. * Copyright © 2011 by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif