by A.R. Pito, FRCP(C)

In the Entrepreneurship section of a recent NY Times there was an article with the title “Fat Freezing Helps Doctors Enhance Physiques, and Their Revenue.”

Here are some excerpts:

“Dermatology clinics and medical spas are increasingly offering a procedure called CoolSculpting to shrink love handles, flabby tummies and jiggly arms. Doctors’ offices are eager to offer the treatment because it represents a way to meet the fast-growing demand for fat-reduction services that don’t require surgery. It is also, they say, a way to get new types of customers in the door, including men.”

“The spokeswoman for one dermatology spa in Arkansas was quoted as saying that they stay ‘busy with fat-freezing clients. CoolSculpting has allowed our business to grow both in reaching new clients and in revenue.”

“Zeltiq, the manufacturer sells its machines and a set of attachments for about $150,000. Zeltiq (which was bought out by Allergan in April 2017 for $2.4 billion) says it performed nearly 4 million treatment cycles on about one million patients as of the end of last year, and had more than 5,600 machines installed worldwide.”

“The procedure is marketed to doctors and spas as a “gateway” treatment that can help grow a clientele of people who might otherwise not get cosmetic treatments. The idea is that when people arrive to get their fat iced, they can also hear about (another Allergan product) and other aesthetic options.”

Osler famously (and boringly) wrote:
The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade: a calling not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with powders or potions, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, the wise upon the foolish…