Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast.

Monique Ramsey (00:14):
Welcome everyone to The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast. I'm your hostess, Monique Ramsey. Today, I have a fun person for you to meet and you might have met her in the office in the past 'cause she has worked in our med spa as a medical assistant, but she's really our Marketing Assistant and she specializes in clinical photography and makes sure that the software we use for you as a patient to learn and see your before and afters. It's called TouchMD and it's our for our consultation for imaging. And she's there to make sure that that functions seamlessly and flawlessly for you at home. So when you're in the office, you would be having your consult or you're coming for a follow-up. We're gonna use that software as well as when you're at home you can have the My TouchMD app on your phone. So welcome Krissy. Good to see you.

Krissy (01:07):
Thank you so much for having me, Monique.

Monique Ramsey (01:10):
So tell us a little bit about your role at La Jolla Cosmetic and sort of your, your background a little bit.

Krissy (01:16):
A little bit about my background. I'll start there. As you mentioned, I was a medical assistant, uh, recently with La Jolla Cosmetic getting started here. Really that role was to, I was a previous medical assistant at other practices, but that really, that role was to help me really get a handle on the best type of software to use for everybody in the practice because for clinical photography is probably one of the most important aspects of everything we do from the surgery center to the med spa and getting everybody from the doctors to the clinical staff support and patients using the same type of communication with this software has been the most amazing thing. It fell into my lap. I've worked with TouchMD a little bit, twinkling over the years. I've been in aesthetics for 10 years in different parts of the practice, from management to medical assisting and now marketing, helping Monique as a chief creative officer, do almost anything she asks <laugh>.

Monique Ramsey (02:10):
Yeah, and you do that very well by the way,

Krissy (02:12):
<laugh>, Specifically here at La Jolla though, it's really emphasized on photography management. Here we have at least 12 different providers in the Med Spa. There's six in our surgery center. We're taking photos with every single patient. So that's a lot of incoming photos that patients either wanna have access to or that we use for educational purposes. And so having a great system to help me manage those from getting the consent to putting it together to educating the patient is what I love doing here at La Jolla Cosmetic.

Monique Ramsey (02:46):
Well, and I think your background, it lends perfectly to all the different things you do for everyone. And I think also, you know, most of us at, well probably all of us at La Jolla Cosmetic have been a patient at some time or other. So today, Krissy, you're gonna talk about TouchMD, what it is, how we use it in the office, whether you're coming in for your consultation or you're seeing your before and afters later or you're at home. So when is their first sort of interaction with TouchMD?

Krissy (03:17):
Yeah, honestly, awesomely TouchMD is one of the first things you get to experience when you walk into the office. It has um, we use it also as a playlist. So when you come into the office, we normally have TVs in the treatment rooms, but also in the waiting room. And all the content that you see on those TVs is ran through TouchMD playlist. There is a number of things on there from educational pieces from the manufacturers themselves, like Allergan or Galderma or different types of um, breast procedures. But we also put a lot of our marketing material on there. We put before and afters up on there as well. So if you're waiting in our waiting room for a procedure and then you happen to look over and you actually get a chance to see what your results might look like just by looking at the TV or just by being in our environment.

(04:07)
Right. Botox is a great example. I love showing people Botox before and afters, <laugh> 'cause they're so amazing. The next step that you would interact with TouchMD in our office is right when you go back to the treatment room. We, like I said, photos are very important in our office from little changes to small changes, tracking each step of your procedures, really important. So the first thing we do is open TouchMD to take your photo and let me actually pull something up and I can show you what that looks like. Great. So this is called the consult, TouchMD Consult and this is something you have access to at home, but this is also how we get you to your photos. Um, let's just say you're coming into the office for the very first time. We would pull up consult and you maybe you've never met your provider before or maybe you just wanted to see a couple of their before and afters.

(04:58)
I'll be able to show you very quickly just by pulling up one of 'em. This is Miss Julia, who's amazing. You can get some quick information about her. Listen to this couple of her podcast and see some before and afters from procedures. She's previously done, and this is just at a glance, but after maybe introducing you to your provider, we would definitely go make sure that you have an account so that we can take your before and after photos. I'm gonna pull up a patient, actually she's an employee <laugh>. She has a great account. She takes so many before and after photos. So this is Barbie and she is a great candidate to show you. You can see she gets frequent treatments June 9th, June 12th. And like I said, tracking each treatment is very important. So in here we would go open up our snap, do our little session and let's just say you're a returning patient and you to see what your results look like from last time. We would show you just as easy as this. And from here we can really take a look at the results. And I'm pretty sure she had Morpheus in this treatment.

Monique Ramsey (06:12):
Yeah, she did.

Krissy (06:13):
Morpheus and a little bit of filler in her chin, I could tell. But what an amazing result. And a way that we could really show our patients, hey, this is a difference. 'cause even though it's subtle changes, looking at these before and afters, you could really tell what those subtle changes did to her skin. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So when we're looking at ourselves in the mirror every day, we actually don't really notice those things until you're looking at your before and afters.

Monique Ramsey (06:37):
Right, right.

Krissy (06:38):
Barbie likes to share too. So if I wanted to give this to her on her patient app, alls I have to do is click save, make it visible to her and now she can show all her friends and family her beautiful before and afters.

Monique Ramsey (06:50):
Oh that's cool. Okay.

Krissy (06:53):
Yeah.

Monique Ramsey (06:53):
So here's an example of, you know, again, you're bringing up for the patient the before and afters and then you can have them like share it. You can share it to them for their own app and then they can share their friends. Share with friends and family or just to look at and admire <laugh> the great handy work. So in the consultation in the office. So you can use the TouchMD app when describing a procedure to look at other, like say we were interested in before and afters of lips, lip fillers or something. So that's something that you can show to the patients so they, they could get a better idea of what a filler might do?

Krissy (07:42):
Absolutely. So let's just say Ms. Barbie came in and she's like, I love my results, but I wanna try a different procedure. I'm just scared of what it might look like and just say it's Botox. 'cause that's a really typical one that people get nervous about.

Monique Ramsey (07:53):
Okay.

Krissy (07:54):
I would pull up this page for her and then just show her all the natural looking results that can be achieved. These are all of our own patients.

Monique Ramsey (08:02):
Oh, that's great. So it's so people who are worried about being overdone or expressionless or something. So this is really showing them, here's some ideas of how it's gonna help you. Yeah. Like that one right back there with all those horizontal wrinkles. Yeah. There <laugh> like, you know,

Krissy (08:21):
One of my favorite results.

Monique Ramsey (08:22):
You can compare though 'cause some people have those and other people have more of the elevens or some other part that's bothering them, so

Krissy (08:30):
Oh yeah. And people get scared about the, their expression or their facial, you know, little quirks that they have. And this really shows you that the treatments that we do, we really try to keep you natural looking as possible. Like she still looks excited. She still looks surprised. Yeah, she's still like surprised. Yeah. She just is not animating as much in her upper forehead.

Monique Ramsey (08:50):
Right. And having all those wrinkles. Exactly. And so, okay. So it's a great tool for that. Oh, like, oh, then look at all the lips. Okay. Show us some lips.

Krissy (09:01):
Lips, lasers. There's so many.

Monique Ramsey (09:05):
Oh and that's good 'cause it shows you sort of like right after what it looks like. So people can see that.

Krissy (09:10):
Just depending on the patient. We take photos right before the treatment right after, and then hopefully at a follow-up appointment.

Monique Ramsey (09:18):
Okay. Okay. That's good. So then let's now move over to, okay, you're, you've gone home and maybe you're thinking about a procedure or you wanna look back at your own app and look and see what's inside. So if you could sign us in like we're at home on our phone in the My Touch MD app, then everybody can kind of see.

Krissy (09:42):
Absolutely. And that's one of the first things I usually ask patients to do after I take their photo. Because we obviously take a lot of photos of ourselves every day selfies, but I was like, if you really wanna have access to your at home photos or anything like that, it's best if you download the app so that I can make sure that you can carry them wherever you want. And I'll show you exactly what that app looks like right now. Touch MD is great because it travels with you to whatever practice you're at. Obviously we have um, a huge practice, a surgical center and a med spa. So if you see one of our doctors and our med spa, you're gonna have access to all of those in the same account that I absolutely love that you don't have to go downloading 10 apps or making 10 different logins or anything like that.

Monique Ramsey (10:29):
So if you're seeing Dr. Reidler for one thing in the surgery center and then you're up in the med spa seeing Julia, you would have all those pictures at your fingertips really.

Krissy (10:39):
In the palm of your hands. <laugh>.

Monique Ramsey (10:41):
I love that.

Krissy (10:42):
Yeah. And so if you recall me saying one of the first interactions that you get with TouchMD is the playlist and that's what you see playing at the top here. So all treatments that we have get represented on a reel, on a loop, there's testimonials on there. Just a lot of great content for you to watch. If there's something that you are watching and you like, you can see the little heart button, go ahead and heart it. It'll save it to your profile and remind you about it later. 'cause I know we're all forgetful. We're like, wait, what treatment did I wanna do? Where did I see this at? So that's really helpful. I love that as part of the patient app, you can see I have access to my before and afters as well. Very easy right up front for me will tell you the last treatments I had.

Monique Ramsey (11:29):
Oh, look at that.

Krissy (11:31):
I know that was Khan. He did such an amazing job.

Monique Ramsey (11:33):
Yeah, beautiful. Really beautiful. Oh, that's nifty. Okay. Makes me wanna download this app. Krissy. I probably should have <laugh>.

Krissy (11:41):
You really should.

Monique Ramsey (11:42):
I know, I know. I'm terrible. But no, it's, that's a really great feature. And so really when you're using it at home, you can use it to manage your own procedures that you've had, but you could also then learn about other things while you're in there.

Krissy (11:59):
Yeah. One of the best, uh, features that I actually love about it, let's just say I had my lips done and I, it's after hours <laugh> and my provider needs a picture of me. This is one of my favorite things. You could just pull up this app and you can see down here it says add photo. You just gotta do a little agreeance and then you can upload your own photo for your provider. So let's just say you were worried about swelling or there was an extra bruise somewhere you thought that it wasn't supposed to be. You just take a picture right here, send it straight to your provider, it goes straight to your portal on our side and we get notified.

Monique Ramsey (12:39):
Okay. So that actually brings up a really good point, which is mm-hmm. Hipaa, right? So having that secure method of communication with your provider, your surgeon, so that you're, 'cause texting is like, we can text but that doesn't mean it's secure. Yeah. And so if it's like texting, but we're doing it through a secure portal. So I think that's probably a huge benefit.

Krissy (13:08):
Yeah. One of the biggest factors when I was choosing a program for us was the HIPAA compliancy. If you are texting, anybody could pick up your phone, especially if it's not locked and see all your photos or maybe something that was a little bit more of an intimate experience for you. But the app, it's very secure. You can't just pick it up and open it up. You have to have access usually your face or a password or something like that. So everything is very, very private and secure there.

Monique Ramsey (13:36):
Now if I want to share my results with the world, how does, like if Khan says, oh my gosh Monique, your face is amazing and I, this thread I did is like the best thread I've ever done and <laugh>, I want you to share it. <laugh>, how do I, do I initiate that from my side of the TouchMD? Or how does that work if, if a patient wants to, you know, be in the before and after gallery, let's say.

Krissy (14:04):
I call it our family photo book, um, <laugh>, um, if patients, usually we'll ask them everything is done through Touch MD as well. So I have little Miss Barbie here pulled up and I'm like, Barbie, your Morpheus photos are so amazing. Can I use those to share with somebody else that might be thinking about the treatment? She's like, yeah, sure, why not? I'll just pop right over in here to consent, assign her our photo release consent. And this is actually done from the practice side. So as a medical assistant or the doctor.

Monique Ramsey (14:38):
Okay. So when you're, when like when you're in the office.

Krissy (14:41):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative> when you're in the office. And the thing about these consents too, like you can sign them at home so you could see it's assigned, I'm gonna click done and alls I have do for the patient is pull this up and she can click through sign things very easy.

Monique Ramsey (14:58):
Oh wow.

Krissy (14:59):
And once I assign this, actually you, she will be able to see it at home. So let's just say she left the office 'cause she's in a hurry and she's like, oh, so I didn't, when I get home, because I don't have time, once it's in this little section right here, she could just pull up her my Touch MD app and sign it at her leisure.

Monique Ramsey (15:18):
Oh good. Okay. And then you get notified. Okay.

Krissy (15:21):
Yep.

Monique Ramsey (15:22):
Oh that's awesome. And we do love, I think, you know, as a patient and you're thinking about a procedure, the more before and afters you can see of other people who've done it, the better. And certainly you can like in that one example with the Botox, if somebody's got really deep horizontal lines and they wanna see how's that gonna affect it, the more before and afters we have in the gallery, the better for those patients. So that means all of our patients also need to be like, yeah, I'll share that because I'm really excited about my result. And so sharing, you know, is caring whatever they <laugh>, whatever they say, but it's like, you know, giving authorization to, and maybe you could say, you know, I would love to share the pictures of the BBL on my chest, but I don't wanna show my breast augmentation or whatever it is then, you can choose by procedure what you'll show. Right?

Krissy (16:19):
Exactly. Yeah. And touch MD's pretty awesome. Um, let's just say it's a facial procedure and you want your eyes blocked out. You don't have to export any of the media to do those simple edits. TouchMD gives you a lot of tools to correct that right there so that there's no waiting period to be sharing these amazing results.

Monique Ramsey (16:38):
Oh that's nice. That's nice. So let's fast forward 18 months and I've come in a couple times for Botox like every four months on religiously that I do <laugh>. And let's say I got Sculptra with Amy and I'm ready for number two by the way. But if I wanna then see, you know, how long are those images stored in my account?

Krissy (17:03):
Indefinitely. So they, they will always be your images in your account. Um, let's just say even after the 18 months or you move out of the state or something like that from where we're at, you're always gonna have access to those pictures. We don't take them away from you. They're stored in a cloud by TouchMD. So you'd never have to worry about those pictures going anywhere.

Monique Ramsey (17:24):
Oh good. So you always have, so if you really wanna compare, how do I look five years ago versus today?

Krissy (17:29):
Oh yeah.

Monique Ramsey (17:29):
You can do that. All right. That's cool. So why do you think, you know, you mentioned at the beginning that photos are so integral to what we do at La Jolla Cosmetic. And why do you think that that is so important for the patient experience and where does TouchMD kind of come into that?

Krissy (17:48):
That's a great question. Patient photos are probably one of the biggest factors of the patient journey. When you're getting any kind of procedure from very non-invasive like Botox to a very in-depth surgical procedure like a mommy makeover. There's a process from the consultation to being in the office to being separated from us while you're healing or in that intermediary period to then also coming back to us. And each step of the way photos really help show you the progress from where you started to where you're going. And I say going because with aesthetics it's never ending <laugh>. There's always something we could do, right? Or improve or let's just say with, we do a lot of lasers, like that's ongoing. If you were took a vacation for two months, you know, you're probably in the sun a lot, you're probably gonna wanna come back and see us, but you're gonna see like, oh my God, how much damage did I have before? And if we didn't take a before picture, you wouldn't be able to see the correction that we were able to achieve after. Right. So it's just all about the patient journey and helping them understand how their skin is healing and how what their body is capable of.

Monique Ramsey (19:03):
So it's important like you as a patient that you're part of keeping up on those before and after pictures. 'cause I think it is true what you said, Krissy, like we do forget what we looked like three weeks ago. 'cause you, it becomes a new normal. I remember this with one of our patients who had a thread lift and she was like, yeah, at first, you know, I kind of thought, okay, well yeah, it's a little better I guess, but I'm not really sure. Then she saw her before and after photos at like 16 weeks or th three. Yeah, three or four months. And she was like, oh my gosh, I'm blown away. So it even helps you appreciate that what you did made a big difference.

Krissy (19:40):
Absolutely.

Monique Ramsey (19:42):
So getting patients started on the TouchMD app, are you having them download that even before they come in to the office for their consult? Or is that more done at the first visit?

Krissy (19:53):
I typically ask them at the first visit when I take their before and after or when I take their before photos. Um, and specifically because it is a fun app to interact with at home, but not everybody always wants to download extra things prior to a doctor's appointment or anything like that. So for me, I just really like to interact with the patient and the app in front of them so that they know the tools that they have rather than trying to start navigating on their own. Not that it's a hard app to deal with at all, but sometimes it's just a little handholding is helpful.

Monique Ramsey (20:24):
Yeah, I think, I think that's a good point because sometimes we get home, we're like, wait, what did we say? And oh, it's my login. And so getting 'em set up at the office I think is great and,

Krissy (20:35):
And it really takes just a second.

Monique Ramsey (20:37):
Yeah. And like you say, I think having that continuity, especially for our patients who have a surgical procedure and then have a med spa procedure or ongoing procedures in the med spa, you have that continuity where you can go back and look at your photos over maybe even years. So that part's cool. So Krissy, when can our patients expect to get access into this TouchMD environment?

Krissy (21:04):
As soon as you come to your appointment in the office and you, we take your photos, we usually set you up right then it's as easy as I click a send welcome button, you'll get a welcome email, it will have you sign up and you'll have access right there within a minute.

Monique Ramsey (21:20):
Oh good. All right. Well this is fun because you know, I hear you, especially you 'cause you were helping to implement it and really get people using it more in the office, especially in the med spa. I know our surgeons have used it for many years, but it's really been something that the med spa has adopted and I think our patients are loving it. So I really glad that you, you know, took a moment to come on here and kind of tell our patients the benefits of using it, how we use it in the consult, how you can use it at home. And so anyway, thanks Krissy. It was fun to have you as a guest on the podcast.

Krissy (21:54):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Monique Ramsey (21:56):
All right, well if you guys have questions at home and you want any information about TouchMD or you have questions about the consultation process or maybe you've been a patient but you haven't downloaded the app yet and you just need a little help, we can walk you through it. So I'll have, uh, links in the show notes to all the questions you might have. And then certainly we would love it if you would subscribe for our podcast and turn on your notifications, our new episodes come out every Tuesday. And then also if you wanna leave us a review, we would love that. And certainly in that review, you're welcome to tell us what topics you're interested in so that we can put some of those interests into our upcoming episodes. So thanks everybody and have a great rest of your day.

Monique Ramsey (22:46):
Thank you. Bye.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Take a screenshot of this podcast episode with your phone and show it at your consultation or appointment or mention the promo code PODCAST to receive $25 off any service or product of $50 or more at La Jolla Cosmetic. La Jolla Cosmetic is located just off the I-5 San Diego Freeway in the XiMed building on the Scripps Memorial Hospital campus. To learn more, go to lj csc.com or follow the team on Instagram at lj csc. The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast is a production of The Axis, t h e a x i s.io.