A Clinician-Guided Nonsurgical Cosmetic Patient Information Module: Preliminary Findings

In 2011, nearly 13 million nonsurgical cosmetic procedures were performed, representing a 6% increase from the previous year. Patients often present with unrealistic treatment expectations based on beauty industry standards and misinformation. In addition, because of the lack of competency standardization in this area, providers frequently deliver inconsistent educational information to their patients. The initial goal of the project was to evaluate the clinician-guided module, a 13-slide PowerPoint presentation that was disseminated to key stakeholders for preliminary review. A convenience sample of 10 women, aged 30-64 years, was recruited. Following exposure to the module, each participant was asked to fill out an evaluation composed of both closed- and open-ended responses, noting her experience with this type of educational tool. Quantitative data were analyzed using comparison of means, whereas qualitative data were examined for the emergence of themes. Initial findings suggested that patients and health care providers found the clinician-guided module informative and visually appealing and that they would recommend this module to peers and colleagues. Potential social change from this project may surface through increased patient knowledge and empowerment, awareness, safety, and satisfaction. The final project will compare the clinician-guided patient information module to standard patient information evaluating treatment expectations of dermal fillers. The ultimate impact of a clinician-guided information module may improve standardization in this arena and thus be of particular interest to members of the nonsurgical cosmetic community.