Gary D. Breslow, MD had a genius idea to tackle the “consultation conundrum” – the apparently universal and yet seemingly unresolvable phenomenon where a plastic surgeon has to actually waste time going through a consultation with an unqualified patient to find out that it was, in fact, a waste of time to go through the consultation in the first place.

Dr. Breslow had an idea while discussing this with some colleagues.

 “The consensus was that this affected everyone, unless your conversion rate was 100%, which even for the busiest plastic surgeons it never was.  On average more than 6 out of 10 patients who go in for a consultation for a cosmetic procedure with a cosmetic doctor never have a procedure with that doctor.  And, popular strategies like charging for consultations didn’t work either, as that effectively created a barrier and diverted serious potential cosmetic patients to the offices of those cosmetic doctors who did not charge a consultation fee. And, when you think about it, the plastic surgeon’s time is worth more than the consultation fee charged.

Then one day in January, 2012 after a day filled with back-to-back-to-back wasteful consultations, I boarded a plane for an annual father-son ski trip, and vented to my close friend about the frustrating inefficiency of the cosmetic consultation process.  For 4 hours we sat there, going back and forth, working through a possible solution.  By the time we landed in Utah, Zwivel was born.

Zwivel is a free, user-friendly, interactive online consultation tool that plastic surgeons can place on their own website enabling them to interact with, and prescreen for, potential cosmetic patients who visit their website prior to a full, in-office consultation.  Patients who visit the doctor’s website can click on a “Start Your Consultation Now” widget, then select their concerns and desired procedures, upload photos and record video of themselves, and answer some basic questions about their medical history, budget and time frame for having a cosmetic procedure.  The plastic surgeon can then review the information and respond with their cosmetic procedure recommendations and estimated fees, and can record their own video.  The patient can then review what the plastic surgeon says and decide if they want to come in for a full, in-office consultation.   The entire process is completely HIPAA/HITECH compliant, private and secure, and one-to-one between each doctor and each patient.

While the version currently in use is free, ZwivelPremium^TM, which is scheduled to launch in July, charges doctors a monthly subscription fee for use of its enhanced features, which include the ability to filter out for only those procedures they perform, the option to include their staff to participate in their “Replies”, and the ability to customize, save, and re-use previous “Replies” and upload supporting videos and before and after images or other testimonials that are specific to the requested procedure.

Also with ZwivelPremium^TM, member doctors are automatically listed on the Zwivel.com’s  ZwivelSearch^TMsite where patients can search for and review physicians’ profiles, rankings and reviews, and then send their information to multiple doctors at once, helping them in their decision process to choose the physician that is right for them and their desired procedure.  A nationwide multimedia public relations and advertising campaign is being launched to educate patients on Zwivel and how simple it can be to find out which doctor and which cosmetic procedure is the right one for them.

As the old adage says, time is money. Remember, 90% of all cosmetic patients are women – most of whom have jobs, children or both, and don’t have time to go to multiple plastic surgeons to find out which doctor and which procedure is right for them.

“The consensus was that this affected everyone, unless your conversion rate was 100%, which even for the busiest plastic surgeons it never was.  On average more than 6 out of 10 patients who go in for a consultation for a cosmetic procedure with a cosmetic doctor never have a procedure with that doctor.  And, popular strategies like charging for consultations didn’t work either, as that effectively created a barrier and diverted serious potential cosmetic patients to the offices of those cosmetic doctors who did not charge a consultation fee. And, when you think about it, the plastic surgeon’s time is worth more than the consultation fee charged.

Then one day in January, 2012 after a day filled with back-to-back-to-back wasteful consultations, I boarded a plane for an annual father-son ski trip, and vented to my close friend about the frustrating inefficiency of the cosmetic consultation process.  For 4 hours we sat there, going back and forth, working through a possible solution.  By the time we landed in Utah, Zwivel was born.

Your time is valuable, and so is the screening Zwivel provides!

To learn more go to www.zwivel.com, watch a video on how it works and sign-up for the free service.