“Today I wanted to talk a little bit about our Fellowship program in training facial plastic surgeons. I’m very proud and excited to each year, be a mentor for a fellow and these fellowships are a yearlong training program that are sponsored by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery selects from amongst the top surgeons in plastic and reconstructive surgery in the country, based on their qualifications, Fellowship Directors. That includes their qualifications, things like their education and training and background, their compliance with regulatory boards, state and federal laws and regulations, and basically their experience and knowledge in teaching students and residents and/or fellows.
Those that are selected, there are 50 in the country, are really honored to have some of the very best surgeons that are graduating from training programs and other plastic surgery or head-neck surgery to complete a 1 year, 1 on 1 mentorship where they assist me, observe my techniques and the way that I approach things, and actually help prepare patients for surgery, as well as assist me in the clinical research projects that we conduct at The Mass Clinic Clinical Research Center.
So the fellows play an important role in our care. All of our patients really enjoy them. They’re top notch people and they’re fantastic doctors, and they’re really here to learn by watching and observing and learning really the very fundamental things that make one a true expert.
They don’t have to be here, they can go off after their training in neck & surgery and become board certified and many of them are board certified or eligible in plastic surgery or head-neck surgery but they do that so that they can truly learn and become an expert in this area.
So I’m really proud to have them and I think that all of our patients really enjoyed the interaction, the dedication, the caring and the compassion that these fellows had to our clinical care and to the patient care that we provide here at The Mass Clinic.
All of our fellows that are sponsored to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery have finished 4-years of medical school, 1 or 2 years of internship in general surgery and then gone on to do head-neck or plastic surgery residencies which vary from 3 to 6 years in duration, so they’re highly qualified as physicians.
All are board eligible, many are even board certified and when they come to the program here to observe as I said before and assist me in surgery and learn about how we do research, clinical and basic science research, they’re really here to become true experts which is a long honored tradition in medicine.
In fact, before the days of formal or organized medicine with residency programs and internships the way that doctor’s learned was with one on one mentorship training type of programs, as its really the best way to truly become an expert in something, is to spend a lot of time focused on an area like the face and skin like what you have here at The Maas ClinicTM, and for me it’s a great opportunity.
It’s also a great and wonderful challenge to have young minds that are constantly asking me questions about advances in our specialty, about how to get great results on all patients and keep people happy and make sure that they’re really on top of their game with the newest and latest in surgical techniques. I’m happy to introduced them to you, we have a very wonderful graduate list of Alumni of over 15 years now since I was a UCSF professor full time and I’ve carried that tradition on as a clinical associate professor at the University of California San Francisco, and I’m very happy to welcome you to meet our fellows as you come to The Maas ClinicTM for your care.
If you have any questions for me or would like to meet our fellows, there’s an opportunity to do that. You can visit my website at MaasClinic.com and learn a little bit more about the fellowship programs. Visit my video blog at DrMaas.com. We’re always happy to welcome you here at the office in San Francisco or Lake Tahoe. This is Corey S. Maas MDTM on “Looking Your Best.”