Category Archives: General Info

Brilliant Distinctions Changes – Botox, Juvederm, Latisse

Recent Changes to the Brilliant Distinctions Program

Update: See updated section on the bottom – info directly from Allergan and the changes start May 15, 2013.

I heard some things about changes to the Brilliant Distinctions Program by our Botox Representative (from Allergan). I’m not 100% sure of these changes, as I don’t operate the Brilliant Distinctions program (BD), but of course, our plastic surgery practice accepts the coupons and rebates generated from the BD program.

SkinMedica – get points for purchasing

Allergan acquired SkinMedica – a skin care product company – prescription and non-prescription based products. You can now earn points for purchasing SkinMedica products. Our office currently does not carry Skin Medica products. I guess I wished it could have been easier / great if Obagi was somehow absorbed by Allergan, because we are a Obagi retailer and a user of Allergan products. But that merger didn’t happen. Instead Valeant purchased Obagi for $348 million dollars in April 2013.. Valeant is based in Montreal. Valeant has a dermatology portfolio. Obagi is based in Long Beach, California, and posted revenues of $120 million in the year 2012. Valeant Pharmaceuticals in September 2012 purchased Medicis for 2.6 billion. Medicis makes Dysport, Perlane, and Restylane.
Around December 2012 Allergan purchased SkinMedica for $350 million

New Brilliant Distinctions Mall

Get points for shopping online
Similar to a program offered by Chase.
Many many vendors online, and shop as you normally would except click through a link from the Brilliant Distinctions website.

Bonus points are going away

As fast as it came, it is going away: There was a bonus points program for the frequent users, in fact after about 12 visit, the bonus points added up to almost double the original amount which was originally $25 coupon after each Botox visit, and for those coming in on the 13th time and beyond, the $25 coupon got a bonus of another $25. However this is bonus is going away I heard.

The $25 coupon per Botox visit or $25 per Juvederm syringe is dropping down to $20

I also heard that the $25 is dropping down to $20. But the added ability to earn points from the BD Mall is supposed to more than make up for this difference. I’d like to know if this works out for folks in the future. Regardless, it is nice to have a program such as BD, so I guess we shouldn’t complain too much about the $25 dropping down to $20.

There’s the ability to print out a $10 coupon

This wasn’t available before. I think this is to help the Latisse-only users use their coupons, because Latisse purchases used to take longer to build up to a coupon.

I just checked with several patients today regarding Brilliant Distinctions. Most of these changes have taken place yet, but I know they are coming very soon – perhaps at the end of this month (May, 2013).

These changes the program summarized:

SkinMedica
BD Mall
Bonus Points going away
$25 return on each visit or each syringe is going down to $20
New!, ability to print out $10 coupon (half of the points required to print a $20 coupon).
New 9 month expiration period instead of I think it was 2 years before.

We’ll stay tuned and see how these changes take place and hopefully they will continue to keep our Botox / Juvederm / Latisse patients happy.

Surgical Artistry | Calvin Lee, MD | Tammy Wu, MD
209-551-1888 | www.SurgeryToday.com
2336 Sylvan Ave. Suite C | Modesto, CA 95355

UPDATE:

We got this notice from Brilliant Distinctions.

Starting May 15, 2013:

Points Values: In simplifying the points structure, the values will alter slightly. We’ve added a new coupon value. You can now create a $10 coupon for 100 points. For 200 points, the coupon value will now be $20.

Expiration Period: Points will expire after 9 months of inactivity from earning. We will send you reminders if you are getting close to your points expiring.

Bonus Points: All bonus points accrued to date will remain in your account; however, no more bonus points will be issued. If you have questions, the Brilliant Distinctions® Customer Support line is a phone call away: 1-888-324-2745 (9am-8pm EST. M-F).

Summary: See summary above also. But there are some great added features ($10 coupon, BD mall, SkinMedical) and some things taken away (bonus points, $5 taken away from 200 points, and the expiration period ahs been shortened)

Transformation by Never Boring Graphic Design

Transformation by Never Boring

Never Boring is a Marketing, Advertising, Media Buying, Graphic and Web Design, Film and Multimedia Company located in Modesto, CA. Today, they celebrated their 30th anniversary.

I wrote an article a few weeks ago about sunscreens for Contentment Health Magazine. In that article, I included a chart that I thought, if they had space, maybe they can cram it into the article. They really pleasantly surprised me with what they with the chart. They more than just crammed in the chart. They made it into a work of art.

This chart is different than the Sunscreen activity chart that I blogged about earlier.

Here’s what I emailed:

I thought this was already pretty nifty visual in my own nerdy assessment.

and then after some wonderful “magic” by Never Boring:

Sunscreen Ingredients Chart UVA UVB for Chemical, Physical, and Hybrid components

Sunscreen ingredient chart transformed into a beautiful graphic

This is very much like the “before” and “after” pictures that we are so fond of in Plastic Surgery.

Bravo on the design! Thank you for turning it into a masterpiece!

Note: The model in the picture, has a great deal of sun damage on her face and hands. She definitely needs a good sunscreen, otherwise, she will end up being a very good customer of Surgical Artistry (www.SurgeryToday.com).

Here’s the article online I wrote on Sunscreens for Contentment Health

Senate Resolution Award for Surgical Artistry from Senator Tom Berryhill

Senator Tom Berryhill made a surprise visit in person to our office in April 2013 and we took this picture holding up the Senate Resolution signed by him, commending Surgical Artistry! Because we were totally surprised by the award, I was given this very nice explanation of the award: “This award was given because of what you and Dr. Wu have done for the people of Modesto! These awards are not given lightly. There is a process that must be gone through and certain criteria that must be met before an award of this type is even considered. You both earned this through all of the selfless, tireless hard work you do every day of the year. The Senator Tom Berryhill’s Sacramento staff did their research and felt you deserved this Senate Resolution.”

Bob Phelan gave me the award

while I was pigging out at the pasta carbo loading feast the night before the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon. Bob is the District Director at the California State Senate and a great friend of ours. We sat at the same table during the carbo loading dinner but he seemed a little too well dress and had a name tag on. Well, I figured he was there to make a political appearance and I figured he had to work that night. When he was called up to make a speech, I started chowing down at full speed. I might not run fast, but I can eat fast. Then before you knew it he called my name to come up to receive an award. Boy was I in for a surprise! Thank you Bob for working that night. What he didn’t know was that I was stifling some hiccups while up there on the stage while getting these picture taken:

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Bob and his wife Alta also participated in the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon. It was certainly a pleasant surprise. Alta recounts the funny look on my face when I had to suddenly stop eating to go up on stage. She thought it was worthwhile, but there was no picture of that – thank goodness.

Dr. Wu couldn’t be there because she had to rush off to a meeting in Sacramento, and then she was coming home later that night to get ready for the event the next day (The Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon). But while she was driving home from Sacramento, I updated her on the exciting news of the award, and she was very impressed with the wording on the framed Senate Resolution Award.

A few days later: Dr. Wu and Senator Tom Berryhill

got a chance to meet and the above (on top of the blog) photo was taken. And several of these other photos were taken. It was very considerate and we were very honored to have Senator Tom Berryhill visit our office (yet another great surprise!) along with Bob Phelan too.

This is a picture of Bob Phelan, District Director, who came with Senator Tom Berryhill to our office. And the mailman got into the picture too!

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Dr. Tammy Wu with Senator Tom Berryhill

This is just the beginning

We are proud founders of the Gallo Center for the Arts, founding title sponsors for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Symphony Pops Series / Surgical Artistry Modesto Symphony Fat Cat Classics 2006-2009, and founding title sponsors for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon.

The award hangs up proudly at our office near the entrance and it serves as a reminder to us that this is just the beginning of what we set out to do. We want to do great things for our community here in Modesto, California. Thank you for the recognition and we hope to continue with our efforts which include performing surgery at a very high level. And of course that includes a continued effort on continuing our life long learning in medicine.

No need to go to Harvard University for a great education!

Our education is what we make of it

Granted, going to a place like Harvard has its benefits. There’s the prestige, and there’s the opportunities, resources, and networking.

But all those great educational things that are associated with Harvard are available elsewhere.

I had my chance to go to Harvard and I turned it down. They were very gracious in giving me an opportunity. But I felt that there were also many other great school out there that suited my style better. I wanted to give myself a great education, and I felt that education is what I made of it for myself and I didn’t need the oldest university in the US to feed that to me. Plus great universities aren’t about spoon feeding info. You have to go out there and get it yourself.

Never before has there been so much information available to us at our fingertips. If we want the best education for ourselves. We already have that staring right at us. Let’s just take advantage of it. And there’s always more effort that we can put into taking charge of our own education.

You don’t need Harvard for that.

Most of the great Harvard graduates are great, not because Harvard made them great. I would say that it’s because these folks were able to take the bull by its horns and educate themselves and make connections for themselves and transform habits for themselves that lasted a lifetime. They didn’t need Harvard either. But they happened to enjoy going to Harvard as part of their journey in life. Good for them!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Harvard. I even spent some time studying at Harvard, and one summer I was concertmaster (violin) of the Harvard Summer Orchestra. Many of my good friends are from Harvard. But I’ve had a few students I’ve known who were heartbroken about not getting into Harvard. I have been on the admission side (interviews) for another Ivy League school, I know that the decision making process is a tough one and not always perfect. And I would say the same with changing the title of this blog entry to “No need to go to Brown, etc.” But I still think a college education is worthwhile for personal growth and opportunities – and once at college, there are so many opportunities which we need to actively seek out. That’s what “Education is what we make of it” means.

And I try to tell all this above to myself, and I felt a need to write it out. This way, I hope to continue my own active education with the resources which are available to me.

Let me know what you think.

What is CME?

CME stands for Continuing Medical Education – for doctors. It’s what’s called lifelong learning.

Certain boards, such as the American Board of Surgery, require it a minimum amount every so often to keep up with certification.

Most doctors do it because they value lifelong learning.

In general I use Continued Education loosely to mean any sort of effort that improves myself as a doctor or as a human being for that matter.

CME in this world stands for a specific form of Continuing Education, and to be deemed official CME, it is regulated by the AMA and the ACCME (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education)

Then officially CME is separated into Category 1 and Category 2 and then there are self assessment variations of Category 1.

CME credits are for M.D.’s and D.O.’s only, and are designated on an hour for hour basis (minus social activities and breaks). Continuing Education Units (CEUs) can be provided to others and are designated as 1/10 credit per 1 contact hour. There is often concern about this “value” difference, but 1 hour of AMA category 1 credit (CME) and 1/10 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) represent the same 1 hour of contact.

For me, learning is more for myself and not for any other organization, but all these great organizations put together great official CME learning opportunities which I’m happy to be a part of.

Continuing Medical Education for Calvin Lee, MD, Modesto Surgeon

Lifelong student of Surgery, Medicine, and Health. Surgical Artistry (209) 551-1888