How Kindness is a Competitive Advantage with Dr. Jeff Healy

Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.

Tyler Terry (00:11):
Hey guys. Welcome back to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast. My name is Tyler Terry and I'm your host. Today I have an incredibly special guest who's also someone who I consider a good friend, Dr. Jeff Healy, who is out here all the way from beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii, and today we're at the ASPS meeting in beautiful San Diego. Dr. Healy, welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Healy (00:34):
Thanks, Tyler. Aloha.

Tyler Terry (00:35):
Aloha. Great to see you. You've actually been someone that I've known since I first started 12 years ago in this industry.

Dr. Healy (00:45):
That's right. We go back a long ways. You've been a great support to our practice and it's always good to see you and catch up.

Tyler Terry (00:51):
Thank you. So to start us off, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, how you ended up in Honolulu, and we'll start there.

Dr. Healy (00:59):
Okay, great. Well, I was actually born in Canada, but grew up in Utah for the most part, so same state as you where you're from. And I went to medical school at Tulane in New Orleans and in order to fund my medical education, I ended up joining the Army. So the army paid for medical school. And as a result of that, they sent me to Hawaii to do my general surgery residency at Tripler Army Medical Center. And that's how I first ended up in Hawaii. So I did general surgery there for four years and then they sent me to Korea as a general surgeon in the Army. So I was at the Army hospital there for two years and then went and did my plastic surgery fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I still owed the army some time at that point, so they sent me back to Hawaii as a plastic surgeon. So I was the chief of plastic surgery there at Tripler Army Medical Center for about four years. That was the end of my obligation. I got out, but we loved Hawaii, decided to stay there. So we've been there about 25 years altogether now.

Tyler Terry (01:56):
Wow. Wow. What a story. And first and foremost, I want to say thank you for your service to our great country. I feel super blessed to live here and feel very blessed that you've served our country in that way. So thank you.

Dr. Healy (02:08):
Oh, you bet. It's an honor for me to wear the uniform and serve our country.

Tyler Terry (02:11):
So tell us a little bit about how you became a plastic surgeon. What made you choose this field?

Dr. Healy (02:17):
It's an interesting story. So I was actually in high school back in Utah and we had our National Honor Society award ceremony and the guest speaker was a plastic surgeon from the University of Utah and he told us about his career, had some really interesting cases that he had done, had separated conjoined twins, really complex, detailed surgery, had done the first thumb replantation in the state after an amputation. And so I was just fascinated by things he was telling us and I thought, that is the greatest thing I've ever heard. I want to do something like that. So I started down that path and I didn't find anything I liked better along the way. So fast forward several years and here I am.

Tyler Terry (02:52):
Did you always know that you wanted to also be into aesthetics or did that just kind of come with it?

Dr. Healy (02:58):
It's part of it. Practices typically evolve over time. So when I was in the Army, we mainly did reconstructive surgery, obviously, for any who had been injured in combat, that was our top priority to take care of them, put them back together. Did a lot of cancer reconstruction in the Army as well, and some aesthetics in the Army as well. So you got a good mix. In private practice, same thing, started out doing mostly reconstructive things and then as time progresses, did more and more aesthetic procedures and now my practice is pretty much a hundred percent aesthetic.

Tyler Terry (03:29):
Okay. So as you've built your practice, what were some of the challenges you faced while building the business?

Dr. Healy (03:36):
Probably the biggest challenge is learning to run a business. They don't teach us any of that stuff in medical school or residency. So you open a private practice, you have no idea how to run a practice, how to run a business, so the costs involved, the insurances, staffing, all those things. You just learn payroll, you learn on the go and it is truly a learning process and that's probably the biggest challenge, but I love it.

Tyler Terry (04:00):
Okay. So what is your favorite part about the aesthetic industry? What do you love the most?

Dr. Healy (04:06):
There's such a wide variety of things that we can do in aesthetics, all parts of the body, all age groups, and it's constantly improving, developing, changing. So it never gets old. There's never one day that's exactly the same as the last day. It's always something different. So that variety, that newness, the constant evolution, I really like that.

Tyler Terry (04:27):
Okay, so let's talk AI a little bit. It's a hot topic, it's here to stay, it's not going away. How have you seen AI impact what you do on a daily basis?

Dr. Healy (04:41):
At this point, not a lot day to day, but I can see it coming.

Tyler Terry (04:45):
Okay.

Dr. Healy (04:46):
You say it's here. It's starting to get into all aspects of our lives and I think there'll be some exciting parts of plastic surgery, aesthetics, surgery that it can help with. Just some of the evaluations, you're looking at a patient and you can take a picture of them, have AI really show their asymmetries and their face or body kind of point those out more scientifically with the AI. And on the same hand come up with different solutions based on the AI. So it is exciting. I don't know exactly where it's going to go, but it's going to be good I think.

Tyler Terry (05:16):
What about when it comes to new products that are coming to market? I know that you've been an early adopter of many products and an early supporter of many companies. Is there anything out there that's catching your eye today?

Dr. Healy (05:29):
Right now, I've been an early adopter on some things, but I'm actually very careful about what I bring to practice so many new products out there, right?

Tyler Terry (05:38):
Yeah.

Dr. Healy (05:39):
And so some things I see immediately like TouchMD that said that's a winner. And so I jumped on that very quickly. Probably the best thing I ever did for my practice is bringing TouchMD into the practice. Other things, there's a lot of lasers and things out there that I'm a little more cautious about, because they change so rapidly and you hear so many pros and cons and so I'll vet them very carefully. Most helpful thing for me is to talk to physicians who already have those products in their offices and really talk. Does it really work? It doesn't work, because so many devices get put in the corner as a hat rack, and they don't get used, and I want to avoid that.

Tyler Terry (06:14):
Definitely. Especially when you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Dr. Healy (06:17):
Exactly.

Tyler Terry (06:18):
So in your private practice, every dollar counts. So you mentioned TouchMD. What feature or features of TouchMD do you love the most? Why do you say it's one of the best things you ever did?

Dr. Healy (06:28):
Well, as adults, we are visual learners. We hear something, it doesn't stick, but you see something and you get it. So I use that for every consultation I do, every follow-up, I do, and you show them pictures, here's what the procedure's going to be, here's your pictures, here's what we did, and it just locks it in. It's so powerful as a conversion tool during the consultation just to explain the process, draw on their pictures, draw on the diagrams that are provided, and just really educate them. And so it's a great educational tool in my hands. Patients love it, they can access all this stuff at home too. It's just a wonderful tool.

Tyler Terry (07:10):
So let's go ahead and shift gears a little bit. So when we think of your staff, how would your staff best describe you?

Dr. Healy (07:20):
I think most of 'em would say that I'm very quiet, but very serious. So in the OR, I never yell. I don't get mad, but they know if something is not right. I just give 'em a look and they know. So my staff is great. They really do a wonderful job in the OR and throughout the office and they know that we expect perfection and they deliver it.

Tyler Terry (07:42):
So what's your favorite part of a typical workday?

Dr. Healy (07:45):
It's really the patient interaction. Just sitting down with my patients, whether it's a new patient in consultation, or a follow-up patient from surgery, that interaction with my patients is what makes it all worth it.

Tyler Terry (07:57):
That's amazing. I'm sure they'd say the same thing back. That's probably what makes you their favorite. Tell us about a patient who has had a significant impact on you as a surgeon.

Dr. Healy (08:07):
There's been a lot. One that comes to mind, I was in the Philippines doing a medical mission, doing cleft lips and cleft palates, and we had a couple kids that had flown over from a different island. They were in an orphanage and the directors of orphanage heard that our mission was going to be there, so they flew them over and one of the younger boys, probably about eight or nine years old, had a really bad cleft palate. And so affects his ability to talk and eat and all those things. And he loved to sing, but he was embarrassed to sing because his voice sounded so weird because of the air going through his nose and things like that. So we did his surgery, stayed there for a couple days and then was going to fly back to his island. And we happened to be leaving at the same time, so we were at the airport flying out at the same time and he came up to me, with his chaperone from the orphanage and said he would like to sing a song for you. That was so meaningful, so powerful. And he was so happy to sing a song, cuz he thought he sounded so much better and he did. That was just impactful, just really, really cool experience.

Tyler Terry (09:12):
That's amazing. Alright, this is kind of a fun one. What is your favorite podcast?

Dr. Healy (09:17):
My favorite podcast is actually Joe Rogan. I love to listen to him. He brings in so many varied guests from all different aspects of life and talks about so many different things that you just don't expect. He'll have a guest maybe there that's known for, I dunno, national security and I'm talking about UFOs or whatever. It just varies onto so many different topics.

Tyler Terry (09:42):
I agree. And then the next day he has Kevin Hart.

Dr. Healy (09:44):
Right, right. And Joe's got a photographic memory. He can remember so many facts and details and names and books and so it's really fun to listen to him.

Tyler Terry (09:53):
Alright. So you're in Hawaii, right? You're in Oahu and you have competition. How do you continue to compete in a market like Hawaii? I think a lot of people, they go there, they have a vacation, but they're like, are there enough patients to go around? How are you competing in Hawaii?

Dr. Healy (10:12):
Yeah, it's a great question. It's a very competitive landscape. There's a lot of good plastic surgeons in Hawaii. And I think the most important thing that I offer to patients or anybody, is, and I tell this to all my medical students that rotate through me, the most important thing you can do is be nice. And it sounds so simple, but it's so important. So when somebody, they're scared to have surgery, right? Be nice. You talk to them, you calm them down, hold their hand through the recovery process. If they have not ideal outcome, you're still nice to them. If they get upset with something, you're still nice to them, you talk to them, keep those lines of communication open and that is so powerful. So in Hawaii it's all about word of mouth, it's a small place, everybody knows everybody. And so that small factor, being nice to everybody plays a big role. Whether it's nurses in the OR, the custodians, whoever, be nice. That's advice I'd give to anybody.

Tyler Terry (11:15):
I love that. I love that. When you're thinking about a large investment in your practice, how are you making those decisions? Are you involving your team? How do you vet that out?

Dr. Healy (11:28):
So I'm really fortunate, my wife Jackie is my office manager. And so she does a great job.

Tyler Terry (11:34):
She's amazing.

Dr. Healy (11:35):
All the patients love her. It's really funny, patients will come back for a follow-up appointment and they'll want to spend five minutes with me. They'll spend 20 minutes with her catching up on life and stuff like that. So she's great and she has a really good business mind. I mean, she's an engineer by background, really smart with numbers and stuff like that. So she kind of vets everything we bring into the office. And so it's good to have a partner that I can really bounce things off and got the same goals and that makes it work.

Tyler Terry (12:03):
Yeah. So I'd love to ask you this question. It seems like being a medical professional, a physician runs in your family, your brother is a physician, your kids are going down that path. Tell us a little bit about that. How are you raising such incredible kids?

Dr. Healy (12:22):
Yeah, so actually there's a lot of dentists in my family. So my uncle's a dentist, my little brother's a dentist, my brother-in-law's a dentist. I was kind of the black sheep of the family for going in medicine, but similar paths. So I did have an uncle who was a physician, so he was a good example for me. But we've got three kids. Our oldest, my son, he's just starting his plastic surgery residency at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. did a full general surgery residency. Both daughters in the dental field, one's a dentist, one's an orthodontist. And so I think it's just something we've always held very important. Education is the key to anything you're going to do in life. And so we've really stressed education with them. And I go back to Jackie, she is what we call a tiger mom. So she was really involved in the kids' education and extracurricular activities when they're young and always had them focus on their goals. You got to be thinking 10 years down the road, what do you want to become? What do you want to achieve? And she really helped guide them and push them and they just, fortunately we've been very lucky to have great kids and they're all adults now and professionals and doing their own thing. So it's very satisfying as a parent to see that.

Tyler Terry (13:30):
Yes. And you've recently become a grandpa, right?

Dr. Healy (13:33):
Yep. Just had our first grandchild less than three months ago. That was monumental. Just incredible, incredible.

Tyler Terry (13:38):
I saw that on social and was so happy for you and Jackie. That's amazing. Alright, so what advice would you give to those who are in the earlier stages of building their business right now, these plastic surgeons who are just opening up? What are some things that you could tell them?

Dr. Healy (13:56):
I would tell them you got to have goals, short-term, midterm, long-term goals. And you got to have a plan to reach that goal. You just can't say, okay, I want to do this in 10 years. What's the step-by-step process to get there? You have to really think it out and plan it out. There's going to be variations that hit you along the way that you got to pivot and adjust fire as needed, but just be goal-driven, really push towards that and have a realistic plan of what is going to get you there.

Tyler Terry (14:26):
Thank you for sharing that Dr. Healy. So I'm going to shift gears a little bit. We're here at the ASPS annual meeting. Is there anything that you look forward to seeing when you come to ASPS or what gets you coming back here every year?

Dr. Healy (14:39):
Probably the biggest thing is to see colleagues and friends that we haven't seen for a year or more. And it's really fun to run into them and just catch up. And that's the biggest attraction to me to come into these meetings. Of course, there's a lot of great educational content too. Plastic surgery is constantly changing and so it's good to catch up on that, stay on the cutting edge of plastic surgery. A lot of great vendors here too. The new products that are out, everything's always changing and improving. So the whole mix is always fun to see.

Tyler Terry (15:11):
Okay. Now let's talk about your patient experience. So patient comes into the practice, walk me through what happens.

Dr. Healy (15:19):
So I think what really drives our success is that I spend a lot of time with the patients

Tyler Terry (15:26):
And that doesn't happen all the time.

Dr. Healy (15:28):
Yeah, it's not delegated to a nurse or a practice manager or an NP to do the consultation. So they'll come in for consultation. We'll sit down in my office initially first five or 10 minutes just to talk, get to know each other, get their background, see what they're interested in, and just getting to know them a little bit starts to form that bond that you have with your patient. We then transition to the exam room and that's where TouchMD comes into play. I show them the procedure, they're interested in how are we're going to do it, different options before and after pictures, and then do the examination, photos, all that stuff. And it's me and a chaperone doing that stuff. It's not delegated to anybody else. I spend about 40 minutes with them, one-on-one during a consultation. I see them for the pre-op visits. I do a full on history and physical ,labs.

(16:18):
It's very detailed. Our pre-op examinations. Surgery, just I'm focused on surgery. I'm a perfectionist, want everything to go exactly right. They see me every single visit. Again, that doesn't get delegated to anybody else. So with me, patients get me, they're not getting the practice, somebody else in the practice, it's me that's going to see them every single time. And I think that's what really sets us apart from a lot of practices because that's just not done. And it takes more time, but that to me is very important and I think that's what the patients want. This is all out of pocket stuff they're spending their money on to do these aesthetic procedures, and I want to give them that top rate experience and I'm the one that can deliver that.

Tyler Terry (17:04):
So let's talk, we've got the election coming up here soon. Things like elections and the economy can make patients hesitant with all of their luxury services and luxury purchases. Can you share anything with us about how you're planning to protect your business through the season?

Dr. Healy (17:20):
Yeah, I think we've seen, with inflation being so high right now, there's a lot of uncertainty among also about what's going to happen in the next few months. And I think people are being a bit more cautious with the money they're spending, which I understand completely. I'm the same way. I'm not going to go crazy on a buying spins right now, buying splurge right now because I don't know. So I think we're at a pivotal point in our country too. We really got to get our debt under control and manage spending and just make things more reasonable on all fronts. And so I think until we figure out how that's going to go, people are going to be a little bit cautious. And that's understandable.

Tyler Terry (17:59):
That makes sense. So you mentioned you're now a hundred percent aesthetics.

Dr. Healy (18:04):
Right.

Tyler Terry (18:05):
How have you incorporated the med spa services as part of your practice? I know that med spas are obviously popping up left and right, two to 3000 new med spas coming online every year. How have you, as a renowned plastic surgeon, and obviously that's your specialty, but also aesthetics is also your specialty. How have you taken that on?

Dr. Healy (18:26):
Yeah, so that's really a key part of our practice too, is bringing in the med spa features of it. So we have several aestheticians that do all the facials, chemical peels, laser treatments, things like that. Have a couple of nurse in injectors that do all the injections. I do a lot of injections myself too, but we really want to provide everything the patient needs. Obviously I'm a surgeon. I love to do surgery. That's my primary goal. That's my primary focus. But we provide everything in that space that they could get. We don't want 'em to go out to a med spa to do their injections and not come here to do the surgery. So by providing all of that circle, we keep them in our practice.

Tyler Terry (19:05):
That's amazing. Alright, this is my last question for you. Tell us more about your software stack. I know you mentioned TouchMD. Is there anything else that you're using as you combine software?

Dr. Healy (19:16):
Yeah, so really TouchMD is the main thing we use right now. We have an EMR obviously for our medical records, but TouchMD is really our go-to for our office.

Tyler Terry (19:25):
It's your hero product.

Dr. Healy (19:26):
It's your hero product. It's our hero product. Absolutely.

Tyler Terry (19:27):
That's amazing. I love that. I love, and you've been a part of the innovation too. It's important to let the audience know how amazing it's been to be able to work with the voice of the customer, to actually listen to our plastic surgeons, our clients who love the technology and also dictate how we innovate and iterate the technology. And you've been at the forefront of that with us, and you've always been willing to work with our team over the years, and there are things that we have today that's because of you, so we really appreciate that. I just want to say thank you again for taking time out of your day. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with the audience?

Dr. Healy (20:05):
No, it's my pleasure to sit down and talk with you. Great to catch up.

Tyler Terry (20:08):
Yes.

Dr. Healy (20:09):
It's been a lot of fun.

Tyler Terry (20:10):
Yeah, I really appreciate you. For those of you that are listening, Dr. Healy's information will be in the show notes that you can check out his website, follow him on social, connect with him on LinkedIn, and Dr. Healy we would love to have you back on the podcast in the future. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the meeting. Thank you.

Dr. Healy (20:28):
Hey, thanks Tyler. Appreciate it.

Announcer (20:31):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech visit nextech.com or to learn more about TouchMD, go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.