Clinical Research
Why It Matters
As a speciality, minimally invasive cosmetic medicine remains in its infancy.
Although the first dermal filler treatments, using bovine collagen, were carried out in the 1980s, it has only been in the last decade or so that the practice of the minimally invasive cosmetic medicine has exploded, becoming a mainstream part of life for many normal men and women. As a result of the rapid and recent expansion in cosmetic practice, there are still many unknowns and gaps in our collective knowledge that it seems highly unlikely we are yet achieving the best possible long term outcomes for our patients. Where there are gaps in the scientific literature, there are only too many clinics willing to fill the gaps with what ever marketing speech suits their own commercial objectives, with patient interests remaining a secondary endpoint. My goal is to help change all of that through a simple commitment to clinical research.
I published my first paper in a medical journal, the British Journal of Cancer, in 2004 whilst I was still in my final year of medical school.
Since then I have continued to work on clinical research, initially coursing through plastic and reconstructive surgery to latterly focus on aesthetic medical research. When I founded my Glasgow clinic it was deliberately named the Aesthetic Medicine Institute to reflect the research ambitions of the practice to not only offer our patient the ‘latest technology’, but to be actively involved advancing new technology and shaping the future of the speciality.