Article on piloscopy...

[Hairismylife]

Give up. Looking forward to Bim seems more realistic, and Replicel and CB as well.

[diffuseloser]

Yeah seems like a dead end. Full of empty promises and nothing to show for it. Don't even think it would be that useful to us anyway. We have more promising options than this.

[Javert]

I am not sure if it is only me, but I cannot see Spencer very happy while talking about Pilofocus in the video. Looks like he wants to detach from it. maybe he is also disappointed by the delays.

Hopefully we can get some more updates from the New Orleans conference

He said what he learned was "exciting".. He didn't seem disappointed IMO. I hope for more updates as well!

[Recidive]

Email from Pilofocus


Thank you for your submission and inquiry regarding the upcoming Pilofocus clinical trial.


The scarless surgery technique (piloscopy) that Dr. Wesley pioneered has received over one million Internet mentions since its inception in 2008. Thanks to a recent $2.2M research grant, piloscopy is now likely scheduled to be made available with FDA Clearance within the next few months. Not only will new patients benefit from this technique, but even patients undergoing current techniques (FUT and FUE) will benefit from this novel approach in a subsequent session.


Piloscopy is still in the early clinical trial phase. A detailed description of this novel hair follicle harvesting technique may be viewed in this full-length version of Dr. Wesley's presentation that was delivered in October of 2013 to fellow physicians at the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) Meeting in San Francisco, CA (the password for viewing is "piloscopy"). Please be aware that the upcoming clinical trial will likely involve very small sessions (less than 100 grafts) at first before much larger sessions are realized the following year.
Individuals who would like to speak with Dr. Wesley for a personalized evaluation of their hair loss and his recommendation can take part in either:

In-person consultation: A careful one-hour in-person examination of your hair characteristics as well as a review of your medical history. In addition to the more personal nature of the consultation, patients benefit from the most accurate assessment of their donor and recipient areas (including an evaluation of hair miniaturization). Dr. Wesley will present a plan (medical or surgical) to treat your hair loss concerns.


Skype consultation: Using real-time Internet communication, Dr. Wesley will be happy to discuss with you the details of the current methods (FUT and FUE) as well as answering your specific questions about how piloscopy may benefit you. While not as accurate as in person, an assessment of your candidacy and a treatment plan will also be established.

To help find a time that works best with your schedule, please provide your preferred days of the week (Mon-Fri) and times (morning/afternoon) in which you would like to have your consultation (In-person/Skype). Dr. Wesley operates on only one patient per day 4 to 5 times a week and holds informative consultations when he is not in the operating room. Alternatively, you may contact me at (844) 745-6362 or (844) PILOFOCUS to arrange for a consultation with Dr. Wesley.
Please note, the physician, not a "consultant" or a salesperson, will be meeting with you and answering your specific questions directly. With a limit to the number of consultations each week and the numerous inquiries regarding this novel technique, however, Dr. Wesley must prioritize patients who are most committed to actively treating their hair loss rather than those simply curious about a technique on the horizon. As someone who takes pride in his work, Dr. Wesley looks forward to speaking with you and sharing information that was included in his recently-authored chapters on Hair Restoration published in the leading dermatology and plastic surgery textbooks, as well as the most respected physician reference site. In addition to discussing the nature of the procedure, he will determine whether or not you are a candidate and the surgical fee for the size of the session for which you are eligible. If you would like to view additional patient results, you are welcome to view them here.

Warm regards,
Barbara

[Wnt]

Lol, it seems there is a mismatch between the first and second paragraph. The first says the device will be approved in some months (2016?), while the second says Pilofocus is in early clinical trials.

I imagine this is a mistake by the assistant, and hopefully all the documentation has already been submitted to the FDA. Or not

[baldymcgee]

I am afraid that the approach has been changed as he seems not using endoscopy or ultrasound now. The approach seems to be blinder than before by using an amplifying camera from the outside...

Interesting, does this mean that Pilofocus patients *will* have to shave their heads for the procedure? A big selling point was that head-shaving was not necessary.

That aside, I think it's still endoscopic. Just, as you say, camera-based rather than ultrasound-based.

[Premium]

This is a good observation. If the donor area needs to be shaved, it would be disappointing.

[Kiwi]

Nobody has said anything about not shaving the donor. And because its scarless unlike FUT who cares if you have to shave your head.

The problem with shaving your head with traditional methods is that there is a HUGE CUT IN YOUR HEAD.

With pilofocus at worst you'd have ONE single round scab / scar where all the hairs are removed FROM THE INSIDE.

No mater what happens this is a quantum leap in HT technology. If you don't agree you have not been suffering hair loss long enough and you don't have an existing scar that could greatly benefit from this technology.

I'd be happy to spend $2K - $3K per year and slowly fill things up using Pilofocus until I'm 100% happy.

[The]

While there are other factors as well, The price of something is principally determined by what people would give to get it. This is why FUE prices are still more expensive than FUT even though the majority of work is done by technicians or robots these days. Pilofocus will without a doubt be more expensive than FUE. However, once the ARTAS makes FUE into a market of scale, prices on HTs should decrease.

[luca10]

http://www.freshpatents.com/-dt20150108ptan20150012012.php

http://images3.freshpatents.com/pdf/US20150012012A1.pdf

[Premium]

The size of the extractor is large. It looks a bit scary to get that under the skin. I wonder why it needs to be that size. Not what I expected. Hope we can get some more info from the presentation Dr Wesley is going to make in New Orleans this week.

Dr Wesley, could you please upload your new slides/video here for the community to see?

[joachim]

what? that device looks ridiculuos. it has nothing to do with a flexible endoscope tube anymore. it looks totally stiff. no chance that you can extract the hairs of the whole scalp with only one little scar. you have to make many more cuts into the scalp to harvest grafts from different spots (if i understand that correctly from the pictures).
this is getting even more dissapointing than i have ever thought. maybe i'm too quick with my assumption, but it absolutely looks not good.
on the other side, if this system really can achieve consistent donor regeneration with acell, then dr. wesley will be a hero. but the chance for that is lower than 0.001% in my opinion.

[FearTheLoss]

Artista,

Do you know if Dr. Wesley plans to update his website with these slides? I'm sure everyone is very interested to see them.

[RGPHILPA]

what? that device looks ridiculuos. it has nothing to do with a flexible endoscope tube anymore. it looks totally stiff. no chance that you can extract the hairs of the whole scalp with only one little scar. you have to make many more cuts into the scalp to harvest grafts from different spots (if i understand that correctly from the pictures).
this is getting even more dissapointing than i have ever thought. maybe i'm too quick with my assumption, but it absolutely looks not good.
on the other side, if this system really can achieve consistent donor regeneration with acell, then dr. wesley will be a hero. but the chance for that is lower than 0.001% in my opinion.

I would take a bunch of small incisions on the back of my head over having a strip of scalp hacked out any day of the week.

The main concern I have with this device is graft survival. It appears to use some type of suction to pull the grafts out of from the skin and into the device for storage. Of course we need more information, but, that seems like it could be quite traumatic to the grafts. I will be very curious to see what type of results he can achieve in the recipient.

Regarding the recipient area, it appears that this technique will not have advantages over traditional strip/fue. So, results on top of the head will be limited by how much density the blood supply can support - pretty much the same as we have now. Maybe Dr. Wesley could chime in on whether this is the case or not...

As for regeneration - I'm not getting my hopes up for that unicorn. It seems his regeneration claims are based on a similar claim that Dr. Cole makes in regard to the use of Acell. I've not seen any significant evidence these claims are what they make them out to be and definitely have not seen a statistically valid study of the effect. My guess would be that regeneration is hopeful wishing by Dr Wesley based on him intending to use Acell (or whatever) underneath the scalp. Sadly, it's probably very much secondary to the main benefit of no strip or fue scars.

None the less, it's good to see progress being made in the field. Dr. Wesley deserves our respect for that.

[baldymcgee]

I would take a bunch of small incisions on the back of my head over having a strip of scalp hacked out any day of the week.

This. So much this. I cancelled a scheduled HT (and forfeited my deposit) because the idea of having a strip of scalp hacked out freaked me out.