IAHRS vs. ISHRS

[Dav7]

Just wondering what the difference is between these two organisations..........are they pretty much about the same thing and if not, how do they differ?

[Dr. Lindsey]

The ISHRS is an organization that promotes education of both doctors who do, or want to get into, hair restoration; and patients interested in finding such doctors. I think that almost any doctor can join the ISHRS, (I did early on, then dropped out, and then rejoined maybe 6 or 7 years ago), and we get a monthly journal with excellent articles and discounts to various hair education meetings. I think they have a referral system and I believe in the last 7 years or so I've had ONE prospective patient come from the ISHRS site. In my opinion as a hair doctor its a great site for staying up on what's going on in our field.

The IAHRS is a private organization that fosters patient education and which does a pretty good job of selecting doctors to recommend. For example when I wanted to join the IAHRS...I had to wait to get asked to join and then I think that I had to forward all kinds of information on my practice, training, and a number of representative cases. Most importantly though, a couple of the representative cases had to be on doctors and several patients including these doctors were interviewed by the IAHRS to make sure that I wasn't fudging my abilities.

I believe, possibly biased (as I'm in the IAHRS and also the ISHRS), that prospective patients will get far more important information on what their options are off of the IAHRS site than the ISHRS site. As a doctor I get more information for my practice off of the ISHRS site.

So they are not the same thing, apples and oranges really. Research on both and see if my comments aren't reasonable.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[gillenator]

Just wondering what the difference is between these two organisations..........are they pretty much about the same thing and if not, how do they differ?

The ISHRS is simply a professional organization for HT doctors and they also host various workshops at their conferences that are held throughout the world every year. I do not believe that they effectively regulate their members although many of these organizations are not intended to do so. These types of organizations are apparent in other fields of medical practice and areas of specialization as well.

Some of these organizations have a code of ethics/conduct, some of them do not. Very few of them field consumer/patient complaints and as we all know, this is an unregulated industry.

The IAHRS is much more patient/consumer oriented including the patient forum that you are posting in right now...