For many people, getting closer to their dream physique is appealing — but the prospect of a painful recovery is not. Fortunately, the dawn of non-invasive aesthetic procedures has begun transforming our thinking about aesthetic medicine. Sam R. Patel is one of the professionals at the forefront of the movement.
Through this transformative movement, it’s now possible to achieve the desired results without the hassle and downtime of traditional cosmetic procedures.
Sam Patel is the founder of Astra Culture, a consulting firm that helps private medical practices grow revenue and client bases. One of the firm’s most transformative strategies is introducing clinics to non-invasive medical aesthetics and wellness.
“Our specialty is non-invasive technology and wellness services,” says Patel. “That includes aesthetics, medical weight loss, functional and regenerative medicine.”
Many of these services have been around for years, but through technological innovation, Astra Culture is helping medical practices — and their patients — see results like never before.
One of the most popular medical technologies Astra Culture uses is BTL’s Emsculpt Neo, a device that helps patients lose fat while building muscle. “I don’t want to say it replaces surgery, but it provides a comparable alternative,” says Patel. “It helps build muscle and helps get rid of fat — all without any sort of operation, no downtime, nothing.”
Image of Sam Patel
Getting results like that with a painless in-office procedure might sound too good to be true, but the science behind Emsculpt Neo is solid. The device combines two fat-loss procedures — high‐intensity electromagnetic field procedure (HIFEM) and radiofrequency heating.
HIFEM uses alternating magnetic fields to trigger muscle contractions, ultimately resulting in muscle growth. Radiofrequency heating raises the temperature of the fat immediately beneath your skin to help reduce the size and eliminate fat cells.
If you haven’t received an Emsculpt Neo treatment yourself, you might understandably think the combination of intense muscle contractions and heat would be uncomfortable, even painful. However, BTL compares the sensation to a hot stone massage or intense workout.
Patients who have undergone the treatment often start to see results immediately after. In clinical studies, patients who underwent a full course of treatments saw an average of 30% reduction in subcutaneous fat and a 25% increase in muscle thickness.
The Emsculpt Neo is a popular treatment, but the latest addition to BTL’s lineup—and a space-efficient, cost-effective solution for Astra Culture clients—is the multi-platform Exion. Like many of BTL’s innovations, Exion is a device that speeds up, lessens invasiveness, and increases the effectiveness of long-standing cosmetic procedures.
Exion combines seven separate solutions for face, skin, and body, making it easy for patients to mix and match quick, painless aesthetic procedures in a single session.
Once clinicians become familiar with Exion’s various technologies and handpieces, they can use the same device to perform smart microablation and radiofrequency microneedling. The Emface addition can also enhance facial structure, reduce the appearance of a double chin, and stimulate your skin’s natural collagen and elastin production.
Incorporating high-tech aesthetic and wellness devices like Emsculpt Neo and Exion is a win-win—and a timely one at that—for independent medical practices and their patients.
“Non-invasive, non-surgical treatments are on the rise,” Patel says. “All these celebrities are talking about it. Everyone wants it. Now, they just want a place to go to. So if you have a physician you’ve gone to for 10 years and they start offering this service, you’ll go to them because you already trust them.”
Patients get the procedures they want without seeking them elsewhere, and small practices get a much-needed revenue boost.
It’s easy for some to dismiss aesthetic medicine as shallow or unimportant. But for Patel and the rest of the Astra Culture team, it’s about so much more.
“I come in, and I find practices that need help or ones that are trying to establish themselves, and I help to rebuild,” he says. “We’re very big about leveraging the fact that many traditional physicians are retiring. And the new generation, including the immigrants or the refugees, are the people coming in, so we’re trying to create a voice for new medical providers who want to be business owners.”
Patel hopes to give these newer doctors a leg up in the business world by offering business consulting services and connecting fledgling practices with cutting-edge technology.
“It’s about helping them be better business owners. It’s about teaching them to redevelop so they don’t have to be taken advantage of,” he says. “It’s about how we change the storyline.”
