Exploring the First Year of Our Podcast

Doreen Wu (00:00):
I'm excited to welcome you to this special episode, commemorating the one year anniversary of Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class. My name is Doreen Wu and I co-host this podcast where we explore controversies and breaking issues in plastic surgery. I'm here with Dr. Lawrence Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon, educator, and technology innovator. The title of today's episode is "Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class: Exploring the First Year of our Podcast. "

Lawrence Bass (00:28):
Thank you Doreen for introducing me as usual. Today, I'd like to more fully introduce you to our listeners. Doreen Wu has been the co-host of this podcast with me. Since we started recording last year, she is a medical assistant working in my practice and someone you can meet in person. If you're seeking plastic surgery services at my Park Avenue office, Doreen is very knowledgeable about plastic surgery after working in my practice, but is always learning deeper levels as she gains experience. She's the one who is great at asking the important questions that our listeners really want to know the answers to. We work together to craft each episode, to bring you the information you want to hear.

Doreen Wu (01:19):
Thanks Dr. Bass, what an intro. I can't believe it's already been a full year. It seems like only yesterday we sat down to record for the very first time. Let's take our listeners back to the beginning and review how we got here.

Lawrence Bass (01:31):
Yes. I can't believe we put so much content down so fast. I've always been an educator. We were told by our residency director when I started my surgical training, that if we wanted to come to the Columbia University program, we needed to be ready to teach as well as learn. I took that lesson to heart and have taught my students, residents, and colleagues, as well as my patients ever since. This podcast is the perfect classroom for us to share that knowledge with a much larger audience.

Doreen Wu (02:09):
I completely agree. Podcasts are an awesome way to disseminate information to the public. So through our podcast Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class, are you sharing what you've learned from training in plastic surgery?

Lawrence Bass (02:22):
Well, yes, in part it's my training which I was fortunate to receive at the hands of some of the most famous and talented plastic surgeons in the world that gave me the best possible grounding experience and judgment. But in addition to being an educator, I've also been a researcher since very early in my college career. I've spent nearly 35 years in medical technology development. Many of the most sought after treatments in aesthetic medicine and surgery today were developed in part with my help clinical study development, data collection, data evaluation, device engineering laboratory bench to clinical technology transfer, which we call translational research nowadays and biotechnology. These are some of the areas that I've worked in during that, that 35 year span. Having all these new options is wonderful, but it creates the added problem of reapportioning, how you slice up the pie between different treatments. Each time a new one is added. This is a difficult task for fully trained plastic surgeons to keep up with and nearly impossible for lay people. In addition, the noise level in every form of media about plastic surgery and aesthetic medicine creates a challenge for creating a rational picture of the aesthetic playing field.

Doreen Wu (04:04):
I think your research background and involvement in all of these different technology development areas certainly bring a unique perspective to this podcast now for any of our listeners who may have recently joined us, can you tell me again, the story behind our podcast title Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class? What does it mean?

Lawrence Bass (04:24):
Well, I've always felt there are a lot of valuable lessons about how plastic surgery is practiced on Park Avenue in New York City. It's clearly one of the centers of plastic surgery activity, both in terms of the volume of care that's provided and the quality of care of any place in the world. It's not the only pinnacle, but it's one of them. There are many, many plastic surgeons and other aesthetic providers and all of them are really well trained and really excellent at what they do. So that's a good place to hone skills and refine your thinking about how plastic surgery should be done. The patients are also a very distinct group of people who are very well educated, very consumerist, and analytical about how they, how they pursue plastic surgery treatments and in their decision making. So that's a great place to learn lessons about plastic surgery, debunk myths, clear up some of the confusion and try to get some information of high quality out to listeners.

Doreen Wu (05:43):
Yes, I have to agree with you. There is definitely a lot of misinformation circulating on the internet in social media about plastic surgery, not to mention all of the common misconceptions that people often have when it comes to this area of medicine. Tell me with this podcast, who is the audience that we're looking for?

Lawrence Bass (06:01):
Well, we're looking for people who are thinking about getting some plastic surgery, or just want to learn about this really interesting field. That's extremely popular and captivating to everyone nowadays. But really for people who are consumerist and realist and would enjoy hearing an honest, critical discussion about the details of what different treatments can and cannot do, where they're useful someone who's more interested in hearing the reality rather than fantasy or hype.

Doreen Wu (06:39):
Let us now take a trip down memory lane and look at past episodes we've done and where we've been. What have we covered so far?

Lawrence Bass (06:47):
Well, we've covered a broad range of topics, both in classic plastic surgery. So all of the main surgical procedures, breast procedures, body contouring procedures, facelift, rhinoplasty, and we've covered a lot of the playing field of non-surgical aesthetics or what's called aesthetic medicine. So we've looked at laser treatments, Botox, and other neuromodulators and injectable fillers amongst others. So that's kind of the range of topics that we've covered in a broad overview. Out of all the episodes we've done in the past year, Doreen, which one was your favorite and why?

Doreen Wu (07:39):
Well, I actually have a couple of favorites. I would say the Park Avenue Versus Rodeo Drive episode was a particularly fun one. I really liked learning about how plastic surgery trends and patient preferences can really vary greatly depending on where you're located. Perhaps we can even do a follow up episode comparing other notable plastic surgery markets in the US or even abroad. That would be pretty interesting. Another one of my favorites was the Seasons of Beauty episode. I am the first one to say that I do have a type A personality. And so it was reassuring to learn about all the reasons why it is a good idea to plan ahead when it comes to your beauty care and your treatments. I think the last one I'll give a shout out to is our Kiss And Tell episode where we talked about all things related to lips, given the popularity of injectable fillers to the lips, it was an especially interesting and relevant episode. I think they're just too many to pick Dr. Bass. You must have some favorites too.

Lawrence Bass (08:43):
So it's interesting. You mentioned Kiss And Tell that that was probably the episode that had one of the highest number of listens by the audience. So that might be one of the audience favorites for sure. And it was one of my favorites. It's such an elegant topic, the aesthetics of the lip and the complex shape. I think by far, my favorite topic was the Barbie Versus Star Wars pair of episodes, because that really told the whole history of how plastic surgery was revamping and really evolving over the couple of decades early in my career. So that was a standout for me and a story that I was really looking forward to telling another favorite was the power of one, because I think that that showcase the, the underpinnings of how I like to approach care, where we provide a comprehensive overview of care and really offer everything in depth that a patient could need to treat a given area or a given arena.

Doreen Wu (10:05):
I had a feeling you would work the Barbie Versus Star Wars episode into our anniversary episode somehow, but we can't forget some of our past episodes where we've invited some amazing guests to share their knowledge and expertise of plastic surgery with our listeners.

Lawrence Bass (10:19):
One great advantage of being a thought leader and lecturing widely is the opportunity to meet and learn from other experts around the world. And many of these people end up becoming friends and have graciously agreed to participate in episodes of the podcast. So we've had a number of, of doctors who are experts in plastic surgery talking about facelift and, you know, Deep Dive on Deep Plane Facelift with Dr. Bloom was a great episode that I think showcased in a very balanced way, different viewpoints about about the preferred techniques for, for facelift. We've also had a number of guests from the core for the, the group of specialties that are trained in aesthetic services. So we've had some really notable dermatologists who were able to speak about their knowledge and experience and how they put together the, and slice up the pies, so to speak different treatments for different problems. And I think the ability to parse controversies not just telling what I think, but having an open discussion with people who are international experts weighing in with their point of view and sorting out different points of view is really one of the strengths of inviting guests to participate.

Doreen Wu (11:51):
So we've talked about the past and the present of Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class what's coming next, any exciting things in the pipeline that our listeners can look forward to.

Lawrence Bass (12:02):
Well, we're certainly going to continue with a lot of what we've already had. We're going to share more, more discussion of the Park Avenue approach to plastic surgery problems, aesthetic plastic surgery problems of various types. And there's an almost endless amount of detail there that we've just scratched the surface of will continue to add in news items relating to plastic surgery as those events occur. And as new technologies are introduced, we'll discuss those. We'll bring more deep dives and controversies that will sift out with guest experts. And if we get any great questions from listeners for suggested topics, we'll be happy to cover those as well. And we will be interfacing with some industry experts as well, because they can share a perspective on what kinds of things they might be bringing in the future, what they recognize as the big problems that need the solution. And it's a chance to meet people who have the vision to change things and get to know them a little bit by having them join us on the podcast.

Doreen Wu (13:25):
Sounds like there are lots of exciting things planned. I can't wait to explore all of these new horizons and tackle these topics with you and our listeners.

Lawrence Bass (13:33):
Well, we've done a lot of interesting things in the past year but I hope this is just the beginning of more great things to come. I'm having a lot of fun, bringing the exciting details of the field of plastic surgery to the listeners. Doreen, thank you for all your help making Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class fly. I couldn't ask for a better co-host and thank you to our producer, Nate Greenberg of HG Media, your encouragement and technical expertise has been a huge support and a big part of the success of this podcast. Thank you. And I look forward to our continued collaboration.

Doreen Wu (14:14):
Co-Hosting this podcast with you working with our producer, Nate, and being able to share it all with our listeners has been such a fun and rewarding experience. If you told me five years ago, that I would one day be on a podcast, I would've laughed and never believed you, but look where we are now. A special thank you to all of our amazing listeners, whether you have been with us from day one or just joined yesterday, just you wait, Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class is just getting started and we have a lot more in store for you.

Lawrence Bass (14:44):
I completely agree. This podcast is about you, or our listeners for your information and entertainment. I hope the class has been a much anticipated and enjoyable education.

Doreen Wu (14:57):
This is Doreen Wu, thanking you for joining Dr. Bass and me on our trip down memory lane. As we look back at how we started, where we've been and what's to come as always be sure to tune in next time. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast to stay up to date with all of the exciting content that is coming your way.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Thank you for joining us in this episode of the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast with Dr. Lawrence Bass Park Avenue, plastic surgeon, educator, and technology innovator. The commentary in this podcast represents opinion. This podcast does not present medical advice, but rather general information about plastic surgery that does not necessarily relate to the specific conditions of any individual patient. No doctor patient relationship is established by listening to or participating in this podcast, consult your physician to advise you about your individual healthcare. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.