Interview with Dr. Rozbeh Torabi

Rozbeh Torabi MD

So, no, we offer some rutite. I actually got into this whole wellness launch. thing like I was like overweight at like when my wife got pregnant I really gained weight and I couldn't lose it and like you know after 40 it became tough to lose weight so you know I I sit down and like research lot of stuff all the time and my wife is like what the hell are you doing and I really got into this peptide and weight loss thing and started going to conferences and like listening to endless amounts of lectures and reading endless amounts of books on it so I just became well-versed in it I started using it I lost tons of weight so then I was like I got to offer this to my patients so whether it's some glutide or different types of weight loss I've started to do that and like wellness longevity instead of having a a net spy I have more of a wellness center you know and we keep on adding some stuff. We have like hyperbarics. We have a fiber wave, which is like one of those shake plates that helps with lymphatic drainage and everything in healing process.

And we're adding red light therapy, pulse electromagnetic field therapy to help with the healing process for the patients. So just trying to provide a different type of service with healing and the entire post-operatives care.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

And going back to the semaglutide thing, sorry, I like go on tangents. So, semaglutide, I think it's an excellent medication. I was one of the first officers to start offering it to patients. And we offer it all over the country.

And one of the main things was like a lot of patients come in with high BMIs. And you know, they think like my liposuction or tummy tuck is going to fix their issue.

And I would get mad at myself because you know I hate to say this but I would make fat a little less fat and because like when you look at the contour I'm like you know I'm very particular about you know bringing in that waistline and having that hourglass shape and great contour and when you're not able to do that it's kind of depressing you're like yeah you know you can make the incision look great and like them look better but it's not exactly where I want it to be so we use semagutae to get them into that you know BMI less than 35 so they're more fit for surgery the recovery is going to be easier for them and better for them the aesthetic results are going to be better for them as well so we use the semagutae to get them into that lower BMI so we can do their optimal surgery and get them to a go away that they're happy with and and then do the tummy talk get them results they want and just better results overall and go from there. And I also give them supplements and diet and exercise plans that are going to help them out.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

I work with an unclassified surgeon, and he had a similar story.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

That's really good.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Um, so I'm operating almost every day and then I see patients once the toys. I could see patients every day.

It matters usually. I have one post-operative day which I'll see new patients and post-operative patients and then. Then the rest of the week usually just see new patients as consultations.

And then, you know, after my day's done, I have two young kids. usually just go and try to spend time with them.

And once they're asleep, I try to get some work done. But my brain's usually pretty fried by eight, nine o'clock.

So usually going to bed at that time. But usually I operate pretty regularly like all day long. So that's, that's most of it for me.

I try to keep the paperwork to a minimum, but you know, that takes up a decent amount of time.

Sometimes it bleeds into the weekends, but is that what you were asking her?

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Usually to the practice, you know, I try to do marketing, I try to do some videos, or you know, catch up on knowledge for the whole wellness center thing.

Because it just intrigues me and it's also it's ever evolving, probably the fastest it's ever been evolving. So that's a good place. Then just, you know, just trying to perfect whatever I do in plastic surgery to just trying to pick up on lectures and see how other people are doing things. Anything different I need to be doing.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

And, you know, my brain functions the best usually anywhere from when I wake up at five, five thirty to noon. So usually I'm like firing away at ideas I usually write down the notes and I'm always trying to, you know, improve the practice, increase like what's coming through.

Also, I take on other endeavors, you know, I'm invested in a car company that does pretty much what we do in plastics, but on exotic cars. And then I have real estate company and my wife's an anesthesiologist, but we both work on these things together, go through, you know, we got to go through with our builders and see what we need to do and interior designing and what exactly we want, what the different properties. And making sure you have a great team. But then you also look at patient flow, see what new consults coming in. We do a lot of breast reconstruction. there's a fall-off on the amount of consults we're getting from the different breast surgeons figuring out why that is and trying to improve that. Looking at patients signing up for surgery and trying to see why certain patients aren't signing up for surgery. We've implemented with a new website, we have like lead loop, which kind of keeps all those metrics.

And we have two patient care coordinators, which we started in stating in September this year like seeing how important the patient care coordinator position is because previously we didn't have someone in that position and just being able to give that story.

of us to the patients and moving more towards the aesthetic realm and looking at how many consults are coming in and like what and or just looking at the amount of leads coming in, which ones are moving on to consult and which ones we're operating on and with our new platform we're able to keep track of all of that.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

I think I have that audio book. Yeah.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

No, I was going to, I'm like reading influence right now and I was going to read that one next.

So I forget where I read to read this book, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I'll probably listen to it within the next week or so.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

So I think one thing the CRM is, or what lead loop is, and that's we used to use what was the my med leads was what we used to use before, but that didn't quite give us data into seeing what's converting and where the leads are coming from.

so I think that's an area of. we lacked and you know like with our previous marketing company you know they they tell us oh you have this many leads coming in but I'm like it didn't you know it wasn't converting to actual leads like that we were seeing and they wanted us to spend more more money on using Google AdWords so having the data you know with lead loop I think it's very important and KPIs and everything everything to be able to see exactly what we need to concentrate our marketing and what marketing things are working so and I hugely believe in you know having in office marketing staff like I have a marketing person now doing social media as well as looking at the other sites of marketing and also like the patient care coordinators

an important thing that, you know, I always thought about about someone like that, but I didn't know that exact position.

I think those are important and like different education tools, I think making videos and education tools for your staff is very important.

So they know exactly what they're doing and what you do and for them to build their confidence in you.

I think those are important tools to have.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Yeah.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

It does. I believe it does. I forget. I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

It's advanced MD, like, They're not familiar with using it because not many plastic surgeons use it it was it was a the EMR that was suggested to us by a previous billing company and you know, I've changed two EMRs since I began and I don't love it, but you know just changing between EMRs such a headache.

So I decided against it and we tried NEXEC, NEXEC was something like we liked, but they kind of flaked on us and it was kind of during COVID lost a lot of money in that, but we ended up with this company.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

know, it's it is what it is. just like EMRs just I don't know an expense that's added to us to take

It's time to everything we do. So.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Yeah, the main thing is like, I don't. I don't like the way the photos are taken and. And put up, put up, you know, or followed.

Which we've added touch MD to make, you know, one thing is to make the patient experience better, but we also for.

Their snap, which is their photo app. I think it improves how we're taking pictures and following before and after pictures to.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Well, we do them in the office.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

we want them to, you know, we're just trying to get our portfolio of that. Stuff because it's nothing with uniform.

form before like the staff would miss pictures and stuff or you know consenting is a huge issue with some of the patients and I think a lot of it is to go back to the patients with their and get photo consent I think is a thing because like people when they first come in they don't want to you know they're like I'm not going to share my photos and then like afterwards they're happy to show them so I think we're getting more and more into that.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Yeah.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Yeah.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Um So, those are the necklifts, one of the main things, then gynecomastia is huge. In my practice, I don't know, I see anywhere between three to five new gynecomastia consults a week, I'm doing two to three.

I do a few in office, and I'll do one or two in the surgery center, depending on, you know, great of gynecomastia, the larger it is, and if I need to do skin excision, that's when we usually take them to the operating room.

Otherwise, usually I can do in office, I do liposuction, and then remove the glands and reshape the entire chest.

That's been a huge thing, and other thing is, know, a lot of people coming in, not wanting breast implants anymore, so, boom, those as well.

And, you know, my perspective, of the whole breast implant illness has changed since I've gotten into wellness and believing in that whole immune system, this regulation, which the implants sometimes kick these people into and it could even be, you know, you could get a flu and your body doesn't know how to shut down its immune system.

So it continues to react to whatever's foreign in the body and trying to take care of it. And it just doesn't shut down and it leads to all these other issues like having thyroid problems, neurologic problems, and fatigue and all this stuff coming from breast implants. And most of the patients that I remove the implants, they do great post-operatively and they're really happy that they got it done.

So that's become more popular where especially in Scottsdale, everyone wanted to go bigger and bigger. Now we're removing some of those implants.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

So that's really interesting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's probably still not as popular. Like in New York, you know, I trained in New York and people downsized and when I came here and like that's part of the artistic realm, you know, like I want them to look good, not like, not look like a stripper and, you know, the patients like, oh, like over here, they're like, oh, I want to look natural and then they bring in what they want to look like.

And you're like, all right, that's not the natural look.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

So, yeah, that was like a little different because, but like even that's changing a little bit and people not going as big might be

You know, also changing patient population. I'm treating. I'm not treating as many server people that were in the service industry.

So people look for more of the natural look. And all my patients are pretty happy with the size I choose from.

They pretty much leave it in my hand. I usually tell them these are the sizes we should try on.

We try on the sizes. Sometimes we do 3D imaging and they like it. But for the most part, going more towards more of a natural look than just the largest implant you can put in.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

And we're.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

So when I,

Rozbeh Torabi MD

So I also had an upper blood done at the same time.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

It's just because, you know, what I suggest to them and when they try it on, and I go through it with them, you know, like what they're exactly looking for.

And I know where, you know, patients have come. They've said like the plastic surgeon hasn't even touched their breast and kept on pushing them to go larger, has been, you know, and like I've replaced implants and redone patients at the breast for that reason.

I think that those are the main things and I go through why I'm choosing the different sizes and why you know like if they're looking for this this is you know this is the fact you you want so just I think just sitting down explaining to them and like seeing where they're at and being reasonable with them I think makes the most sense.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

I think one of the main things is what's staffing but like I think we've done pretty good job at staffing and just the cost of running practice has gone up quite a bit so those are the main things like we're paying more for people to do us I guess.

And, you know, everyone wants to be specific to a single job where, you know, like previously it was like, and right now we have a team that works well together.

But, you know, I've had the situation where, you know, they're like, they just want to be responsible for one thing and, and then you're, you know, you're going to have to hire 20 people to run an office where previously you could have two or three people, you to run everything.

Now you need, you know, a whole, like, you know, six to 10 person staff for each surgeon. So, wow.

And the cost is like from when I started to now it's like almost doubled for, you know, just the entry level positions.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Insurance and stuff too but not as much as you know just I think one of the main things is staff pay is probably the biggest.

I don't think you know cost of supplies and stuff it's gone up some but I don't think we noticed that as much as the staff pay.

And also like you know as the hospitals have gone up and like everyone seems to be competing and also the private equity stuff you know where they're taking over these Durham practices and stuff and they're again exuberant prices or even like internal medicine practices that they're going to be taking over.

It drives up the cost of staff and they you know they hop from place to place and no one's, you know, when I'm looking through applications and resumes, people aren't staying at jobs for four or five years or even longer.

They're staying like two years if that, you know, a lot of them are like six months to a year and, you know, moving on to a different job because, you know, it's a dollar or two more.

Instead of having that loyalty and being like, I like where I work at, it's like, all right, I'm going to go for more pay as, you know, and then you got to add all the added benefits of, you know, offering insurance and 401k and all this other stuff that we've had to add.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Well, a lot of it we've we've fixed. One thing was the website and marketing marketing companies take you for granted.

And, you know, like we're paying like 20, 30 grand a month for marketing. Like, along with the Google AdWords running the website and everything.

And when they're, you know, have you been with them for three years and and my wife's like, all right, there's a problem.

And it takes weeks from to answer to it.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

And that few weeks later, you run into the same issue and you see like the productivity of your website is not that great.

And they're not offering ways to fix that other than spend more money on Google AdWords. of like trying to fix what we have on our website, you know, that was a huge issue.

We fix that with, you know, changing the website to Studio three, which we interviewed quite a few marketing companies before we chose them.

But they were always on the top of the list. It was just more expensive than the rest, so we were just trying to figure out why they were, and it just made sense for us.

And the other thing is, you know, just going from, you know, trying to be more efficient, and we're going from surgery center to surgery center or hospital hospital.

We're like, all right, to get more efficient. And also, like, instead of paying all these other places money to be able to operate at them, let's open up our own place so we just we closed on a building last week.

that we're going to build out our own surgery center and office together, so we're not having to go multiple places and, you know, whatever we're obtained in surgery fees or facility fees goes into our own equity instead of going into someone else's pocket.

I think those are ways we're fixing our issues with going to the multiple surgery centers. We also have to carry the different products like the Vaser or the Renovian that the other places don't have and, you know, death beats up on the different machines and stuff too.

So being able to have that all in one place and not having to move things around I think is going to help us out tremendously.

I know we're going to have to have more stuff, but I think overall I think it'll build equity also.

I think it's going to be more profitable than loss doing surgery at our own center.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

They do beautiful work, that's for sure.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Just I just like the aesthetics of their, their websites that they had done. with all the integration and everything and also like they control lead loop and then also like for our staff training and everything the patient care coordinators and keeping up with them.

We could all do it in one place and just the clientele they had were happy with so those are the reasons.

The main thing was the aesthetics of the webpage was a big thing for us and I don't know like I like the guys that run it too like when we interviewed them they were excellent we've gotten excellent care and service from them too so yeah.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Thank you.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Okay.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

No, no, that's okay.

Rozbeh Torabi MD

Yeah, no problem. Have a great day. Thank you.