Patient safety is our number one priority
In 2007, the ASDS conducted an online survey to gather up-to-date statistics and facts regarding the number of patients our members are seeing for complications and the kinds of complications that they have treated as a result of the non-physician or non-dermatologist practice if dermasurgery.

Some key findings of the survey were:

• More than 90 percent, a significant increase over similar previous surveys, of the respondents indicated that they had seen patients whose skin cancer was misdiagnosed or overlooked by a non-physician
  
• The next three procedures for which complications occurred were laser hair removal, chemical peels and dermal filler injections
  Fifty six percent of respondents indicated that there had been an increase in the number of patients they had treated as the result of complications caused by a non-physician
  
• Thirty eight percent noted an increase of between 5 and twenty five percent in complications caused by non-physicians in the past five years
  
• Many respondents filled out the open-ended comments and noted that they had seen burns caused by improper use of lasers, scarring caused by chemical peels, hyperpigmentation caused by laser hair removal and many instances of skin cancer being overlooked, misdiagnosed and untreated resulting in extensive surgery and treatment and, in come cases, the death of the patient.

Legislation to protect patients has been passed in: 

• California
  
• Florida
  
• Kentucky
  
• Maryland
  
• Massachusetts
  
• Mississippi
  
• Montana
  
• New Mexico
  
• New York
  
• Texas
  

for more information on the ASDS Patient Safety Campaign, contact Lisa Doty at ldoty@asds.net or 847-956-9133.