Skewed Distribution of Medical Spas and Aesthetic Physician Practices: A Cross-Sectional Market Analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND Medical spas have experienced a recent rise in popularity by consumers. Their regulations vary from state to state, especially concerning oversight and credentialing. A majority of aesthetic physicians were shown to have a medical spa within 5 minutes of their workplace. OBJECTIVE Our study investigated the current market distribution of medical spas and physician practices in the aesthetic field. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the 30 most populous cities, data were collected for medical spas and aesthetic physicians. Descriptive ratios were calculated, and various local factors were examined. RESULTS The cities with the greatest number of medical spas were New York (374), Houston (297), and Los Angeles (227). The cities with the greatest number of aesthetic physicians were New York (365), Houston (135), and Chicago (122). Population size had significant relationships with number of medical spas (p < .000001) and aesthetic physicians (p < .000001). For ratio of medical spas to aesthetic physicians, the top cities were Las Vegas (9.17), Denver (3.86), and San Jose (3.65). In total, 73.3% of cities had more medical spas than aesthetic physicians. CONCLUSION Certain cities have experienced an unequal distribution of medical spas. Further research should examine how this affects consumer decision-making for the selection of practice settings.

National market analysis for body contouring providers: Medical spas and physician practices

“…14 They believed procedures to be more effective when they had first-or second-hand experience, and the majority had a desire to learn more. 11 Our data show a similar national ratio specific to body contouring providers.…”

“…For millennial consumers who were interested in body contouring, 75.6% even preferred a medical spa setting. These percentages demonstrate a general preference for medical spas and are greater than what would be expected by the national ratio of medical spas to aesthetic physicians, which was found to be 1.8—or the equivalent of 64.6% to 35.4% 11 . Our data show a similar national ratio specific to body contouring providers.…”

“…Data were filtered for addresses that included only the respective city in an attempt to standardize collection methods between cities, which may differ in zoning and city limit demarcation. This method has been previously documented 11 …”

“…11 The data gathered on body contouring devices were used in combination with recent data that we had published utilizing similar methods. 11 This data included the number of medical spas and aesthetic physicians (dermatologic and plastic surgeons) for the same 30 cities. Data for median household income for counties were provided by the United States Census Bureau from their American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2013-2017.…”

Differentiation in a market of imitation: The evolving world of aesthetic dermatology

“…Medical spas have recently proliferated. In the most populous cities, they have even outnumbered cosmetic dermatologists and plastic surgeons 1 . Consumer interest has largely been fueled by persuasive marketing campaigns with particular emphasis on social media outreach.…”