Mala McAlpin A post-graduate of the world-renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Centre in New York, and founder & medical director at Sydney’s Shape Clinic, Dr Steven Liew’s reputation precedes him as one of the country’s very best plastic surgeons.
Dr. Liew has now embarked on an exciting new venture, creating his very own medical aesthetics conference which will debut on Friday November 8th. Dr Liew spoke exclusively with SPA+CLINIC about his journey, what it’s been like to plan this exciting inaugural summit, and what we can expect over the 2.5 days of education.
“The planning of Aesthetics 2019 has consumed me for the last few months, because it’s hard to innovate, it’s hard to come up with something different and I believe that we managed to achieve that,” says Dr Liew. “Obviously attendees will be the best judge of this. The aim of Aesthetics 2019 in the long run is to create a network of like-minded non-surgical practitioners so that we can form a network to communicate, to share, to learn and to advance together. Together, to me, is very important.”
Dr Liew tells us that Aesthetics 2019 really is an opportunity to unite practitioners together, regardless of status or qualifications. “There’s been a lot of fragmentation in various groups in the aesthetics industry due to political reasons. To me this is silly – we can always learn from each other regardless of demographics. I constantly say I don’t believe in one person being a great injector simply because he or she comes from a particular background. I’ve seen the best injectors from different categories; a plastic surgeon, a dermatologist, a cosmetic physician, and a nurse. So let’s drop our status and come and learn together, that is the essence of Aesthetics 2019.”
The conference will feature a roster of incredible surgeons, nurses and aesthetic practitioners, including Dr Sarah Hart, Dr Cara McDonald, Mike Clague, Dr Greg Goodman, Dr Raj Aquilla, Terri Vinson and Natasha Cook – just to name a few.
According to Dr Liew, Aesthetics 2019 is worlds apart from conventional medical aesthetics industry conferences, and attendees will notice the difference the moment they enter. “Then they will notice that the programme has been structured differently, that the patients being treated are very different – these are real live events. We as practitioners never get to choose who comes to see us, we still need to perform on a daily basis, why should we go to a conference where the model is super selected, most of them look so good that it would be so easy to make them look even better.”
“I think the issue that we’ve seen is a lot of conferences have shown so much repetition and the lecturers talk about the same old thing from one conference to the other, the so-called ‘lecture circuit’ where there’s not much thought put into it. Being a convenor for Aesthetics 2019, it’s difficult as one has to be very dictatorial to get your colleagues to step out of their comfort zone, to talk about something very different, not to regurgitate the same old thing they have at 7-10 conferences. So that’s the major difference. Essential I want attendees to come in, to enjoy the whole 2.5 days, they don’t have to copy anything down they just have to sit there and listen, and I guarantee them regardless of their level or their training, from the very beginners to the most advanced, they will take home more than two or three pearls – that’s the guarantee.”
We also asked Dr Liew what he thinks the next big industry advancements will be, and he had some very exciting predictions to share!
“I’ve just been to a lot of what we call brainstorming and innovation sessions with various pharmaceutical companies, it’s amazing the things that they come up with. I have no doubt in the next few years we will have a true facial implant in a syringe, where instead of a chin implant or cheek implant, we will have things in an injectable form and form a homo-solid implant. Equally we will have something that will regenerate bone, and I am confident that we will see something that will stimulate bone formation at the appropriate level. From a skin perspective, everyone is talking about collagen, and we know that Allergan has purchased an Australian company two years ago called Elastagen, and what is exciting is we could see the first injectable synthetic elastin pre-cursor, meaning we might be able to restore the elasticity of the skin.”
As Dr Liew puts it, the future of non-surgically, truly, restoring youthfulness is not far from reality, and we can’t wait to continue bringing you the latest news and updates this incredible industry has to offer. See you at Aesthetics 2019!
