The Super Doctors 2013 list, which appears in New York Times Magazine, has included Dr. Bernstein for the second year in a row. The list, published by Key Professional Media as a special insert in the magazine, ranks Dr. Bernstein as one of New York City’s best dermatologists.
Super Doctors 2013 is a directory of the best physicians in the New York City area, as determined by a thorough peer selection and evaluation process.
Dr. Bernstein has also been included in the annual ‘Best Doctors‘ list, published by Castle Connolly in New York Magazine, for 13 consecutive years. Dr. Bernstein is honored to be recognized by the people who best know medicine and medical practice, his colleagues in the New York area.
The Super Doctors 2012 list, published by Key Professional Media as a special section in the May 20, 2012 issue of New York Times Magazine, has now also included Dr. Bernstein as one of New York City’s best dermatologists.
The list is a directory of the area’s top physicians that is derived from a thorough selection process. First, doctors complete a survey and nominate peers from whom they would seek medical care. Research staff at the company adds to the peer-nominated list any doctors who have achieved certain credentials or honors, usually physicians in highly specialized areas of medical treatment. All candidates are then evaluated using a set of 10 criteria, including: years of experience, hospital appointments and fellowships, professional activities, leadership positions, academic achievements/positions, board certifications, publications and presentations, honors and awards, and other outstanding achievements in medicine. Based on this evaluation, doctors with the highest scores form a “blue ribbon panel” where they evaluate physicians within their own area of expertise. Once the highest-scoring doctors are contacted and independently verified to be clear of any other outstanding disciplinary issues, the list is ready to go to press.
As with the Castle Connolly ‘Best Doctors‘ list, which appears annually in a special issue of New York Magazine, Dr. Bernstein is honored to be recognized by the people who best know medicine and medical practice, his colleagues in the New York area.
The New York Times, once again, has recognized Dr. Bernstein’s pioneering hair restoration techniques. The NYT Fashion and Style section noted that he is, “the first hair transplant surgeon on the east coast,” to use the ARTAS robotic system for Follicular Unit Extraction.
This precision, image-guided robot is unique in its, “use of digital mapping and tracking to extract and harvest ‘follicular units.'”
Sometimes an “accident” in the laboratory can lead to a remarkable breakthrough. Penicillin, Botox, Viagra, and Minoxidil — the active ingredient in Rogaine — were all unintended discoveries that led to treatments for a variety of conditions.
A similar twist of fate, this time by researchers at UCLA, could lead scientists to a new hair loss treatment.
Mice had been bred to overproduce a stress hormone that causes them to lose their hair. The scientists’ intention was to study the effects of a chemical compound, called astressin-B, on blocking the effects of stress on the mouse colon.
What they saw, however, surprised them. The mice that were treated with the chemical had fully regrown their hair. After repeating the results, the researchers injected the chemical into young mice, which were similarly genetically altered but had yet to lose their hair. Those mice never lost their hair despite the fact that they, too, were bred to overproduce the stress hormone.
Whether this discovery will lead to a drug that cures common baldness in human beings, or whether such a cure will only affect hair loss due to stress, is unknown at this early stage.
For further reading on this discovery, see articles in Dermatology Times and the New York Times, as well as the primary scientific publication in the journal PLoS ONE.
Dr. Angela Christiano, a colleague of Dr. Bernstein’s at Columbia University, has been studying the causes of alopecia areata and genetic hair loss for many years. She, in fact, suffers from the disease as well.
The New York Times has published a question and answer interview with Dr. Christiano which covers her own struggle with alopecia, her research into the causes of genetic hair loss, and where she sees the field going in the future. Here is one exchange that offers a window into how her research is breaking new ground in the field of hair loss genetics:
Q. When were you able to actually do the study?
A. In 2008. We published our findings this past July. Ours was the first study of alopecia to use a genome-wide approach. By checking the DNA of 1,000 alopecia patients against a control group of 1,000 without it, we identified 139 markers for the disease across the genome.
We also found a big surprise. For years, people thought that alopecia was probably the stepchild of autoimmune skin diseases like psoriasis and vitiligo. The astonishing news is that it shares virtually no genes with those. It’s actually linked to rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes 1 and celiac disease.
Continued discovery by Dr. Christiano and others in the field of hair loss genetics will lead to clues like these, which will shape the future of hair loss treatment. The hope for hair loss sufferers around the world is that a medical treatment can be developed which will effectively cure androgenetic alopecia, or common baldness. There is a lot of ground to be covered and there are many studies yet to be conducted, but progress is being made.
Eyebrow transplant procedures are growing in popularity. More women are realizing how much damage they can cause to their appearance by overplucking, shaping, and over-styling their eyebrows. Today, the New York Times reports on the trend of repairing eyebrows with hair transplant techniques and the use of camouflage products to cover up eyebrows that have been “tamed into oblivion.”
As the article’s headline declares, it is time to call in the professionals. The author of the article, Ms. Catherine St. Louis, turns to hair transplant pioneer Dr. Robert M. Bernstein for guidelines on performing a cosmetically-pleasing eyebrow transplant.
Here is a portion of the article:
Chronic repeated plucking is now a common reason why women have eyebrow transplants, which entail using hair from the scalp, arms or pubic area. A more timeless reason that spans the sexes is the gradual thinning, especially on the outer parts, as we age.
AND the number of such transplants is growing. In 2008, 3,484 eyebrow transplants were performed nationwide, up from 2,544 in 2004, the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery says.
Dr. Robert M. Bernstein, a hair restoration specialist in Manhattan, said that the most natural-looking transplants for eyebrows followed a few rules. Hair has to lie flat; single-hair transplants, not units of multiple hairs, are used; hairs should follow a curve and be planted to account for changes in direction. (In general, Dr. Bernstein said, the upper hairs point down and lower ones face up slightly to create an interlocking ridge that gives brows their body.)
Visit our eyebrow transplant page for more information on eyebrow transplant and restoration procedures.
The New York Times interviewed Dr. Bernstein for a full-length article on hair loss and hair transplant options for women interested in hair restoration. The article – titled, “Tricks and Transplants for Women’s Hair Loss” – covered modern hair transplantation techniques, hair transplant costs, camouflage techniques, and more.
Read below for some excerpts of the article:
Exploring Your Options:
Hairstylists, impressed with how realistic the “new” transplanted hair looks, recommend doctors to clients who are tired of hiding their hair loss with layers or high- and lowlights. “I’ve seen bad jobs,” said Seiji Kitazato, the creative director at Frédéric Fekkai on Fifth Avenue, who refers clients to a few surgeons. “But now you can’t even tell.”
Still, not every woman of the millions who suffer from hair loss is a candidate. Underlying conditions, including anemia and thyroid problems, that are temporary, treatable or affect the scalp rather than the hair, must be dealt with before a transplant can be considered. If a transplant is ruled out, sufferers must rely on wigs, hairpieces or styling tricks.
What’s more, “most medications can cause hair loss, some more frequently than others,” said Dr. Robert M. Bernstein, a clinical professor of dermatology at Columbia University who has a restoration center in Manhattan.
A transplant is an option only for a woman who has a thick enough area of hair from the back and sides to “donate” to a more paltry part of her scalp. But many women don’t experience this kind of localized balding; instead their entire head of hair thins out during menopause or as they age.
Buyer Beware:
So the incentive to treat any and all comers is high. “It’s a big problem,” Dr. Bernstein said. “You shouldn’t go to someone who will give a transplant to anyone who walks in the door.” If your condition is not properly assessed, you could permanently shed more hair after surgery than you gained, he warned, or if the hair transplanted wasn’t stable, “it would disappear.”
Before Hair Transplant Surgery:
If you’re suffering hair loss, see a dermatologist first, not hair transplant surgeons, said Dr. Robert M. Bernstein, a dermatologist in Manhattan who specializes in hair restoration. After determining a cause, dermatologists can offer advice about options from the medical to the surgical. Many women with hair loss try Women’s Rogaine, a solution with 2 percent minoxidil that is applied to the scalp, twice daily. Others prefer Rogaine’s foam for men, because it has 5 percent minodixil, dries quickly and feels less greasy. (But even the women’s formulation warns to discontinue use if facial-hair growth occurs.)
