Putting Education and Innovation at the Forefront at Winter Clinical Miami

Besides providing an excuse to escape the February cold and travel to sunny Miami, Florida, the inaugural Winter Clinical Miami meeting, held February 17-20, 2023, also promises to provide attendees with real-world experience via live patient workshops and symposia.

Mark Nestor, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research™ and the Center for Cosmetic Enhancement® in Aventura, Florida, and one of the meeting’s co-directors, tells Dermatology Times® that the conference strives to provide the "highest level of clinical education."

This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Dermatology Times: As one of the co-directors of the Winter Clinical Miami meeting, why would you urge your colleagues in dermatology to attend?

Nestor: Look, Fall Clinical and Winter Clinical are the premier dermatology meetings in the country, there's no question about it. I think over the last 20 odd years, it has evolved to really be the highest level of clinical education No. 1, and of innovation, No. 2, and doing it in a way that allows for the dermatologist or, in certain cases, the mid-level to get the most out of practical applications for their patients. I think that's really the key. Miami is no exception to this, but we've actually taken this a step further. What we're doing, I think, is very innovative, because we're doing it starting with case-based presentations, meaning, let's have an example of a patient coming into your office and how the information that we're going to discuss is going to impact how we treat that patient. This is really how we deal with it on a daily basis. As dermatologists, we see our patients, and then all of the treatments, innovations, diagnostic tools, etc, come to mind, and we use those tools, and we use the information to do the best to treat our patients. I think that's really what's innovative.

We have a tremendous spectrum of educational symposia and live patient treatments, both from the clinical side and from the aesthetic side. I can touch on both of those, but you've heard some of that from my colleagues, especially the clinical side. From the aesthetic and regenerative medicine side, there're really 3 components. One is the aesthetic, and for the aesthetics, we have, No. 1, a number of symposia on bringing more aesthetics into your practice. Ninety-five percent all dermatologists have some aesthetics in their practice, whether it's Botox, whether it's fillers, whatever it might be, but the idea is they're looking to enhance that. And how do we do that? How do you think about it? That's part of it. How do you use these aesthetic aspects for the day-to-day patients that you see in your practice? So that's one part. The second is innovation [and] what's new in terms of botulinum toxin fillers, devices, treatment parameters, techniques, that are new and innovative, and we're going to touch on that.

Then we have a tremendous hair symposium. Almost all dermatologists see hair loss and the primary one is androgenetic alopecia, which is pattern hair loss, and there are some very new, unique treatment options for it both from the standpoint of medications and biological treatments, even supplements that have been shown to be very effective…light treatments, devices, etc. We're going to cover all of these from that perspective.

And then finally, we have a lot of live patient workshops that we're doing both in terms of fillers, toxins, and devices. So all of these will come together, I believe, to be one of the best educational experiences in one of the best places to be in February, which is Miami. People bring their families because it's boat show weekend, it's Coconut Grove Art Show weekend, it's probably the top weekend to be in Miami. It's right at the Intercontinental, which is at the hub of everything, so it's really exciting.

Dermatology Times: Are there any innovations or therapeutic agents in the pipeline that you're particularly excited about?

Nestor: There are always a lot of new innovations. Letybo [letibotulinumtoxinA] is a new toxin that's scheduled to go through the FDA…in April. Again, they can always change that, but that's exciting to have a new toxin on the market. We've just had Daxxify [daxibotulinumtoxinA-lanm] approved in December; that's going to be rolling out the beginning of the year. We've got some new toxins to play with. There are going to be some new indications for fillers coming out, as well. There're always new innovative devices coming out. I think it's always, from the aesthetic side anyway, it's always very exciting.

I welcome everybody. We have a few spots left. I know that I spoke to one of my colleagues who said it was 10 degrees in St. Louis this morning and they could not think of any better place to be than Miami. I look to our colleagues in the Northeast and Midwest, everywhere where they need the warmth and educational experience that we can offer.

Follow along with all of Dermatology Times’ Winter Clinical Miami coverage here.