Cover Story
For Katie Lau, Founder of Dr. Katie Clinic, principles are of paramount importance, and the sole principle she has staunchly followed since the onset of her professional career is to help people in need. This principle of Katie has been one of the key factors that has made her one of the most admired and influential doctors in and around her space in Hong Kong. Katie graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2006 and later completed three years of surgical training at its teaching hospital. Katie still needed hands-on experience as a practitioner to prover her mettle and absorb the knowledge of a professional practice, which led her to work in many organizations and helped her gain her initial clinical aesthetic experience. “After 3 years of basic surgical training, there were a few opportunities which led me into private practice. Before my clinic, I started off as a general practitioner, and after a few months I got involved in the study of cosmetic medicine”, says Katie.
Why Dr. Katie is much Different
According to Katie, running one’s own clinic is every practitioner’s dream. “I never imagined possessing my own clinic”, she says. She eventually did in the year 2017, and started her journey of treating her patients, Katie did not just go by the book. There is a clear difference with the approach that Katie adapts to the others around her, and that approach has come from a purpose she worked out for over a period of time. Like other practitioners, Katie too is much passionate about looking after and taking care of her patients, but the purpose she does it with is by having a greater understanding of her patients. The thought behind Katie’s treatment is “Every patient is different”. This thought has been one of the hallmarks of Katie’s approach as a result of which she has been able to build a large conglomeration of patients. Her “one size doesn’t fit all” approach has made Katie understand her patients, their needs and requirements and how they take their way of treatment as a conscious and step by step approach. From the words of Katie, “I need to tailor make for every patient of mine because they are different, and their needs are different. In the beginning they might be skeptical and unhappy, but eventually they would experience the positive impact with me being an expert and a professional in this field for some time, I should tell them what is best for them”.
The one-to-one care that patients experience at Dr. Katie Clinic makes them feel much confident about her catering towards them. According to Katie, there is a higher degree of change patients experience psychologically and physiologically when it comes to cosmetics and skin, and this varies from other specialties. Unlike many others, Katie’s way of treating her patients is a non-invasive one. By using energy-based devices, injectables which are non-invasive methods, Katie’s patients are finding a lot of improvement in their skin and in their outer-appearance which also makes them feel confident about themselves, as reflected in their work and social life, all in all transforming their whole personality to the better. At the beginning, “I did not expect great feedbacks from my patients, but later on results started to pay off, my patients were much relieved in what they saw. Because I like working with my hands a lot, I believe I want to help patients with my hands instead of just prescribing medicine with just the drug”, Katie said. Another reason for Katie’s non-invasive approach is because they are relatively safe, reversible and involves less risk. The products used by Katie are ones which are all FDA approved which means that they are proven the safest. All these factors have made Katie gather a loyal and trusted patient conglomeration over the past years.
Katie believes in direct hands-on experience instead of formal, theoretical ventures. Having grown up in an environment of facing everyday challenges which demanded her to learn and perform the same things each day is what resulted in her having complete faith in the testing and experimentation methods. “By doing this I started to build my own patient pool gradually and now I have stable and loyal supporters who come to me regularly”. Katie is one of the very few who does not compete in terms of cost, and sustaining the ongoing pandemic was one of the significant live examples that affirmed Katie serving her patients with this thought. “The Covid pandemic posed another challenge and over the past few months, many families with children started to emigrate. Some of them lost their jobs and their incomes were unstable, it was like a recession and spending was a challenge for many including my patients”, she said.
Trends, and What Excites Dr. Katie Clinic
According to her, people FONDER the newer advancements as they are well informed on the question of embracing and adapting to new technologies, Katie completely welcomes the change. Having known about the changing trends in technologies as well as social trends over the past 10 years, Katie also has a special mention on the Chinese traditional ways which is still very strong currently. She is very much cognizant of the fact that technology and social media have had a fair share of influence due to which beauty in its very form has been largely emphasized. Katie views beauty as a basic hygiene, and according to her it is something which everyone needs to take seriously. Katie is also concerned about the current issues the millennials of today are facing.
Boys and girls at the age group of as early as 20’s-30’s are vulnerable to skin cancer, and along with them are some signs of allergies that take the form of redness, pain and swelling which are prevalent among them, and any age groups, especially lately during the pandemic when wearing of surgical masks has become mandatory almost globally. Most are much conscious about preventing those red flags, and with advancements in technology and various non-invasive techniques and methods, treating them is no difficult. According to her, people the newer advancements as they are well informed that these tend to be less time consuming and also cost-effective, notably intervention of Artificial Intelligence into the healthcare sector, and robot-assisted surgeries playing a key role in major operations. Katie has made sure all her novel ideas and time-tested techniques and methods are at the disposal of her patients whenever time demands.
To help people with acne problems and scars out of that, Katie prefers combination therapy with energy-based devices, complemented with hyaluronic acid injections after for more thorough and faster effects.
The Approach
Katie is all welcoming and completely open when it comes to learning of her patients’ expectations. “People are overloaded with information from the Internet, thus are much more educated, and are able to do their research very well. They acknowledge about the latest product on market and have very high expectations on both the product as well as the machines. Like fashion, they are of different pieces, different styles, and they might not fit everyone. I apply my experiences and try my very best to help them”. When it comes to using technologies, Katie does not mind sitting with her patients patiently to explain that the newest “trends” might not be the best for them still. This is precisely what is called a sensible and a pragmatic approach which is very much imperative when it comes to the medical field.
Katie operates her clinic quite differently from others, she does it in a more natural possible way. Helping patients asides treatment times, including pre and post visits have resulted in her winning her patients’ hearts. “I take most time to attend to each patient. I see more quality than quantity, and I firmly believe in this. I routinely review results and make sure they appreciate the exact changes they are going through. This approach of mine is making my patients really positive”, says an ecstatic Katie.
Katie finds most of her patients through references from colleagues, their family members and extensions of the same. Maskne (skin-related problems from prolonged wearing of surgical masks), pigmentation, viral warts, facial asymmetry, are some of the common issues today to which people are approaching aesthetic medicine. Earlier, Katie had occasionally been trying out new innovations, and now it has become her signature treatment. Katie chooses to use injections which deliver instant results with less downtime, while many outside do away with drugs and machines. To help people with acne problems and scars out of that, Katie prefers combination therapy with energy-based devices, complemented with hyaluronic acid injections after for more thorough and faster effects. According to Katie, this is because downtime is minimal, results effective, and widely affordable, above all, most importantly, patients are happy. Moreover the recently very popular high intensity focused ultrasound for skin tightening is actually derived from a novel liver cancer treatment, highly focused to kill cancer cells only, saving healthy liver cells, thus preserving function. Another dermatological breakthrough, especially for the more mature age group, which mostly required skin lifting open surgeries in order to achieve the same.
Katie’s Aspirations
Recalling an experience she had with one of her 60’s patient who went into tears after she was relieved off her all time upper nasal bridge 5 centimeters long oblique scar since childhood, Katie expressed she is always very willing and readily open to try new techniques from any corner of the world. “I modulated certain European practices to deliver on Asians, be it for moisturization, different utilizations and administration of fillers, like hyaluronic acids, I’m specializing in all these. I have been sharing my modified theories and techniques with my colleagues locally in Hong Kong, and across Asia, namely Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia”, she claims.
Going forward, Katie is very much into building up on academic strengths, and even more enthusiastic when it comes to adapting fresh learnings. Katie is eager to publishing medical literature, authoritative medical journals, and coming up with her own book collecting on her wonderful journey.
