Why Are Our Programs So Much More Affordable Than
Others??
December 2007
You have to have some perspective about what our organization is, compared to others offering Cosmetic Laser Training. We are a Federally Recognized NON-PROFIT organization that has been teaching medical and surgical laser procedures for almost 30 years! Teaching the safe and effective use of aesthetic laser & light based procedures is a natural extension of our primary mission of improving health care and safety through continuing medical education, and is only one aspect of our training.
If you look at most (not all) of the organizations that offer aesthetic laser training you’ll find that they are all FOR PROFIT groups that got started only after the Aesthetic Laser craze started to take off – and that is what they are limited to. Most also have very strong commercial affiliations with specific laser companies. All laser courses need equipment in order to teach, but some of these programs are just totally owned by the sponsoring laser manufacturer. There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s the equipment you’ve already purchased. There’s also nothing wrong with charging what the market will bear if you are a for profit company, if you can persuade people to pay it.
As an example, one of the “For-Profit”
Companies negotiated with us to subcontract and develop their programs for
them. They offer them nationally and in particular in AZ where fees can be
higher because of State requirements. When we came up with a curriculum and
pricing they pushed us to see if we couldn’t find “filler” material to drag the
laser program out to longer than we had allocated, so that they could charge
some very significant fees, based upon the time factor. We tried to explain
that the content they were
Having said that, there are some excellent programs out there conducted by for-profit companies or the laser manufacturers. Just realize that with company sponsored training you’re only going to learn about their products and way of doing things, and that the primary objective in start-up, for profit training companies is of course to generate as much income as people are willing to pay for courses. Some manufacturers have asked us to conduct laser training programs for them, and we gladly work with such companies with the understanding that, although we highlight their equipment as examples, we will be talking about all of the laser modalities and ways of performing procedures.
The old adage that “you only get what you pay for” certainly does not apply when you’re comparing these young for-profit companies with our long-established non-profit organization. We have to charge enough to pay our bills and continue educational program development (we are a 501-c-3 nonprofit, but we’re not a charity). However we do not have investors or shareholders to satisfy with returns on investment. We have been teaching medical laser procedures longer than virtually any current laser manufacturer has even been in existence. With our organization you get 30 years of solid dependability in the medical laser field, and training programs that give you a broad across-the-board perspective on lasers and equipment – all at a fair price. Our principals have strong reputations professionally in medical laser areas, and we have worked routinely with or are associated with groups such as the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery, the National Council on Laser Excellence, the Board of Laser Safety of the Laser Institute of America, Rockwell Laser Institute and many other credible groups.
We try not to overstate claims about what you get out of our training programs – just realistic assessments – and I’m confident that you’ll be very pleased with any of our training programs you attend.
Please accept my apologies if they are not expensive enough.
Gregory Absten
Executive Director
Professional Medical Education
Association
800-435-3131