DEVELOPING RESEARCH

InModeMD co-founder and surgeon Dr Stephen Mulholland discusses the importance of research and development

DR STEPHEN MULHOLLAND

Dr Stephen Mulholland is a Canadian surgeon and scholar with expertise in plastic and reconstructive surgery and a former professional ice hockey player. He is considered an expert in plastic surgery and has been called on to testify in disciplinary hearings involving botched procedures, and has appeared on television shows which include The Today Show, The Doctors, The View and The Other Half. Dr Mulholland is the founder of SpaMedica, an aesthetic plastic surgery centre located in Toronto. He is best known for non-invasive practices, including the Pan G. Facelift and the Bodytite for which he owns or has developed the patents.

Aesthetic Medicine (AM): How has the research and development process evolved?

Dr Stephen Mulholland (SM): InMode has evolved one of the most dynamic and comprehensive research and development programmes; If you add up all the research, InMode spends more than many companies combined. What’s kept it at the forefront of sales and awareness is having research and development that’s founded on simple principles. It looks for what consumers will want, but don’t even know they want yet, and comes up with an exceptional device that works.

The original vision back in 2008, when InMode was founded, was that we wanted to create 10 pieces that don’t replace but perhaps approach what you can achieve with excisional surgery. Whether it’s the Morpheus8, the BodyTite or FaceTite, the new Quantum RF, or multiple optical revenue-generating devices like the Optimus Max, EmpowerRF or Envision, InMode has always innovated and stayed ahead of the market.

AM: What role does feedback from practitioners play in the continued development?

SM: InMode has a strategic research and development pipeline, based upon developing techniques, technologies and applicators for unserved markets, from incontinence, menopause, dry eye disease, and soft tissue tightening. A lot of the innovation is a function of position feedback.

For example, the large community of BodyTite users said “You know what? BodyTite is good and safe, but can you make it faster? Can you make it simpler? Can you make something that reduces fat without liposuction?” The response to that customer request is the Quantum RF device.

AM: Can you share any upcoming research or innovations in the pipeline?

SM: InMode has an amazing research and development pipeline. We have FDA approvals pending for overactive bladder and uterine incontinence for the Envision device and dry eye disease for Meibomian gland dysfunction. We have in the pipeline a new device for somnoplasty (snoring treatment) for the soft palette, and turbinate or intranasal obstruction reduction without a turbinectomy without a suppository, so new tech product, and erectile dysfunction products.

InMode will be in several nontraditional verticals within the next two or three years with this nontraditional research and development pipeline. The brand has a unique research department because Dr Michael Kreindell, the co-founder of InMode, is the most innovative chief technology officer. With over 80 patents to his name, his vision of what we can bring to the market cost-effectively, affordably, and scaleably far exceeds the capabilities of any other company. InMode also spends more individually than other companies. We have more engineers, more technology, and we don’t outsource; we build everything in-house. Those unique capabilities allow InMode to respond to new market directions long before anyone else even realises a new direction, creating the direction for the market.

AM: What has been a memorable breakthrough moment or discovery?

SM: I have worked with Dr Kreindell for 25 years, as the co-founder of the company, so there have been several ‘A-ha!’ moments. I do remember when we were first developing the prototype for the BodyTite back in 2008 and the moment we realised “Hey, this works”.

I remember when our vision for Fractora became Morpheus8, and we realised we could do BodyTite from the outside. One of the more recent ‘A-ha!’ moments was the realisation that we could put our ultra-short bipolar pulse in the tip of a single cannula, which led to the Quantum RF.

AM: How do you ensure that devices are safe and effective for patients and practitioners?

SM: Before a device is released commercially, it needs to get regulatory approvals. We need to do bench research, submission, porcine tissue research, clinical trials and studies. Regulatory approval for new devices has become more difficult over the last ten years. Because InMode is in the non-excisional space, its devices are inherently safer than surgical devices. They are subject to a lot of basic research, bench research, animal testing research, and human studies, as well as regulatory approval before they hit the market. Therefore, the devices are safe, effective, and well-built. They have the lowest meantime before failure compared to other devices in the market.

AM: How do you stay ahead of the latest technological advancements in the aesthetic industry?

SM: I think, as an effective research and development team, Dr Kreindell’s team is always looking at where the brand could go that others haven’t gone and innovating regardless of what we see. Keeping an eye out for what the trends in aesthetic medicine are in general, for injectables and non-energy-based topicals and surgical procedures is important too. Can we offer a non-excisional handpiece alternative?

AM: How do you see the future of aesthetic procedures evolving?

SM: The future of the aesthetic industry is robust, and we’re going to have hyperbolic growth because baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 have given birth to three very active generations in the aesthetic space: Gen X, Y and Z. In North America, there are 70 million baby boomers, and then there are 80 million millennials, 70 million Gen Zs and about 70 million Gen Xs.

That’s 180 million X, Y and Zs who are very aesthetic oriented. There’s no guilt, they assimilate these procedures as if they were accessories. Appearance matters to this younger generation, and there’s never been such a large denominator, meaning such a large cohort of patients who want to get treatments done. They’re about to have the biggest inheritance in the history of mankind. In this next three or four years, one trillion dollars will pass down from baby boomers that are a little older, to their Gen X and millennial kids. Guess what they’re going to spend it on?