Dermacare franchise is expanding its laser and skin care clinics from Phoenix to Asia, showcasing the growing trend in this expanding industry.


The company will offer five to six products for a variety of skin types, ranging from cleansers and moisturizers made with green tea extracts to sunscreens and serums to hydrate and smooth the skin, and using a team of medical professionals, nurses and aestheticians.
With 26 clinics in the U.S., the Phoenix-based franchisor also is negotiating to award its first international franchise in Pakistan within two months. Other agreements are in the works for China, India, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Medical spas were the fourth-largest but the fastest-growing segment of the $11.2 billion spa industry from 2002 to 2004, according to the most recent statistics from the International Spa Association.
It seems that many of the franchisees are physicians. But physicians in such an enterprise, particularly in the U.S., must be aware of all the legal issues and perils relating to franchise contracts, as well of issues pertaining to the medical field, such as issues of licensure and discipline; supervision of affiliated clinicians and their legally authorized scope of practice; and corporate practice of medicine issues.

Medical spa legal issues
are of growing concern, and overlap with issues in integrative medicine such as liability issues, and concerns about physician discipline when patients are injured by overzealous providers, or lack of good information within the franchised spa.