Category: Interview

An interview with Dr. Li Kai,
Doctor of Medicine; Head of Dermatology & Cosmetology Center of Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University

The two dominant parts of the beauty industry – the Medical Aesthetic and Life Beauty – continue to amaze the public with new technologies and innovations. However, we can sense a subtle integration of the two nowadays. Many medical beauty centers want to import life beauty elements while many life beauty owners plan to open medical beauty stores. Is it really a wise decision to cross the boundary? SpaChina invited Dr. Li Kai, a dermatology expert who has rich experience in medical beauty field, to share his insights on the respective strengths of the two, and reveal some of the latest medical beauty trends.

Dr. Kai got his bachelor’s degree of Medicine from The Fourth Military Medical University in 2004, and then a Master’s and doctoral degree of Dermatology and Venereology from the same university in 2007 and 2010. He once went to the Dermatology Department of the Henry Ford Hospital in the US and Perugia Hospital in Italy for academic exchanges. He has so far been responsible for two Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) projects and one hospital-wide fund project, and has participated in various national research projects. Dr. Kai specializes in laser cosmetology, facial rejuvenation, chloasma therapy and scar repair. He has published over twenty essays on Dermatology with SCI.

Do you see a huge demand for health improvement among Chinese people today?

From what I see in my own field, people truly have increasing concerns about their skin health. Even when they had limited access to hospitals during the pandemic in the first half year of 2020, they still actively consulted doctors online.

Meanwhile, I believe education is of great significance. Not only the patients but also we doctors need to be further and continually educated. When I meet my patients, in many cases, I understand that they don’t only have skin problems. I often suggest they visit other departments as well like psychology or TCM departments. The human body is an integral concept. Many conditions are connected to each other. I’m sure it is the same in the spa industry. Spa guests usually have diverse health or beauty concerns.

What changes and new technologies are there in the medical beauty industry in the last two years?

Medical beauty industry saw a robust development in 2019. In that year alone, there were 2,000 registered medical beauty institutions in Shenzhen. The year 2020 began with the coronavirus outbreak during which period the whole industry pressed the pause button. Almost all medical beauty institutions stopped their business from January to March, and a few even went bankrupt due to capital chain rupture. As April came, the pandemic was much alleviated and there was a consumption rebound, so we also welcomed a small development peak. But that didn’t last long since more rational consumption was restored. Later in August and September, the market again became quite vibrant. So after several rounds of test and filter, a more sound medical beauty industry is the result.

The hottest technology in the medical beauty field in 2020 is Thermage. The anatomical mechanism of facial slackness, puffiness and emergence of wrinkles is that the fibrous mediastinum, which originally fixes the superficial fat layer like a honeycomb, becomes loose with the increase of age, which makes the facial fat flow downward, and triggers the emergence of nasolabial folds. The face contour becomes larger and wider. Thermage can heat the fiber mediastinum to finally lift and firm the face. The effect of one session lasts six months to a year. Moreover, the newly launched fifth generation Thermage can be used in the spa since it doesn’t fall into the category of medical device.

Another new technology is DMA. It is a micro-current stimulation mechanism and precedes other electrical stimulation techniques with adjustable and controllable intensity, frequency and depth. So it proves to be safer. It gives 50-750 frequencies of stimulation per minute to the muscles and effectively activates the autonomous contraction of muscles. It can further target specific muscle group and activate its autonomous contraction. As a result, the muscle lines are perfected.

Technologies to achieve microecological balance have begun to show up in recent years. There is a microecological system of bacteria in our digestive tract, respiratory tract, urogenital system, and skin. There are good and healthy bacteria and there are bad and pathogenic bacteria. These two types of bacteria needed to reach a balance. Take skin for example. On the surface of our skin live abundant bacteria and microorganisms that, in an ideal case, reach a balance. However, due to stress, wrong skincare procedures, poor diet and environmental pollution, this balance is easily destroyed. What come after are skin problems like acnes, eczema, chloasma and more. Now more and more skincare products that proclaim to improve the skin microecological system have been launched. These products aim to increase the content of good bacteria by supplementing them with prebiotics (which the good bacteria like to eat) so as to reach a balance. Some of them can directly kill the surplus bad bacterial and restore the balance.

Today many salon and spa owners want to open medical beauty centers and many people in the medical beauty field want to be more spa style. What strengths do they each have?

The biggest strength of medical beauty is its technology and instant effects. The strong points of life beauty is its meticulous service and a long term relationship with guests.

I think the reasons why many spa operators want to open medical beauty clinics are because they can’t find a value-added program or service. To put it more directly, they don’t know which beauty devices or equipment can be used in spas so as to guarantee a stable guest flow, the novelty and effect of programs and finally an increased revenue. The biggest challenge for medical beauty centers is that the doctors there are always placing themselves on a high position in a somehow arrogant way. They fail to give guests the same experience as they can enjoy in the spas. Even though they can decorate their clinic into a spa style, it’s not easy to change that sense of alienation.

As far as I am concerned, the medical beauty and the spa operators should find the things that best suit themselves instead of blindly copying one another.

Take body shaping programs for example. Spas show more advantages than medical beauty centers to launch body shaping programs. One reason is because the doctors at medical centers are usually unwilling to carry out the treatment on a patient’s abdomen for one hour. It is too time-consuming for them. In addition, people who visit medical beauty centers usually seek immediate and obvious effects. So they would rather try plastic surgery for a slim body shape than a long-term treatment which they have one or two sessions a week and go there several weeks. However, in this aspect, spa has obvious advantages. Today in many spas, body shaping programs have taken up more than half of the menu. Data issued in recent years show that the market size of body shaping programs is increasing year by year and the number is estimated to reach 3.44 billion dollars in 2022. That’s why more and more beauty equipment are developed to target the body shaping needs.

However, the popular muscle contraction technology – High-Intensity Focused Electro-Magnetic Technology doesn’t suit spas and life beauty centers. Firstly, the function is quite simple – the sore effect of enhancing muscles. Secondly, the process is painful. However, spa goers usually don’t have much requirement for muscle enhancement, and have high demand for a sense of comfort.

What are the trends of medical beauty consumption among Chinese people in the next two to five years?

From my perspective, the future consumption of medical beauty programs will be more rational. It will be hard to see a 200,000 RMB bill as today. In addition, both male and female consumers will focus more on their daily health management. When choosing products and services, they will have a more holistic consideration. For example, they will study the ingredients, effect, and efficiency more carefully. This is partially because today’s major consumption force are young people who have wider knowledge and experience and tend to make purchase decisions more rationally.

An interview with Mr. Dai Jiongjie, CEO of PERFETTO MEDICAL

The increasing health concerns of Chinese people is a driving factor of the boom of health industry. Spas,  medical clinics, urban wellness centers have emerged one by one in a rapid pace. Meanwhile, the operators seem to be unsatisfied with the current business and continually seek to transform business modes and even cross boundaries. With regard to the consumers, industry prosperity doesn’t necessarily mean a due increase of health knowledge among the public. With rich working experience in public hospitals and private medical groups, as well as being a trustworthy consultant sought by many life beauty and spa operators, Mr. Dai Jiongjie shares with SpaChina his insights on the challenges faced by China’s wellness industry today and the common mistakes consumers have made on the way of seeking health.  

A graduate from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dai Jiongjie is a TCM medical practitioner, a TCM physical therapy consultant, a visiting lecturer at Shanghai Jiaotong University and a TCM consultant for Hyatt Group. Taught and trained by TCM masters Wang Ximing and Lu Shichang, Dai Jiongjie has long been dedicated to TCM clinic practices and carried out deep study on acupuncture, Tuina, TCM wellness and TCM basic theories. He co-founded Zen Anti-Aging Health Management Center in the Netherlands before serving as the chief health expert consultant of BESTWAY Medical Group and the CEO of OMINICELL Health Management Center in China. He is now the CEO of PERFETTO MEDICAL.

Please tell us your working experience and current business.

I have once been involved in the operation of two anti-aging centers abroad in two countries, both including spa facilities. I worked overseas for quite a long time before coming back to China. Now I am running a medical company. We have 12 clinics and hospitals nationwide that cover medical beauty, dermatology, exercise rehabilitation, gynecology, pediatrics, TCM and more.

Is there a huge need for health enhancement among Chinese people? What are the major health concerns? What challenges and problems do you see among the operators and the consumers?

People’s need for health enhancement in China is huge. That is why I came back from the Netherlands. Today, everyone is talking about big health and health management. But do we really know what they are? Before these, there is one thing called health education. Both our customers and we ourselves are eager to be educated instead of casually choosing one single so-called health product or program. I believe that after proper health education, the health market will experience even bigger prosperity.

I discovered that there is a wrong trend in the health industry. The spa and life beauty center’s operators always want to share a portion of the medical beauty or even medical field while the people in the medical beauty section often covet the business modes of spa and life beauty centers. However, in my opinion, we shouldn’t mix up the two concepts, one is health management and the other is disease control. For example, sleep disorder is a disease which belongs to the latter category and requires specialized medical interventions. We mustn’t arbitrarily say one of our spa treatments can cure sleep disorder. However, spa people also have their significant missions. They are important health practitioners, promoters and educators to the ordinary public.

Concerning consumers, the most common mistake they make is to take a single product as a complete solution for health. When they eat something nutritious, they feel they have lived a healthy life. This is not true. There are many aspects that should be taken into consideration such as food intolerance or problems triggered by over intake. Especially if you take functional supplements or try some advanced programs, it’s better to do it under a specialized guidance of a professional personnel. Never simply copy everything on the Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) or Tik Tok.

Many spa operators come to you for business advice. What do you think are the points in which spas do well today and what are the challenges facing the industry?

As far as I am concerned, spas do well especially in two aspects, one is the integration of functional medicine concepts and the other is the introduction of TCM programs. Many spas have begun to develop treatments inspired by TCM theories.

There are truly some challenges in the spa field. The government is now encouraging doctors who are in public hospitals to open clinics, which can be clearly seen from the policies. In Shanghai, for instance, it takes only 2 weeks for a doctor to open his own clinic. We know it’s forbidden to do invasive treatments or acupuncture at spas. Now these doctors can build their clinic in the style of a spa, and meanwhile offer medical programs. So at this point, spas need to think, what core competitiveness do we have?

So I think “big health alliance” is a very good direction. We are in the process of building such an alliance. We all have our own advantages, so why don’t we unite together on one platform, to give our specialties into full display and let the customers come and choose what they want. 

What health-related needs can you predict in the following 2-5 years for China? I believe, the most urgent need in the next 2-5 years is health guidance or health education. For example, when a patient suffering waist pain comes to you, you need to understand that this pain may be caused by joints, or intervertebral disc, or muscles, or even gall bladder. You also need to make your patients understand this. However, today many patients firstly take up the role of a doctor themselves. Before going to visit the doctor, they have decided which department they will visit. For stomach ache, they will choose gastroenterology department without hesitation. But in many cases, this first step is already wrong. So I believe in the future, there will be more certified health personnel who can provide health guidance to the public. Spas can also consider recruiting such personnel to give guests a more specialized consultancy. 

An interview with Mr. Mu Hualun, CEO of Nanobubble Co., Ltd

In recent years, hydrogen therapy has drawn more and more attention in China’s big health field. Not long ago, hydrogen/oxygen mixed gas inhalation was officially suggested as a method for treating patients with Coronavirus disease. Research proves that hydrogen molecule features great biological effects to combat free radicals, inflammation and apoptosis. It is also proven that hydrogen therapy can cure and prevent a number of different diseases. 

Nanobubble Co., Ltd is the only company in China that manufactures hydrogen therapy equipment and devices. The team’s vision is to not only provide advanced hydrogen therapy equipment to medical institutions, but also let ordinary people benefit from the therapy in their daily life. Since its foundation, the company has been dedicated to improving people’s health and driving the development of health industry. Mr. Mu Hualun, the CEO of Nanobubble, is currently engaged in the application and promotion of high-tech industrialization and transformation at Zhangjiang Pharmaceutical Valley in Shanghai. He focuses on the frontier progress of physics, material science and life science. He looks particularly at the intervention of non-communicable chronic diseases, accurate medical treatments and effective health management schemes and implementation. SpaChina interviewed him.

How many years have you been in the industry and what kind of work are you engaged in?

Compared with many professionals, I have a relatively short time in the industry. So far, I have been involved in product development for eight years. If you ask me what kind of work I am engaged in, I feel it’s difficult to give a single answer. Maybe just one month ago, I thought I was a manufacturer of equipment and I felt I had won a battle in a brand new area and spearheaded its development. But with an increasing interaction with clients, I realized I was playing the role of offering services to the public and working for the better life of people. This is a role that I am more willing to take up. My work also involves skin management since we also provide interventions for skin management with our products and devices. In a word, all for “wellness”. This is the goal of our company and myself – working for the wellness of people by improving their lifestyles.

From your business’ perspective, do you see a huge need for health enhancement among Chinese people?

Yes, the need is huge, especially after the pandemic and a consumption upgrade. Our business mainly covers three aspects: big health, consumption upgrade and innovative technology. This year, when the service industry has been severely hit, we still realize a 50% business increase. The number is not satisfying, but at least we keep increasing even during this difficult time. It demonstrates that as long as you can capture and meet the needs of the market – the need for health products – then you will naturally reap the reward.

In addition, the increasing need for health enhancement is also generated by today’s age structure, which augments people’s concerns to their health and lifestyle. When people have some discomforts or minor illness, they may not immediately rush to the public hospitals. Instead, they seek some more convenient ways. During this process, to gain customers’ trust is the most important thing. That’s why we attach great importance to the brand’s image or word of mouth. I am convinced that once we find the true needs of the customers and provide them with truly valuable products, business growth is a sure consequence.

As China is entering an “aging society” era, there is a requirement for more effective and labor-free health management approaches. I know your hydrogen therapy equipment have received big orders from medical beauty experts and senior care institutions in UK. Could you share with us more of such cases?

Our team is composed of senior engineers. So we are always confident of our products’ quality. We also pay attention to international cooperations. We joined hands with London Dr. Michael Prager Skincare Clinic to work on postoperative skin recovery of medical beauty treatments. We do medical programs together with Prof. Shigeo Ohta, the “father of hydrogen health”, from Japan. Prof. Ohta is specialized in the study of Alzheimer’s disease and has so far achieved quite good results. He chooses our equipment to do his study in Japan. We also do third-party tests in US and the client wants to become our distributor in US. I firmly believe that as long as your products are good and valuable, they will surely be recognized sooner or later.

Concerning our domestic endeavors, I agree with the concept of “precise positioning”. Hydrogen therapy falls in the category of health management rather than medical cure. Nevertheless, hydrogen/oxygen mixed gas inhalation was officially suggested this July as a method to treat COVID-19. This is a reasonable trial in the face of the crisis. It’s a good chance to let more people know the effects of hydrogen therapy. Meanwhile, we actively support clinical research. Hydrogen therapy has showed quite satisfactory results in treating early and mid-phase coronavirus patients, equal and even better than the effects delivered by Traditional Chinese Medicine.  

Surely, we are doing a lot of work in the field of evidence-based medicine, but we clearly understand that our goal is to integrate hydrogen therapy into a wider daily life scene, to concretely help numerous people who suffer sub-health conditions and chronic diseases. For this reason, we have established a community health program with the China Health Promotion Foundation. We enter into the community quarters and provide hydrogen interventions to patients of Type II Diabetes. The result is very encouraging. Two months of hydrogen inhalation and drinking hydrogen water result in obvious improvement of the saccharification system. In terms of skincare, we do several cooperative studies with the dermatology department of Huashan Hospital. The studies prove that hydrogen therapy can alleviate a variety of skin problems and diseases.

What health trends can you see among Chinese people in the next two to five years?

I think health guidance and health services accessible to ordinary residents will be a significant future trend.

I once had a 4-hour talk with some personnel from the government. He said to me: “What you want to do is what the government also wants to do concerning big health. We have tried many different ways and made many new policies in order to solve the problem. But the patients’ number haven’t decreased. Medical budget control fails to solve the problems triggered by the aging population structure.” So I think in the future health intervention process, the core is that it must be accessible to the ordinary residents. Volkswagen has purchased Porsche, not vice versa. Our health management and service should also come down to every ordinary resident.

In fact, the government has already taken actions. Every residential area now has its own community police and doctors. However, their true functions haven’t been given play to. I believe the situation will be improved if hydrogen therapy is introduced to the community health service. The community doctors then will be able to give more effective health guidance and practical solutions to the residents with the knowledge and equipment of hydrogen therapy.