Making it easier to identify board-certification

Consumers are interested in finding a board-certified doctor to undergo cosmetic surgery or treatments.  At RealSelf.com we're committed to making it easier to discover this information. 

Our first action was to set guidelines that clarify the meaning of "board certified" and "board certification."  On RealSelf.com, these terms refer only to medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy who have received specialty certification from an ABMS member board or a recognized ABMS non-member board.

Our recent partnership with the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery was key to increasing the number of board-certified plastic surgeons answering cosmetic surgery questions posted by site members.  I'll share more about this partnership shortly.

Today we took another step toward making board certification information more discoverable.  We added a graphical display to identify doctors board certified in a core aesthetic specialty.  Thus, you'll see green check mark logos next to answers by board-certified plastic surgeons, facial plastic surgeons & dermatologists.  See this example -  a question about Botox lips.

Why don't we use this logo to show board-certification for other medical specialties?  Our community wants connections to experts who have verifiable training in these core aesthetic specialties.  We'll leave terminology obfuscation and confusion to other cosmetic surgery resources that don't put the consumer's interest first.

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