The first Australian to be admitted as a fellow in plastic surgery at the world renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Centre in New York, Dr. Liew made his mark early in his career as a specialist in face and breast surgery but has turned his profile in aesthetics to help those less fortunate, writes Cameron Pine.
At the inaugural aesthetics Australia conference Dr Liew took an opportunity to unite (cosmetic physicians, cosmetic nurses, plastic surgeons, dermatologists) together, regardless of status or qualification to really connect beyond the ‘conference circuit’ and share a passion for the industry.
Using the unique opportunity of having aesthetics industry professionals together in collective consciousness, Liew launched a very heartfelt initiative to encourage successful and passionate nurses and doctors to ‘give back’ some of their skill to those less fortunate.
To allow those affected access to traditionally unreachable cosmetic procedures whether caused by accidents, disease or conditions which not just affect the physical but also confidence beyond what many can fathom, the real power of aesthetics and plastic surgery can be seen when those less fortunate are given the opportunity to improve – the hallmark of Dr Liew’s passion and expertise in the industry.
While the objective of the event was to get together leading aestheticians to promote the best and safe standards of facial injectables care and the latest in nonsurgical therapies in Australasia, Dr Liew evoked an incredible level of emotion in the room with his Face the World initiative and video showing just how changing the face of one affected person can change their life and those around them.
The best in visionary work is lacking true meaning unless there’s a level of compassion according to Dr Liew and as such it has always been an ambition of his to launch a charitable initiative, leading to the creation of Face the World.
“Face the World is essentially a campaign to assist and help those people who have any sort of physical deformity whether it is from cancer, facial palsy, a car accident or any kind of trauma that has affected their life,” Dr Liew said.
“Not only are these people very conscious of how they look but it also brings back a lot of emotional aspects associated with the trauma,” he said.
The injectables have come a long way and injectables can do things that surgery can’t. The rationale behind surgery is that in Australia and New Zealand if you have any type of physical deformity you can have surgery for free but if you want optimal treatment that injectables such as fillers and botox provide, this is where it takes the true ‘giving back’ of practitioners to truly change their lives.
The initiative of the Face the World is to get the industry people on board and gather a following of truly committed professionals that want to be give back, “Even the companies are jumping on board including Allergan and Galderma and a lot of doctors and nurses apart from being the best at what we do we also want to contribute and give back and we can give back.
Dr Liew is in the process of setting up a website to gather those who are interested and provide a portal for the program – eventually Liew hopes it will become a global thing. Still in the throws of assigning a committee to ensure patients are worthy of the system and not abusing the generosity of doctors there are many risks and regulations involved – a hallmark of Liew’s stellar reputation. In the meantime further interest can be gathered via the @aestheticsau Instagram or through Darlinghurst’s Shape Clinic.
To really impart the level of emotion such a charitable cause can evoke, at Aesthetics Australia Dr Liew created a video to showcase some examples of patients and there were many tears in the room, doctors, nurses and guests were all crying – the sheer sense of emotion intertwined in a room of those passionate about their profession can be a very powerful thing.
For more information visit www.shapeclinic.com.au
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