Trish
Hello listeners, It’s Trish Hammond here from the Transforming Bodies podcast, and today I’m joined by the lovely Lina Leon, and Lina is the International Marketing Director at Sciton International, and Sciton just recently, or a couple of years ago, now started an innovative, fantastic program to give back, and it’s called Sciton Cares. So today we’re going to find out all about Sciton Cares. So welcome, Lina.
Lina
Hi, thank you so much for having me over, I’m excited to share about Sciton Cares. What are we doing, how we started, and where are we going?
Trish
Oh, fantastic! Well, we’re really excited to have you here because I’ve seen some number of phenomenal results with the Sciton Cares program, just for people that have got, you know, that or anyway, I’ll leave that all to you to talk about, but I’ve seen some phenomenal results. And also, what’s been really exciting to watch is the number of Sciton practitioners, or people that have the, you know, clinicians that have Sciton devices, have actually come on board to help and support this program. It’s really exciting. It’s just, you know, it’s really unusual for a laser device company to give back so much. So tell us, how did it actually start? Like, where did the idea come from?
Lina
So, the idea came up in the middle of my living room with my child. He was born with a port wine stain, and he has had several treatments since he was born, and he struggled with the pain and the experience. And now he’s a teenager, so he’s in charge of his own journey now with the birthmark and the laser treatment. And a couple years ago, we came out with a plan because some kids around the world don’t have the opportunity to have treatments, and then don’t have the same reach that others have. So we put out the idea together and presented it to our leaders here at Sciton with the purpose of helping others, and then giving back to our communities internationally. So, the idea was born. We presented Sciton Cares, and then it got approved by our leaders. And then now, we right now, we have a support of 28 physicians around the world, approximately 8 countries that we have grown the program, and we are working with, in combination with the Sturge Weber Foundation and the Vascular Birth Foundation, based here in the US, where they have contacts of patients all over the world that they come to them for help. And then they are the ones that put our doctors available for their patients. So we are excited, just that the whole program, where we are and in our relationship with the foundations, and then we are expanding also to traumatic scars. So it’s not just the birthmarks, we are also helping families, individuals, and children that have traumatic scars, and in some of our clinics are volunteering the time to treat them in all the different cases.
Trish
Oh, fantastic! So how would someone even know about Sciton Cares? How can someone find out about Sciton Cares? So say for example your son’s obviously been having treatments all of his life, is that right?
Lina
Yes, correct.
Trish
And if he was, like, it must have cost you a fortune. And apart from the money side, it must be quite emotionally challenging as well. Can you tell us a little bit about the fact that this, like, I love that it came out of your lounge room, and I remember when the idea first came about as well?
So it’s pretty exciting to see it come to full evolution. But just, I mean, share with our listeners about the journey from a patient’s perspective, from a parent, say for example.
Lina
So from a patient or a parent perspective, it’s just like, first you need to find someone that will be doing the treatments. So in some countries these treatments are not covered by insurance, so it’s out of pocket. And some families have a little bit of struggles to be able to afford these treatments. How our patients can find us, they can find us through our website that we just launched a couple months ago with your support, and then we also have Instagram.
We are also have now live our website’s sponsorship sites with the foundations, so patients can go, if a patient, for example, in South Africa they need, they’re looking for an option of getting treatment, they can go through the foundation, they can find information through the foundation of the sponsorship that we have, or they can go directly to our website where they can contact the clinic and apply for the program. So the physicians have a number of patients that they will see per year, and then the commitment is to treat patients for a full year. With poor wines and with scars, you’re going to need more than one treatment. So that is how our program is different.
We are offering a total of 12 months, a follow up with our doctors, our physicians, that we are extremely grateful to them, and for their time to help us with this mission, and then changing lives one patient at a time.
Trish
Sure, I love that. The fact that that’s a slogan, “Changing lives one patient at a time.”
And just to talk about your journey as a parent with a, has this port wine stain, can you share with us a little bit of the, well, not the stress, but it must’ve been pretty stressful, number one, to have a child with that and not know what to do, but a little bit about your and your son’s journey as far as having?
Lina
Yes, I’m happy to share. So it’s just like when Pablo was born, we just, as we got the evaluation initially, we thought it was a pressure from the birth, but on the face, but it was a birthmark.
Normally, when a patient has a birthmark on a part of the eye, they are evaluated for Sturge Weber. Sturge Weber is a neurological syndrome that affects the brain, and some of the different, it can affect the kids in different ways. So when kids are, when their brain, and it can affect their eye, it can affect their development of different, affect them that neurological.
So Pablo was evaluated from age, it was since he was born until age two, and then we have no idea what a Sturge Weber was. So what I did, the first thing that I did, I went and Googled it, and I found the foundation. Each foundation has all the information to help you through the journey.
They have to explain to you as a parent how you can approach your process, and then you get to meet other people that are going through the same. So it’s just a community within our community, and that is what we are doing here at Sciton. We are creating a community within our community of doctors to support these patients in a different way. The foundation will give them the explanation of what they need to do and the support with parents and older children journals. And we are supporting the opportunity for them to have treatments somewhere close to their home.
Trish
Oh, wow! So it’s so good. It’s just so, it just makes my heart sing. What’s the prominence of having a port wine stain to babies that are born. Is it a really common thing? I guess you can’t develop it later, can you? It’s just something that you’re born with. Is that right?
Lina
So this is 1 in 10,000 babies who have a port wine. So this is common, it’s normally, that is heritage from one of the parents. And then one of the things that is important is to explain to the audience, why are we looking for treatment? This is not an aesthetic solution, it’s for the health of their skin, for the health of their eyes, if it involves the eye, when the blood is flowing close to the eye, so children can have glaucoma. So in our case, our son has to be evaluated once a year for glaucoma, to make sure that we are keeping the health of his eye and the pressure of the eye.
Trish
Oh, wow! And so tell me, not only is it the health of the skin and the health of the eye, I think it’s only mental well being as well, because it would have been hard for, or it’s hard for anyone as a child to have a, like, a disfigurement or a mark on their face, because it’s the first thing that people see, and kids get teased. And like, I know your son, and he’s a really confident boy, I can’t even imagine, and I would never have known that he’d had port wine stain, but now when you look for it, you can see it. And I saw pictures of when it wasn’t treated as much or whatever.
So I’ve seen it darker in pictures as well, and it just blows me away. So it’s good for their mental health as well, don’t you think?
Lina
Correct. Yes. So we were very blessed that he grew up in a community that was very open to his experience, but he knows that other children don’t have the same situation and the same upbringing that he had. So this is also one of the reasons why he is one of our teen ambassadors for our program, just to promote how this is so important for other kids that they get the opportunity to get these treatments, because it improves also their mental health, and in the way that some kids get bullied, and then these are some of the things that the foundations help the families on, how to address it. And it’s all about teaching our communities about how they look different and then, why do they look different? So it’s more about education, and also just to help these patients on how to handle these situations as they’re growing in a community that maybe are not as welcome as others.
Trish
That makes so much sense. And tell me, I know, like, how I’m guessing if you have I don’t know if I’m right or wrong, but if you do have a port wine mark, is this something that you have to have done for the rest of your life? And, like, how many treatments does Pablo have done?
Because I know, and it’s painful, isn’t it?
Lina
So yes, so the treatments are painful. This is just veins that are close to your skin and your face, especially the ones in the face and maybe the neck. It can be a painful experience. Patients that, like, in my son’s case, he will have to have treatments for the rest of his life. So we started at six months, and he has approximately 30 treatments so far, and he’s now 15. As the kids are growing, the port wines so those little veins keep growing. So when he was 5, you couldF see the port wines, but then when he just got his spurt between 5 and 10, the port wines came back.
And it’s not that they disappear, it’s just those vessels shrink a little and then, as they grow, so when he stops growing, then this is when we’re going to see, okay, where this port wine is going to be. And he will maintain treatments, hopefully once a year, when we get to that point where he feels more comfortable. And then we also, in his case, we’re protecting his eye, the health of his eye, because it covers part of his eye and his eyelid.
Trish
That, you know, these sorts of things aren’t funded by the government and, and Medicare or I’m not quite sure what the medical system is in America, but, how lucky are we that Sciton has now taken this on board themselves as a giveback program? I mean, you, you know, like it’s just so, you know, it’s such a great idea. Like I, I commend you for it, it’s fantastic.
Lina
We are just very excited for the support and extremely happy that we are able to help people around the world, because in some cases, they don’t have the information, because we have to educate patients. Some communities, for example, here in the Bay Area, the Latino community, are not aware of the different options that they have to treat these conditions, and when they are living untreated, so the health of the skin is changed, the texture, and it can become a facial malformation if it’s not treated. So we are trying to do so many things with our program, and it’s just helping these individuals and their families. Yes, unfortunately, some countries don’t cover; other countries cover, but they don’t have the latest technology, where we’ll provide the patient a different experience. Maybe in the future you can have Pablo as a guest to talk about his experience as a patient between one technology and another, and then how he helped his experience of, and then just for, especially for teenagers to have the decision to say, okay, I need a treatment, but they have to think about it twice when the experience is a little painful and they don’t have the best experience when they visit some of these clinics depending on the lasers that they have. So with Sciton technology right now, with the BBL HEROic and also with the 1064 that is our ClearV, that’s the perfect combination, where patients are more comfortable, and then they do have a smoother experience when they are having the treatments.
The treatments take a few minutes, it’s extremely fast, very little numbing is required, and definitely it just makes a big difference for them to this journey that they are doing with the treatments for their port wine stains and also for the scars, too, for some of the patients that we are helping with the scars.
Trish
That makes so much sense, and it’s interesting that you talked about, depending on the device that’s used, because at least with the, I mean, the Sciton devices, as far as I’m concerned and it’s pretty well known, they are the Bentley of the devices around the world.
Of, you know, of the, the devices around the world, so you also know, because it’s such a big investment for a practitioner, when they do purchase, a device, you know that you’re gonna get a, a really well-trained practitioner, and also, you also know that you’re gonna get the best device that’s on the market to actually treat that. How can, like, cause, I’m sure people are having treatment for this all around the world with different devices, but is, with the Sturge Weber Foundation that you were talking about, are they on board with Sciton Cares that if someone comes and they would recommend to approach Sciton Cares as well, or how can they do about it even more?
Lina
So right now, we have, with the two foundations, we just launched our landing pages that they have on their own websites where patients can find the services. So each foundation managed this program differently. The Sturge Weber Foundation managed the experience, where people fill out a form, where they apply, and then they explain their situation, and then they have a patient coordinator that will connect them with the clinics. With the Vascular Birth Foundation, what they do is that they have different groups around the world that are part of their foundation, and now that we have the landing page, they have sent the messages to all these parent groups to come and who are close to the cities to look for treatment. So we are, actually, last week was the American Academy of Dermatology, so that is when we decided to do our launch time for the foundations, so both foundations went live with their sites. So we invite you to visit us on our website, and also on their website. We will be adding links with the foundations for also patients to come and visit the foundations from our website in case they have additional questions.
Trish
Fantastic, and can I ask you, so how many countries around the world we’ve got already?
Lina
8, so we have a total of 8 countries, and this includes South Africa, Spain, US, Australia, UK, Chile, Canada; we have the Middle East, we have the Czech Republic, we have Venezuela, Poland, France, and I’m not sure if I mentioned Spain, but we also have Spain.
Trish
Yeah, you did actually, yeah, because it was the first one I thought of as well, so I thought, who’s in Spain? Look, one last question, how, where do you like, I mean, probably not even something anyone wants to feel anyway, but can you imagine how different Pablo’s life would be if you hadn’t jumped on board at the very beginning to actually, you know, help him through this process and to be aware of what was available for this?
Lina
Yeah, it just, and I see it with other families, because I’ve been in the, in the dermatology world for 25 years now, so immediately when he was born, the first thing that I did was just to call one of our friends and said, okay, here is what we have, and the first thing that he said was, please go get him, treat him right away, so that’s what we did, and we started at 6 months.
Other parents don’t have the same information, so it’s all about education, and again, it’s just for us, it’s just to continue helping our communities to understand that it’s important to get treated to avoid problems later on with the health of their skin and the health of their eyes, for those that are affected, for the marks on their face.
Trish
Look, I love the fact that, like, it’s a perfect slogan, Changing lives one treatment at a time, because there’s nothing better than having, like, this, the fact that Sciton started this global network program that actually gives access to life changing treatment, and you’ve managed to build a global network of clinics and practitioners that are dedicated to helping the families, individuals that have access to those laser treatments. I did want to ask you one last question.
I keep wanting one last question, one last question, but I did want to ask you the fact that, like, Sciton’s, you know, is all about gratitude, and it’s all about giving back, and I know that always listening to, you know, Aaron in particular talk, it’s always really inspiring for me, and it’s always about, you know, serving others, and I love that this ties in absolutely perfect with that as well.
Can I just ask you, when you first presented it to the company, like the fact that they took it on without any questions and stuff like that, like, you know, was that, like, did you have to do much?
Like, I mean, you must have known that they would be really open to something like this, hey?
Lina
It was a no brainer. Immediately, I have put it together, and the idea, when I presented it, was just like a go for it, and then it’s been, it’s going to be two years now in July, that we’ve been working on this program, so Pablo and I have been working directly with the doctors, and when we visit different countries, we are trying to recruit new doctors, and we’ve been extremely blessed to see all the different support from our leaders, our customers that are very interested in giving back to our communities, and they understand the needs.
We are also providing a specific, additional training for p hysicians as part of belonging to this club of giving back to the community, so some of our members that are extremely well prepared for vascular conditions are also, we’re going to be providing a little bit of additional education to our physicians that belong to our group, so that is one of the Sciton Cares members that they will be having the opportunity to be learning from experts like Dr Campo, Dr Jill Waibel, and then Dr Ibrahim, meaning how they can approach better their different cases in the different countries.
I would also like to mention Lourette in South Africa, that she’s been one of the biggest supporters of the program from the beginning, and she has been treating several patients so far, and has a beautiful audience that has been very supportive of the program and the amount of love that we have received and gratitude, not just from the patients, but also just from people in the different communities. We’re excited to grow this program. These are just the first steps, and then our goal for this year is to be able to treat at least 100 patients around the world, so let’s see. We have the goal for 2025, and then increase a few of our numbers, so we were going to be visiting additional countries in this year in different meetings promoting the program, and then now, with our Instagram as @scitoncares, and then also our website, scitoncares.com, people can come and visit and learn more about the program, and then how to sign in or how to get treated in the different countries that we have available.
Trish
Fantastic, and you know what, what I love as well, I love the, like, you mentioned before these really highly experienced practitioners, doctors, therapists, dermatologists, like the whole lot who are really experienced in what they do, but they’re happy to learn from the trainers and from other people who’ve gone through the experience.
Now I love the fact that Sciton Cares has built this little web within the web itself, if that makes sense.
Lina
Exactly, it’s just a community within our community. We are all becoming experts on vascular conditions, we are all close together learning new ways on how to bring a better experience to these patients. They are not only children, we have adults, and then we want to invite your audience to visit us at scitoncares.com to see some of the testimonials and the life changing experiences that we are starting to bring to all the people around the globe.
Trish
Yep. And how can practitioners get involved?
So just go to the website, go to scitoncares.com, and you can go to just the Get Involved tab as a Practitioner. What about a patient? How can a patient get involved?
Lina
Yes, correct. For the patients that would like to, that are looking for a treatment, so if they come through the foundations, they will need to fill out the form for the Sturge Weber Foundation, and then for those patients that come directly to our website, they can apply directly with the clinics for an opportunity to get in the program. So I just want to share that some clinics have limited numbers, so what the physicians are going to do is just to have a waiting list and have you there.
It depends on their time that they are generously donating for these patients.
So we will start just having, as we add more physicians to the list, we’re hoping that we can expand the list of providers, and then we will continue our work of helping the different communities, and then expanding to different countries too.
Trish
Fantastic. Look, I’ve got to say, I love the fact that your family mission has now become a company mission with the support of, you know, and all the physicians as well.
So well done to everyone.
Lina
It’s just such a, you know, it’s just so, thank you very much for having us.
We are very, very happy that we are able to do this work. It has been a dream of ours for many, many years. I have volunteered my time to teach other parents on how to approach this experience, and then we volunteer with the foundations to help others, and then now we are just bringing it to a different level because we got our beautiful partnership with our Sciton providers that are extremely helpful to just, to open their offices and their hearts to support some of these patients that we want to help.
Trish
That’s so good. Fantastic. And look, thank you so much for joining me today, and thank you for sharing that, and a big thank you to Sciton for, you know, giving back like this.
Lina
Thank you so much for having us, and just don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @scitoncares, and/or come and visit us on our website, scitoncares.com.
Trish
Fantastic. Thank you so much, Lina. And look, listen, if you do, you know, if you’ve missed any of that, or if you do need to get a little bit more information, feel free to DM me or flick me through an email through the Transforming Bodies podcast website, and I’ll pass you on to the Sciton Cares as well. So thank you so much for joining us today, Lina.
Lina
Thank you.
Trish
Have a great day. Bye.
