Brief Discussion: Medicolegal Aspects of Consent and Checklists for Common Cosmetic Procedures

Minimally invasive cosmetic procedures have become increasingly popular in both private and academic dermatology settings. Patient informed consent and preprocedure and postprocedure checklists are vital for both excellent patient care and medicolegal protection for patient and practitioner. In private settings, procedures tend to be performed by a single individual with consistent quality and unified standards; this is seldom the case in academic settings, where patients are typically seen by different providers (residents) over multiple visits. To ensure standardization and consistent quality of care for patients undergoing cosmetic procedures, we have developed practical consents and preprocedure and postprocedure checklists for some common cosmetic procedures performed at our institution.