Chief operating officer of BCAM Sadie Van Sanden-Cooke reflects on 25 years of BCAM and the future of patient-centred medical aesthetics
As the British College of Aesthetic Medicine (BCAM) marks its 25th anniversary, the moment invites reflection not just on how far the sector has come, but on where it may be heading. While medical aesthetics predates this milestone, the past quarter century has seen the specialty move from a relatively niche, medically led discipline into a vast and rapidly expanding specialty that is now firmly embedded in mainstream culture.
“For me, the biggest shift has been the scale and accessibility of treatments,” says Sadie Van Sanden-Cooke, chief operating officer (COO) of BCAM. “20 or so years ago medical aesthetics was still relatively exclusive. Botulinum toxin and dermal fillers were not widely understood by the public and were largely sought by a small, often affluent demographic. Today the treatments are recognised by almost everyone and are accessible to people across all age groups.”
Governance, regulation and patient safety
