Yap expanding Apex Acne Club to underserviced rural areas - Jamaica Observer
Dermatologist Dr Patricia Yap will next month open a second branch of her Apex Acne Club in Mandeville, and from there plans a foray into the rural market place.
Speaking with Sunday Finance about the response she has received since launching Apex Acne Club, Yap said that while the reception has been positive, she has been unable to satisfactorily tap into rural markets because of the long distance between those areas and her offices in Kingston. But this will be be resolved next month when she opens a club in Mandeville, saving deterrant time and travelling expenses for persons in that city.
"We have a lot of our main areas that's not being served especially in the South," said Yap, noting "We're actually accommodating them by having one on a month to month basis starting in September."
The demand that is realised there may be the start of an expansion into other parishes with trained personnel being on hand to assist the club's members, she added.
Yap was motivated to become a dermatalogist because of the debilitating effect she personally knows acne can have on persons -- coupled with her recognition that there were relatively few treatments for persons of darker complexion and even fewer available to Jamaicans. Indeed, Yap said, when she was 15 years old, it was unlikely she looked in a mirror three times due to painful awareness of her acne-prone skin.
"There is a knowledge gap with persons who have acne and us, the professionals who know how to treat acne. And of course there's a financial gap that you have to breach," she said.
It was in attemtping to bridge this gap that Apex Acne Club was formed earlier this year. Located at Regal Plaza in Cross Roads, Yap was determined to help persons treat acne and its related conditions, which had them walking into her offices with towels draped over their heads.
"We have it a couple days a week, confine it to certain hours in the afternoon to accommodate students, mainly the people who have no control over their finances," said Yap, reiterating that the treatment offered in the Club generally cost no more than products offered over-the-counter.
What's more is that there is another planned expansion of the enterprise to include a new concept, Apex Skin Institute, which will train persons who already have some experience in maintaining good skin.
Stating that she caters to a demand, Yap said she has been asked by several persons to help them improve the services they offer. The Institute begins next week and will target persons with cosmetological experience, training them to assist and advise persons with acne.
"I can actually help them to treat the minor part of the acne, so it's increasing their knowledge so they can bridge that gap between a doctor and a cosmetologist...They're what we call skin therapists."
28 Aug, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFYxpIwCrFPvNttfcCxVExsVwy21A&url=http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/Yap-expanding-Apex-Acne-Club-to-underserviced-rural-areas_9532613
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