In a recent article, USA Today reported that “a soaring number of doctors who trained in other medical specialties” are turning to “the more lucrative field of cosmetic surgery. Because state laws governing office-based surgeries often are lax, levels of training vary so widely that some doctors are performing cosmetic procedures after only a weekend observing other doctors.”  Procedures done by such doctors can have “disastrous” results, but “there’s no shortage of patients: An aging – and often overweight – population is willing to spend money on cosmetic procedures, and people often are seeking lower-cost options to board-certified, sometimes higher-priced” physicians.  But there are no reliable numbers to compare problems that occur in surgeries performed by board-certified physicians versus problems in procedures performed by non-certified doctors “because doctors are not required to report complications to medical authorities. In addition, states don’t break down deaths by type of doctor involved, and physicians aren’t required to report that they are doing surgeries outside their specialties.”Dr. Elizabeth Anderson is Board-Certified in Dermatology.  Unlike many cosmetic dermatologists and plastic surgeons in Knoxville, she personally performs each procedure, including Botox Cosmetic and Fraxel Laser, herself rather than having a technician or aesthetician perform the procedure.