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Tahoe Medical Spa offers advanced laser training

Dianne Browning
Special to the Bonanza
Rebecca Gelber, MD consults with a patient at Tahoe Medical Spa.
Courtesy Joy Strotz |

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — When Rebecca Gelber opened her private practice at Tahoe Medical Spa three years ago, her only regret was saying goodbye to teaching.

After all, this graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine had been named “Teacher of the Year” at UC Davis in Sacramento before beginning her 10-year stint as a teaching associate at UN Reno.

“Our home is in Incline Village,” she explains, “so it was a lifestyle decision to make the change. I needed to simplify my life by dropping the long commute, for starters.”



Also, after 18 years in emergency medicine, the doctor had lasted longer than most in a specialty known for its high burn-out rate.

“Another personal goal was to work with happy, healthy patients for a change,” Gelber said. “So I made the commitment to two years of traveling around the country to train with experts in various aspects of aesthetic medicine.”



Many people in the medical community warned Gelber and her husband and business partner, Matthew, that their practice would fail, that the population in Incline Village was not large enough to support such a business.

But they quickly proved the naysayers wrong.

Today, Tahoe Medical Spa’s rapid success has attracted quite a bit of attention in the high-end laser community. The best medical lasers cost upward of $300,000, and most physicians struggle to pay them off.

Because the Gelbers’ laser practice was successful from day one, it didn’t take long for Sciton, America’s premier medical laser manufacturer, to take notice.

Sciton laser customers are now routinely encouraged to travel to Lake Tahoe for training sessions with Rebecca Gelber.

Word has also spread beyond this referral source about this skilled practitioner’s pioneering approach to the art and practice of aesthetic medicine.

Over the past year, dozens of dermatologists, plastic surgeons, their staff and other laser professionals have come from as far away as Vancouver, Canada, along with numerous California locales — San Francisco, Carmel, San Jose, Monterey, Marin and Redding — for advanced training in Incline Village.

Course work at Tahoe Medical Spa’s typically three-day weekend sessions runs the gamut from demonstrating the fine points of ultra-light micro-laser peels, all the way to deep full-field laser resurfacing.

Always of special interest to trainees are Dr. Gelber’s signature strategies for combining multiple modality treatments in a single session.

“The secret to ensuring satisfied patients is to optimize results while minimizing recovery time,” she explains. “Plus, it’s the tiny details that take treatments from average to exceptional.”

To accommodate students, Tahoe Medical Spa has leased an additional office suite for classroom space directly above their current medical offices.

Is this expansion consistent with her goal of simplifying her life?

“No, but I can’t complain about the commute,” she says with a grin. “And when it comes to working with happy healthy patients, I’ve really made the grade. Plus, I’m surprised and delighted to be teaching again … especially in such a beautiful place as Lake Tahoe.”

More information about Rebecca Gelber, MD, and Tahoe Medical Spa, located at 770 Northwood Blvd. in Incline Village, may be found at http://www.tahoemedicalspa.com or by calling the office at 775-298-1750.


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