How to Choose a Regenerative Medicine Clinic

Ask who is actually delivering the treatment

In many clinics, the person who consults with you is not the person who treats you, and the person who treats you may not be a physician at all. Regenerative injections and infusions are frequently delegated to staff with widely varying training.

Ask where the biologics come from, and ask for the paperwork

This is the question that separates serious clinics from the rest, and most patients never think to ask it.

Cell and tissue products used in regenerative medicine are regulated as human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products. Establishments that process them are required to register with the FDA. A clinic should be able to tell you which establishment supplied your product and show you the documentation.

A warning worth taking seriously: if a clinic tells you its therapy is "FDA-approved," that is a claim you should treat with real skepticism. Mesenchymal cell therapies used in regenerative medicine are not FDA-approved products. A clinic that blurs this is either careless with language or hoping you will not notice, and neither is what you want in someone handling your biology.

Ask what the evidence actually supports, and where it runs out

There is real published research in regenerative medicine, and there is also a large gap between what the research supports and what gets advertised. Both things are true at once.

What a good answer sounds like: specific, qualified, and willing to distinguish between conditions. Evidence for orthopedic and joint applications is more developed than evidence for systemic and longevity applications. A clinician who describes every application with equal confidence is telling you something about their relationship with evidence.

Ask who they turn away

The single most useful question you can ask, and the one that produces the most revealing silence.

Every legitimate clinic in this field declines patients. If a clinic cannot immediately name the situations in which it says no, it does not have a candidacy standard. It has a sales process.

Ask what happens if it does not work

A clinic with a real protocol has an answer involving repeat labs, imaging, or objective markers at defined intervals. A clinic without one will talk about how everyone is different.

Ask about cost before you go in

Any clinic unwilling to discuss cost before a consultation is managing you. In a cash-pay category, price opacity is a tactic.