In British Columbia, physicians hold the broadest authority in aesthetic medicine: assess and inject independently, prescribe the products, and direct a team of nurse injectors under your orders. A two-day, hands-on Botox & dermal filler certification taught surgeon-to-physician by Dr. Eli Akbari, MD, FRCSC — built to the competence standard CPSBC expects.
No separate CPSBC endorsement, permit or “aesthetics licence” exists. Your licence already carries the authority — the requirement is competence.
Botulinum toxin is a Schedule I prescription drug; dermal fillers are prescription medical devices. As the prescriber, you satisfy both — personally.
RNs and LPNs inject under your client-specific orders. You oversee — the medical-director model that decouples income from your own chair time.
No other profession enters aesthetic medicine from higher ground. Under the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC), a fully licensed physician needs no additional permit to provide cosmetic injectables — the framework rests on the licence you already hold.
Assess the patient, select the product, and administer botulinum toxin and dermal fillers yourself — independently. CPSBC imposes no facial-zone or product restriction on physicians beyond competence, so areas that are off-limits or higher-supervision for delegated nurse work remain open to you.
Independent PracticeBotulinum toxin is a Schedule I prescription drug; hyaluronic-acid fillers are prescription medical devices. You are entitled to prescribe both — and to generate the client-specific orders that authorize RNs and LPNs to inject. That single fact makes the prescriber — physician or NP — the keystone of every aesthetics clinic in BC, and puts you in the strongest seat to fill it.
Schedule I AuthorityServe as the medical director of a nurse-led clinic: provide orders after appropriate assessment, set protocols, oversee competence, remain available to intervene, and manage complications. You supervise the practice — you do not have to personally hold every syringe.
Delegation FrameworkThe single limit CPSBC places on you is competence — practise only where you have appropriate training, experience and currency. That is precisely what this certification builds, and documents.
Cosmetic injectables are not medically necessary services and sit entirely outside MSP: private, cash-pay, billed per unit of toxin and per syringe of filler, priced at your discretion. No fee schedule. No billing caps. And because you can delegate, the ceiling is not your own hands.
Begin with a half-day of injectables each week alongside your existing practice. The work is booked, elective and predictable — a controlled way to diversify income while you build a case log and a following.
You inject — on your scheduleGrow injectables into a dedicated clinic day — or a dedicated clinic. Patients place a premium on a physician injector's credentials and ability to manage complications, and demand for facial aesthetics continues to grow across age groups.
You lead — patients seek the MDThe destination model. Trained RN and LPN injectors treat under your client-specific orders while you assess, oversee and handle complex cases. Your clinical oversight becomes leveraged, recurring income — a practice whose revenue no longer scales one-to-one with your own injecting hours, while you remain available and responsible.
Your team injects — you directPhysicians ask sharper regulatory questions than anyone else in the room — so here are the answers, sourced from CPSBC and CMPA materials, without the fog. The short version: the road is open, and the path is clearer than you think.
BC regulators do not accredit or endorse private courses — no course can truthfully claim otherwise. The CIFAM curriculum is built to the competence standard CPSBC expects, and your certificate and supervised case log document that training for insurers, employers and the College.
CPSBC sets no dedicated curriculum or exam for aesthetic medicine. Its expectation is functional: practise only in areas where you have appropriate training, experience and currency, and be able to assess, treat and manage complications — vascular occlusion, ptosis, infection. A structured hands-on certification with live-patient supervision, combined with the medical foundation you already hold, is the accepted way to meet and evidence that standard.
CPSBC's Change of Scope policy (effective April 1, 2026) requires licensees entering a genuinely new area of practice to notify the registrar in writing and not begin until any required training is approved. Whether adding basic injectables counts as a formal change of scope — or simply a competency acquired within your existing practice — is not spelled out in a dedicated aesthetics standard.
The practical path is exactly what this program provides: recognized hands-on certification, a supervised case log, and records you retain. And if you are ever unsure, CPSBC itself invites licensees to contact its licensing department — one call settles it.
NHMSFAP facility accreditation is driven by anesthetic depth, not by the word “cosmetic.” Botox and filler treatments performed under topical numbing cream or simple local infiltration are minor office procedures, and CPSBC notes some such procedures are not subject to accreditation review. Accreditation is triggered if you escalate — procedural sedation, tumescent anesthesia, surgery. Planning beyond simple injectables? Confirm your setup with NHMSFAP first.
Contact CMPA before you begin and confirm your type of work reflects cosmetic procedures — CMPA maintains a specific category (code 37) for minor cosmetic procedures performed in an office under local anesthetic. Elective work carries a heightened informed-consent standard, which is why consent, documentation and complication protocols are taught as core curriculum in this program, not an afterthought.
You have sat through enough lectures pitched at the lowest common denominator. This is not one of them.
Dr. Eli Akbari, MD, FRCSC, is a double board certified facial plastic surgeon — University of Calgary MD, five years of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery residency at UBC, and fellowship training in Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Toronto. She teaches injectables the way surgeons think: anatomy first, danger zones mapped, complications rehearsed before they ever happen.
For physicians, that changes the level of the conversation. You already know the pharmacology and the consent law — so the weekend is spent where it counts: assessment, injection technique on live models under her direct supervision, and the judgment calls that separate a competent injector from a confident one.
Anatomy and product theory, examined; then supervised hands-on injecting of botulinum toxin and dermal fillers on live models — provided by us — at Monarch MD in West Vancouver, BC. Small cohorts, direct supervision, and a documented case log to anchor your competence file.
One weekend. Two credentials, if you choose the bundle. Certify in neuromodulators, dermal fillers, or both — and leave with the training file your competence record is built on.
A question we have not covered? Book a call and put it to Dr. Akbari directly.
There is no aesthetics permit to apply for. CPSBC's expectation is that you practise only where you have appropriate training, experience and currency — and whether basic injectables amount to a formal change of scope is not settled in a dedicated aesthetics standard. Complete recognized training, keep your certificate and case log, and if unsure, call CPSBC's licensing department: the College explicitly invites that conversation.
Almost certainly not for standard injectables. Accreditation is driven by anesthesia depth, and Botox or filler under topical or simple local is a minor office procedure — CPSBC notes some such procedures are not subject to accreditation review. Sedation, tumescent anesthesia or surgery would change the answer, so confirm with NHMSFAP if your plans extend past simple injectables.
Contact CMPA before you start and confirm your type of work reflects cosmetic procedures — there is a specific category (code 37) for minor cosmetic procedures performed in an office under local anesthetic. Assistance eligibility depends on your classification being accurate, so update it rather than assume.
Yes. RNs and LPNs in BC may inject botulinum toxin and fillers under a client-specific order from an authorized prescriber — you — issued after appropriate assessment. You ensure each nurse is competent, remain available to intervene, and stay professionally responsible. It is the strongest structural advantage a physician holds in this field.
For starting basic treatments, a reputable hands-on course with live-model injecting, complication management and documentation — layered on your existing medical training — generally satisfies CPSBC's competence expectation. Advanced zones (tear trough, nose, jawline, cannula work) warrant further training and mentorship before you offer them or supervise others doing them.
Enrollment is open to licensed medical professionals: MD, DMD/DDS, NP, RN and LPN. Cohorts are deliberately mixed — physicians frequently attend alongside the nurses they will later supervise, which makes the delegation model concrete from day one.
Two days in West Vancouver. Live models provided. A certificate and case log that document your competence for CPSBC, CMPA and every clinic you will ever direct. Final seats remaining.
