Beauty brand founders may want to consider making appointments with their doctors. Skincare sales in the physicians’ channel surged 6% to $900 million in 2016, the latest year for which data is available, according to Kline. While the segment is growing, it’s ruled by large brands—Kline names SkinCeuticals, SkinMedica and Obagi as the top three professional skincare players—that have perennially been dominant. Doctors are looking for second, third and fourth skincare opinions. “They are a lot more open now than in the past to bringing on different brands to try and see how they do,” pronounces Sarah Engel, vice president at Physician’s Beauty Group. Beauty Independent didn’t obtain a medical degree to share tidbits about doctor’s offices, but we did speak to several experts about distribution at medical locations to ascertain information about the preferred protocols for skincare brands seeking to get their products to patients.