--- title: A New Approach to Aesthetic Medicine After Decades of Established Categories. Shlomo Assa Is Building One description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/branded-content/apg/a-new-approach-to-aesthetic-medicine-after-decades-of-established-categories-shlomo-assa-is-building-one/ article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-21T17:56:00.154Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-21T17:36:24.573Z article:section: Branded Contributor Content og:title: A New Approach to Aesthetic Medicine After Decades of Established Categories. Shlomo Assa Is Building One og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt32dbc475665d42ac/6a85fc8921d98553bec4f87f/image1_(7).jpg?branch=production&width=1600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A New Approach to Aesthetic Medicine After Decades of Established Categories. Shlomo Assa Is Building One > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  Image credit: Acclaro Medical Image credit: Acclaro Medical The market for energy-based skin treatments has expanded considerably. The global market for these devices was estimated at[ $7.5 billion in 2025](https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/energy-based-aesthetic-devices-market-report) and is projected to more than double by 2033, according to Grand View Research. The technology underneath that growth is another story. The foundational architectures of ablative skin resurfacing, a notable treatment within the category, date to the mid-1990s. What followed was three decades of refinement. New delivery patterns, new interfaces, new marketing. The same underlying designs. Shlomo Assa looked at that landscape and reached a conclusion few insiders would say out loud. Despite the industry’s size, he saw an opportunity to explore a different technological approach. Assa is the co-founder and president of[ Acclaro Medical](https://ultraclearlaser.com/), based in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and the developer of what the company describes as a cold fiber laser designed for skin treatments. The bet he is making is not a better version of the machines the industry already knows. It represents what he describes as a distinct category of treatment. **The inventor’s method** Assa trained as an engineer, with degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering from the[ Technion](https://coruzant.com/profiles/shlomo-assa/) in Israel and a master’s in lasers and optics from Tel Aviv University. His career has been defined by creating products markets have never seen rather than improving ones they have. That record comes from a method he applies before any design work begins. Listen. Observe. Analyze. Then challenge the assumptions everyone else has stopped questioning. Applied to aesthetics, the method surfaced a question the field had long since filed away. The industry accepted heat, and the pain, downtime and pigmentation risk that come with it, as the price of effective treatment. Assa treated that price as a design failure waiting for an inventor. **A category, not a product** The distinction matters more than it sounds. A new product competes inside an existing market. A new category has to build its own, and that requires something no launch budget can buy quickly. Institutional credibility. Assa’s answer was imported from a more demanding industry. Fiber lasers are the workhorses of precision manufacturing, prized for beam quality, reliability and exact control over energy. Aesthetic medicine had largely ignored them. He built his platform around that architecture and paired it with a wavelength chosen for its absorption by water in the skin. According to the company, the technology removes tissue while limiting residual heat, an approach it describes as ‘cold ablation.’ Because heat can contribute to discomfort, downtime and pigmentation concerns, the design may make the treatment suitable for a broader range of patients. Acclaro says the platform,[ UltraClear](https://ultraclearlaser.com/), which made its[ U.S. debut in 2022](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-first-fda-approved-cold-ablative-fiber-laser-makes-us-debut-301534988.html) with FDA clearance, is designed for use across a range of skin types, including Fitzpatrick classifications associated with olive, brown and Black skin. **The evidence ladder** Since its debut, Acclaro has continued working to establish the technology as a distinct treatment category. The clinical literature is accumulating, most of it in the journal Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. In a[ full-face and neck study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38353284/), one blinded physician reviewer correctly identified 100 percent of subjects’ post-treatment photographs, and a second identified 93 percent. Subject satisfaction averaged 4.8 out of 5, with no infections, no scarring and no hypopigmentation reported. Cohorts remain small, which is standard for early device research, and an industry-sponsored trial[ registered on ClinicalTrials.gov](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07254884) is set to evaluate the technology for eyebrow lift, submental laxity and advanced facial aging. Independent recognition has followed.[ NewBeauty](https://www.newbeauty.com/awards/2026/in-office-post-procedure/ultraclear-laser) named the platform to its 2026 in-office treatment awards. “Resurfacing without the usual pigment anxiety is why UltraClear stands out,” said Tatiana Bido, the publication’s director of aesthetic content. **Building the ecosystem** Category creation also runs on people, and Acclaro has been investing in the physician ecosystem that sustains one. At the 2026 meetings of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery and Music City SCALE, laser specialists Dr. Michael Gold and Dr. Taryn Murray led dedicated sessions on fiber-enabled techniques. The company launched its UltraClear Visionaries Program, a community giving leading practitioners advanced education and early access to innovations. It appointed a sales director in Ireland to bring the platforms to European clinics. And Assa’s method keeps producing. A second platform,[ AuraLux](https://www.medestheticsmag.com/home/article/22964389/american-med-spa-association-amspa-acclaro-medical-showcases-auralux-2910-nm-fiber-laser-for-highimpact-rejuvenation-at-2026-amspa-annual-meeting), built on the same cold fiber laser technology, targets med spas and younger patients focused on prevention. One product is a device. Two products on a shared architecture start to look like a category. **Arriving as the market turns** The timing suggests the field is moving toward Assa rather than the other way around. Physicians at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery annual meeting identified[ regenerative and longevity-based care](https://www.dermatologytimes.com/view/highlighting-upcoming-aesthetic-innovations-in-2026) as a defining trend for 2026, Dermatology Times reported. Aesthetic medicine is being pulled into the larger and better-funded conversation about healthy aging, where a gentler, repeatable approach may offer an alternative to more intensive heat-based resurfacing treatments. Assa has framed his mission in those terms from the beginning, describing the goal as total skin health for patients of every age and every skin color, from prevention to deep repair. His stated ambition is to make Acclaro the dominant brand in the aesthetic industry, and to do it the way he always has. Not by improving what exists, but by inventing what does not. Whether the cold fiber laser becomes aesthetic medicine’s third great architecture is a question the market will settle over the next several years. What is already clear is that one inventor refused to accept that a multibillion-dollar industry had reached the end of its ideas. The industry spent 30 years optimizing. Assa spent that conviction on something new. _This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/apg/a-new-approach-to-aesthetic-medicine-after-decades-of-established-categories-shlomo-assa-is-building-one/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/apg/a-new-approach-to-aesthetic-medicine-after-decades-of-established-categories-shlomo-assa-is-building-one/"},"headline":"A New Approach to Aesthetic Medicine After Decades of Established Categories. 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