28 years of plastic surgery practice, now focused full-time on building the software he wished had existed when he was in the operating room.
Founder, 4D EMR
28 years of plastic surgery practice, now focused full-time on building the software he wished had existed when he was in the operating room.
Years In Practice
Patients Treated
Procedures Performed
Practices on 4D EMR
Dr. Robert Pollack spent 28 years as a plastic surgeon in San Diego, California, with a clinical focus on body contouring and reconstruction after massive weight loss. Over his career he treated more than 15,000 patients and became known for his refinement of the "drainless" tummy-tuck technique, an approach designed to eliminate post-operative drains and shorten patient recovery.
Throughout those years, one thing became inescapable: the software running his practice was almost always working against him. Systems were expensive, built by engineers who didn't understand the daily workflow of a busy aesthetic practice, and structured to extract as much money from doctors as possible through per-user fees, feature upcharges, and long-term contracts that made switching feel impossible.
Dr. Pollack founded 4D EMR to build the alternative. A platform designed around how aesthetic practices actually run, priced simply and transparently, with no lock-in and no data hostage-taking. Today, more than 200 aesthetic practices run their business on 4D EMR.
During his years in practice, Dr. Pollack concentrated on aesthetic and reconstructive body contouring, a subspecialty that requires both artistic judgment and long-form patient relationships. His work with post-massive-weight-loss patients, in particular, gave him extensive experience managing complex, multi-stage procedures that demand meticulous documentation and coordination between the office, the operating room, and the patient at home.
He became particularly known for his approach to abdominoplasty ("tummy-tuck") using a "drainless" technique, developed to reduce post-operative discomfort and shorten recovery for patients who traditionally faced weeks of managing surgical drains at home.
The everyday realities of managing this kind of practice, the photos, the pre-op and post-op documentation, the multi-appointment relationships, the payment plans, and the staff coordination, are what informed nearly every design decision in 4D EMR.
Dr. Pollack maintains active membership in the three professional societies most central to plastic and aesthetic surgery in the United States.
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
ASPS
The Aesthetic Society
Formerly ASAPS
American College of Surgeons
Fellow, FACS
These are Dr. Pollack's perspectives on the state of practice management software, and on the philosophy behind 4D EMR.
Dr. Pollack grew up in New Jersey before heading to Philadelphia for his undergraduate and medical training. His career eventually took him to Southern California, where the combination of coastline and community shaped where he chose to raise a family and build his practice.
When he's not working on 4D EMR, he's most often underwater. Scuba diving is a family activity in the Pollack household, a way of stepping fully away from the demands of building a company and being present with the people who matter most. He's also a devoted advocate for greyhound rescue.
Over the years, the Pollack family has adopted multiple retired racing greyhounds, and Dr. Pollack has become an active supporter of the retired-racer rescue community. Ex-racers are a specific and often-overlooked group of dogs, retired from tracks when they're still young and requiring homes that understand their history. It's a small cause, but a personal one, and it's the kind of thing that says something about the person behind the software company.
