Who can be a med spa medical director in Georgia?
This is the requirement owners are least aware of, and the one most likely to invalidate an arrangement that reads perfectly well on paper.
The short answer
A Georgia physician whose specialty is comparable to the procedures being delegated (Rule 360-32-.04(3)), who is trained in each modality they oversee, and whose principal place of practice — where they treat patients more than half the time — is in Georgia or within 50 miles of your clinic.
There is no published list of approved specialties. For an aesthetic practice, procedural specialties — dermatology, plastic surgery, facial plastic surgery, emergency medicine — are the defensible matches.
What “comparable” means for an aesthetic practice
Rule 360-32-.04(3): no physician may enter into a nurse protocol agreement with an APRN whose specialty area or field is not comparable to the physician's own. Comparability is read against the work actually delegated: if your APP performs procedures, your physician should come from a specialty that performs procedures and manages their complications — vascular occlusion, burns, infection, anaphylaxis, airway.
A family medicine or general internal medicine physician with no procedural component to their practice is a far harder case to make. That is not a judgment of those physicians; it is that the rule measures comparability against the delegated act. The Board's APRN guidance treats a mismatch as a deficiency that cannot be cured.
Principal place of practice: the problem national platforms have not solved
The Board's APRN protocol registration requirements put the delegating physician's principal place of practice — where they treat patients more than 50% of the time — in Georgia, or within 50 miles of where the protocol is used. Virtual addresses, P.O. boxes, and hourly or daily flex rental space do not qualify. A physician whose real practice is in another state does not acquire a Georgia principal place of practice by listing your med spa as their address.
Training in each modality
For lasers it is explicit: Rule 360-35-.06(c) requires a consulting physician trained in laser physics, safety, technique, pre- and post-operative care, and complications. No Georgia rule names an injectables course, but the physician remains responsible for every delegated act under O.C.G.A. § 43-34-23 and cannot meaningfully oversee a technique they have never performed.
Five questions to ask a prospective medical director
- What is your specialty, and which of these procedures do you perform yourself?
- What documented training do you hold in injectables and in lasers?
- How often will you be physically on site, and is that written into the agreement?
- Who files the nurse protocol agreement, and will I receive proof of Board acceptance?
- Where is your principal place of practice, and is it within 50 miles of my clinic?
The answers should be immediate. The last one matters most.
How Local Medical Directors helps
Local Medical Directors is physician-owned, and every physician we place is board certified, practices in Georgia, and comes from a procedural specialty with documented injectable and laser training.
Can a family medicine doctor be a med spa medical director in Georgia?
Rule 360-32-.04(3) requires the physician's specialty to be comparable to the APRN's delegated work. A family medicine physician whose own practice has no procedural component is difficult to reconcile with that rule for an aesthetic practice, and the Board lists specialty mismatch among deficiencies that cannot be cured.
Can an out-of-state physician be my Georgia med spa's medical director?
The Board requires the delegating physician's principal place of practice — where they treat patients more than half the time — to be in Georgia or within 50 miles of where the protocol is used. Virtual addresses, P.O. boxes, and flex rental space do not qualify.
What is a ghost medical director?
A physician who signs the agreement and provides little or no genuine clinical oversight. In its May 7, 2026 position statement the Georgia Composite Medical Board said it would evaluate arrangements on substance rather than form and named fee-based physician-matching services directly.