Does a med spa in Connecticut need a medical director?

Short answer
Not a titled "medical director" — but every Connecticut med spa must employ or contract with a licensed physician, physician assistant, or APRN who is actively practicing in the state and has training and experience in cosmetic medical procedures.

Connecticut names, by statute, exactly who may perform a cosmetic medical procedure in a medical spa: the physician, physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse the spa employs or contracts with, or a registered nurse. The active-practice and training-plus-experience requirements attach to the physician, physician assistant and advanced practice registered nurse the spa engages — the statute adds the registered nurse separately, without restating those conditions. Failing to supervise a physician assistant adequately is a separate ground for restricting a physician’s license. The cosmetology chapter then says what an ESTHETICIAN may not do: esthetics means skin-care services — cleansing, toning, stimulating, exfoliating or similar procedures using cosmetic preparations, hands, devices, apparatus or appliances to enhance or improve the appearance of the skin, makeup application, lash and brow work, and manual or mechanical hair removal — and EXCLUDES the use of a prescriptive laser device, the performance of a cosmetic medical procedure as defined in the medical spa statute, and any practice, activity or treatment that constitutes the practice of medicine. The medical spa statute’s non-exhaustive list of cosmetic medical procedures names dermaplaning, dermastamping, dermarolling and dermabrasion that removes cells beyond the stratum corneum, as well as class II devices designed to induce deep skin tissue alteration.