(FORTUNE Magazine) – It's the latest example of real life imitating reality TV: In late November, Johns Hopkins Medicine will help open a $1.5 million facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., to provide extreme makeovers. Picking up on hit TV shows like Nip/Tuck and Extreme Makeover, the 11,000-square-foot spa, called the Advanced Aesthetics Institute (AAI), will offer surgery, dentistry, and other image enhancers under one roof.

Richard Rakowski, a venture capitalist at Kidd & Co., came up with the idea for AAI two years ago, after having a 50th birthday eye-lift. He formed AAI--"The Dream Team of Self-Esteem," as he calls it--and then struck the deal with Hopkins last year. For a yet-to-be-determined fee, Hopkins will set medical guidelines and supervise employees at the 30 facilities AAI plans to open in the next six years.

Craig A. Vander Kolk, a plastic surgeon at Hopkins, insists that the institution isn't just cashing in on the TV craze, as the school has provided plastic surgery for years. These days TV and real life aren't so far apart anyway: A plastic surgeon and a dentist on AAI's board appear regularly on Extreme Makeover. --David Stires