About Us
PhotoMed Technologies, Inc
About our founder - Allan Gardiner
PhotoMed Technologies, Inc. and its quest to solve intractable pain and impaired functioning using photobiomodulation result from seeds planted by my family and neighbors in my childhood. We spent time together despite obstacles from paraplegia, polio, and chronic pain.
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My favorite uncle, Joe, was paraplegic from an accident. We went fishing and boating. Uncle Joe never mentioned being disabled.
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​A neighbor, Mr. Wright, had hands like soft rubber from his polio. He taught my 9-year-old hands how to make home repairs and to do wiring. My reward was fresh cookies and milk. Mr. Wright never mentioned being disabled.
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​My friend, John, had juvenile diabetes. His tomorrows weren’t a sure thing. John shared his gratitude each time we met. Technologies kept him from going blind at 18 but didn't relieve his numb feet. After his heart attack at 23, he made the intensive care nurses laugh because "they needed to relax".
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Each person and many others showed me problems that needed to be solved. Their hope was that someone might solve the basic problems endured by millions.
I've got to thank my dad for teaching me the value of failure. He was a research chemist. He taught me the joys of experimentation. The lesson was simple. A successful experiment is finished. A failed experiment begs new questions. Dad quipped that at least I would not be burned at the stake for making discoveries.
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My first startup (1972) was central to putting the “silicon” in Silicon Valley. The company created measuring tools needed to make the early hard disk drives. Later, the company created tools that kept Intel, AMD, IBM, and others on Moore’s Law. I successfully exited in 1998. The company successfully exited in 2000 for $320M.
My next chapter followed quickly. (1999) My friend, Wayne, called me to tell me about his dad who had painfully cold feet from diabetic neuropathy. They were walking in a mall. But your dad rides a wheelchair, I exclaimed. That was 3 days ago thanks to the new “infrared therapy”. Wayne continued; you’d be interested in the thermal imaging that showed us the warming at the instant when the therapy started working.
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I went to see for myself. The thermal imaging was the hook because the therapy took too long to be practical. Imagining could help make the therapy more efficient. I didn’t know that relieving diabetic neuropathy wasn’t possible according to conventional thinking.
I asked the practitioner; how did you choose the wavelength for the therapy? The practitioner Constance Haber, D.C., replied it’s the only one I’ve got.
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What if you could select any visible wavelength and vary it? Her excitement confirmed the inspirations of variable-wavelength therapy and the use of real-time feedback. 6 U.S. Patents have been issued.
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The new therapy solves one problem that limits conventional therapies; more of the same wavelength if the first try doesn’t work.
Figure 1 - Depiction of the differences between fixed-wavelength and the variable-wavelength therapy.
I formed a PhotoMed’s team to develop the inventions. Unfortunately, the outcomes were so complete that they were unbelievable according to conventional thinking. The few anecdotes in the literature were heavily discounted.
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The anesthesiologist, neurologist, and neurosurgeon advisors were puzzled that the outcomes of the nascent therapy seem so normal. Especially because the patients arrived with problems that no one, including the team, thought might improve.
It was exciting to watch successes but heart-wrenching when the therapy didn't work.
I almost pulled the plug on the project in 2003 when the outcomes were sooo unbelievable by any doctor that I even mentioned the possibilities. (This problem hasn’t changed.) Was it the restoration of near normal sensation lost to diabetes or chemo? Or, that the therapy improved gait and swallowing in a man having Huntington’s disease who was able to leave assisted living and live independently?
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The team developed sophisticated recording systems to document the increasingly common but still unpredicted events. You can see a few steps along the trek here: https://www.photomedtech.com/history
The plug stayed in because my childhood friend, Kristin, fell on ice and broke her arm. Her career as a Registered Critical Care Nurse was over, according to the pain specialist. She called, could my new therapy help her? Should I take the risk of failure or just say no? Kristin went to Dr. Haber’s clinic. 3 sessions later, her pain was gone. Kristin went back to work for 15 years, retired, and enjoys life with her grandkids.
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Real-time recordings from 500+ volunteers in 7 feasibility studies across 5 states show events that remain unpredicted.
The team and I still find it hard to believe the outcomes from a few photons.
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Engineers, like me, use models to test observations that might lead to making the processes more efficient.
By mid-2022, the how-it-works quest stumbled upon a reason for the failures. We had accepted the concept of a “new normal” that was inescapable because the term “chronic” does not have an exit strategy.
What if “chronic” means that the automation of healing has stopped?
Could the healing systems be waiting for the “right” signals to resume their ordinary tasks? Don’t most injuries heal completely?
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Isn’t healing what keeps things living? It just works. For example, taking the energy from the “right” photons to improve mitochondrial functioning.wellness
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Could non-healing wounds resume healing while you watch because the variable-wavelength therapy has many of the needed “right” photons?
Practitioners can now replicate the crazy-fast responses and outcomes using the Varichrome® Pro.
Could the outcomes shown simply be like running the first 4-minute mile? What might happen if patients and their doctors believe that healing is possible?
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I look forward to hearing your comments, questions, and suggestions.
Figure 2 Depiction showing that healing is like gravity. Both are inevitable unless blocked.