Austin entrepreneurs launch electromagnet company

Three Austin entrepreneurs have started a new company focused on electromagnetic therapy.

By Dan Zehr
American-Statesman STAFF
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Three Austin entrepreneurs have teamed up for what might be one of their most ambitious projects — trying to take a piece of alternative medicine to the mainstream.

Barry Thornton, Bill Hayden and Andrew Heller have backed Austin Medical Research and its new Dyna-Pulse device, which they say relieves pain, reduces swelling and helps eliminate sleeping disorders without side effects, pills or injections.

 

Deborah Rae Turner
AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Barry Thornton of Austin Medical Research developed the Dyna-Pulse, a device used for electromagnetic therapy. The device's circuitry uses pulses of energy to interact with tissues and soothe pain, swelling and other ailments. 'This technology is right on the cusp of making the transition into legitimate medicine,' Thornton says. 2 3 4

Thornton, who helped launch ClearCube Technology Inc., developed the device and will run the company. Hayden, whose list of business startups includes 360Commerce Inc., is one of the primary investors in the firm. And Heller, a former IBM fellow who worked with Thornton on ClearCube's blade PCs, has lent his money and advice to the project.

The Dyna-Pulse is a new take on pulsed electromagnetic therapy, which uses low-level pulses of energy to interact with tissues and soothe pain, swelling and other ailments. Multiple studies have shown that the therapy works, and doctors for years have used pulses of electromagnetic energy to help mend bone fractures that refuse to heal.

But this type of therapy floats in a sort of limbo, close to mainstream but regarded as alternative medicine.

"This technology is right on the cusp of making the transition into legitimate medicine," Thornton says. "I want to commercialize it."

But here's the catch: No one has proved how pulsed electromagnetic therapy really works.

"The Holy Grail for this therapy and any other therapy is to find the mechanism of its action," says Mary Johnson, an associate professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine and author of several studies on the therapy. "The precise mechanism of action for every tissue and cell hasn't been teased out yet.

"But these electromagnetic fields have a therapeutic effect," she says. "They reduce inflammation and help alleviate pain."

Thornton said he thinks he has found the grail — the underlying science that explains why the therapy works — and in so doing can build a better product.

The device delivers a pulse of electromagnetic energy to a sore spot. Simply put, the pulse cleans off a layer of debris that sometimes forms around ions in the bloodstream, so the ions then can better interact with cells. That helps the cells release waste and pull in nourishment, Thornton says, giving tissues what he calls a "micro-massage."

The hard part is shaping the pulse, wave and frequency on a case-by-case basis to get the best results. And if his theory is correct, Austin Medical Research will have a leg up on how best to shape the electromagnetic pulse. The firm also will start a database to compile information on how to best shape the therapy for different people and problems.

"It's not something off the wall," Heller says. "It's science, it's not about finding the natural resonance of aliens."

The Dyna-Pulse will sell for about $400 on the low end. Systems designed for practitioners, complete with a software and analysis package, will sell for about $3,500.

Thornton warns that the device is not a cure for anything. Think of it as ibuprofen without the pharmaceuticals. And other than the therapy designed to help mend stubborn bone fractures, none of the myriad small companies with a pulsed electromagnetic device has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Because it's a not a drug, and it's not touted as a cure for anything, Thornton says, the Dyna-Pulse doesn't require FDA approval. But an FDA certification — and the legitimacy that comes with it — would send sales soaring, especially because it would open the door for insurance companies to pay for the therapy. But that will come only with more conclusive testing.

"If I can get some third parties to do scientific testing," he says. "That will be my salvation — if someone else tries to shoot me down."

He'll likely find plenty of archers aiming for him. Several researchers, including some involved with companies developing similar devices, say they would wait to find out more information about Dyna-Pulse before commenting on it. Although they all say they want to see pulsed electromagnetic therapy become more mainstream, they're skeptical about making it sound like more than it is.

"There's a lot of chaff, but there's wheat there, too," says Allen Rosenspire, an immunology and microbiology researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Rosenspire earned one of a handful of grants to study the therapy from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

He says the therapy helps reduce pain and swelling but hasn't seen a conclusive reason why.

Even the FDA-approved bone-fracture therapy hasn't been fully explained, he says.

Rosenspire compares it to global warming. Scientists have been studying it for decades, but no one knows each precise interaction between every cause and effect. A conclusive explanation will take a large number of experiments, a large number of errors and eventually a broad scientific consensus.

"This may be their theory, and they may in fact be right," Rosenspire says of Thornton's claims. "And it's quite possible their device might actually work, even if they've got the theory wrong."

For now, the underlying science might not make a whit of difference for Dr. Jarrod Bagley's patients at Corrective Chiropractic in Austin. Bagley has been testing the Dyna-Pulse device with about 90 patients.

"Everyone has had positive feedback," he says, "but I can't specify what it's from."

In almost all cases, Bagley has been using other therapies in addition to a Dyna-Pulse prototype. On the handful of patients he used only the electromagnetic therapy, Bagley says, almost all reported improvement.

Those positive reports are what has Thornton and Heller excited about the therapy's prospects. And it's what gives their venture a different twist. For potential customers, what matters is that it works, not how.

"It might be more important to prove there's a market for something, then let the market help you perfect it," Thornton says. "It's the ultimate customer feedback model."