How to “Mine Your Mind” & the Medical Literature for Ideas In Medicine
& Then Market those Ideas to Change Lives and Make Money
In 1983, while working as a physical chemist at Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, my mentor and boss, Dr. Gary Sides, gave me one of the most valuable pieces of advice I ever received.
Soon after I started to work there, he said, “We just bid on a project; I need to write the proposal to receive the grant. You have one week to make me an expert. If you define the subject matter narrow enough, you can read everything that has ever been written about it (and the significant references within what you read) in a week–and now you are a world expert.”
Twenty-seven years later, in 2010, when I first came up with the O-Shot® procedure, you could read everything of significance (and I did) about injecting around the female urethra to help with incontinence in two days. You could read everything about injecting around the urethra to improve sex in an hour.
When I came up with the idea for the P-Shot® procedure, nothing was written about injecting the penis with PRP (so you had to spend a half day figuring out that there was nothing to read, and I did); a few papers were out about using stem cells in the penis–you could read all of that in a day. So, I read for a day and a half, and then I read everything I could find about PRP of significance (that took a month, and I used PRP in the face for three months; then, in 2010, after three months, I developed the P-Shot® procedure.
Please examine the advice again:
“If you define the subject matter narrow enough, you can read everything that has ever been written about it in a week–and now you are a world expert.”
The Big Challenge
The big challenge is that after you read the research and become an expert, then when you get your idea (because you are now part of the grown-up conversation), now what?
How do you develop it: name it, reward others for thinking about it, stay clear of legal problems, control quality, and then the best reward — how do you encourage patients to find healing with your idea (even patients you will never meet when they visit physicians who you trained to implement your ideas).
I had another conversation yesterday with a physician (one of our CMA members) who has excellent ideas about how to treat disease but really just does not know what he does not know about how to monetize his ideas. He is a very smart man, but the marketing people have taken lots of money from him to install expensive software on expensive websites that just sit there and suck up more of his money without delivering the message, expanding the use of his ideas, or collecting the money.
When he has asked me on the phone for tips (more than once), I feel at a loss because it’s like asking someone how to build a house on the phone. You really can’t explain it in a 30-minute conversation.
A few years ago, I led a group of physicians for a couple of years (meeting on the phone and in person every four months) in a quest to find, develop, and market their medical ideas. Some did very well (for example, see Peptology.com, which I highly recommend you buy if you practice sexual medicine), and others got started but didn’t finish all their projects as I would have wanted.
So, I felt frustrated–many amazing ideas stuck in the brains of amazing doctors and physician extenders.
My firm belief: “No bad students, only bad teacher.”
So, frustrated with myself, I shut down the group and took a year to think, develop more ideas of my own, and watch what I was doing to see if I could improve the process (see Bocox™ and BotoxClass.com for a couple of examples of what came from that year). Two conclusions developed during the past year of observing of the process:
(1) the process of finding and marketing medical ideas can be taught, and it can be improved (and I think I have),
and (2) part of what is needed for a successful mining and implementation of new ideas is an intense overview of the process before diving deep into individual tasks (in other words, the length of the task will expand to the time allotted, so I needed to do an intense immersion into the process before starting a journey into the individual tasks of mining and implementing).
How Do You Know What You Know?
(And why new ideas can be found in that question)
When I worked as a research chemist, if we did not (1) find new ideas and (2) implement those ideas (implemented defined as someone else has the idea in hand and they can use it), we would lose our jobs!
But then I went to medical school, where I learned thousands of algorithms based on thousands of “facts” for treating disease, a recipe book, and found that now if I had a new idea (that strayed from the recipe book), and implemented it, I could LOOSE my job.
Research chemist–Not find and implement new idea–> lose job
Physician–Do find and implement new idea–> lose job.
A very big switch of mindset.
So, at first, as an intern, I learned quickly (after a few attendings giving me a deserved tongue lashing) to keep new ideas to myself and not stray from the current thought—follow the recipe book. Basically, “Who am I to try to change what’s being done.” I learned that this is good since we must have a “standard of care” to ensure “first do no harm.”
That’s good, really. And needed.
But, then I learned that sometimes, there can be new ideas that are already there in the literature, already well proven, often already being done, and yet are not being implemented in the best way to the most possible numbers of people. In other words, the recipe book needs an update, according to the research, but physicians get reminders to update their iPhones but not to update their in-their-brain recipe books.
Two Kinds of New Ideas
(and the one of the two that holds the “soul-gold”)
There are two kinds of “new” ideas:
(1) New ideas that have no research or very little research so implementation will require new research to avoid risking harm,
and (2) those ideas that already have strong research but are just not being implemented well.
A great example of ideas in the research but not being implemented is Botox for migraines. It’s been approved by the FDA for that purpose, and there’s loads of research; but, the research also shows that Botox is just not offered as much as it should be offered to people suffering from chronic migraines.
Another whole category of ideas that are “well researched but not well implemented” is ideas or practices that are being done and are well accepted and well proven in one specialty but are not being noticed by the other specialties. In the 1980s, gynecologists considered endoscopic surgery the standard of care, while general surgeons were still creating huge scars and subjecting patients to increased risks with open cholecystectomy. It took a gynecologist, Bill Seay MD, to click-and-drag endoscopic surgery from gynecology to general surgery when he first developed an endoscopic cholecystectomy technique and started teaching it to general surgeons.
Karl Popper, in his book The Myth of the Framework calls this phenomenon (of the left specialty not knowing what the right specialty is doing) being blinded by the “fashion” of the specialist; fashion can blind the specialist to the possible truth well known outside her bubble. The epistemology of “how do we know what we know” should include the knowledge that we could always be wrong about anything/everything, and we never really know we are right, but we must be able to act so we look for what we have been unable to prove wrong and go with that until that is proven wrong.
If another specialty or knowledge base (like biology, engineering, or chemistry) has subjected an idea to the null hypothesis and has been unable to prove an idea wrong after multiple legitimate attempts, then it becomes reasonable to consider the idea the best truth of the moment, and a reliable truth and then (if it may help) click-and-drag that idea from one bubble into the other (from pharmacology into surgery, from dentistry (where PRP was first thought about) into gynecology and urology (the P-Shot® and the O-Shot®).
This is why many of the best new, game-changing ideas start outside the specialty in which they are implemented.
Another example of a great idea that was “clicked-and-dragged” from a brain in the fashion bubble of one specialty into the brains of those living in the fashion bubble of another specialty is that of “tumescent lidocaine” for in-office liposuction, an idea that changed how in-office surgery can be done. Tumescent lidocaine for in-office liposuction without the need for general anesthesia came from the mind of an internist with strong training in pharmacology, NOT from the brain of a surgeon or an anesthesiologist.
In some ways, not being the specialist gives you an advantage in finding the next big idea.
However you find it, when you find the idea that relieves pain and cures dis-ease in people whom you will never even know, then you have “soul-gold”–an idea that feeds your soul and puts gold in your bank.
What Bothers You Bothers Me
At least once or twice a week, because I enjoy the privilege of talking daily with members of our Cellular Medicine Group, I hear another amazing idea from a brilliant physician or physician extender; the person has been doing their work, they have read the research, then they get a great idea, but it is stuck in the mind. So, they call me and want to do something with me to roll out their idea. But, it is their idea, not mine and I’m swamped with own ideas.
The man who started Maxim magazine wrote an article about how most of what is in the magazine is written by his reporters, but occasionally he writes an article. He could write any article in the magazine, so how does he decide which one he should write? He said, “I only write the articles that only I can write.”
So, when someone calls me with their idea, it is their idea, and often it is the thing that only they can do. It is not the idea I need to do. But, they want me to tell them how to take the idea out of their mind and do something with it—on a 10-minute phone call! When that happens, I want very much to help, but all I can do is show them one hair on the tail of the elephant. Then I feel like I tricked them because when I describe that one hair, they think they understand the whole elephant; then (being intelligent and motivated) they do the one thing but become frustrated when their idea stays stuck in their head.
So, I decided there needs to be a workshop to describe the whole elephant. Of course, I cannot tell every detail about the elephant; it would take a year of class just to describe the nuances of emails. But, I am sure that I can (in two days) show a doctor what needs to be done. Then she can do the parts she wants to do (the parts only she can do) and intelligently and strategically hire others to do the rest–all of the rest of the elephant.
I am not sure I will ever do this class again. I hope to get a good recording of the event so I can offer that recording to those who ask me how to pull their next big idea out of their head and turn it into healthier patients and a bigger bank account.
So, the all-off-the-elephant “How to Mine Your Mind & the Medical Literature for Ideas In Medicine & Then Market those Ideas to Change Lives and Make Money” will be a two-day intensive course of at least 8 hours a day of streaming info and tips and practices with work (it is a WORKshop) during the event and after.
There will also be a debriefing group phone call for free sometime in mid-January to take questions that may pop up the first month after the class.
Doing this class in December gives a way to blast off your idea with the start of the year 2023, so the workshop will be this coming December 1 and 2. It will be intense and non-stop, with work to do during the event and specific tasks and strategic formulas to implement after the workshop.
It will be in person only because I’m making a promise to you of results, and I think engaging and implementing from home is much more difficult than when in the room with others who are all thinking and doing the same things.
The event will be at the Grand Marriott in Fairhope. It’s not a place where you can see exotic shows or gamble; it is an amazing place to think (quiet, beautiful, peaceful, and safe). The venue is especially gorgeous during the holidays. We have a block of rooms reserved that will only cost you $285 per night (a big discount) if you want to stay there.
Here’s the link to reserve your seat ( 5 seats left, at $3,987).
Best regards,
Charles
Charles Runels, MD
1-888-920-5311
P.S.Very important--I am not usually the smartest person in the room. I did not even get into medical school on the first application. But I have a way of thinking that I used to come up with ideas that support my family and, perhaps, make the world better. Here are some of those ideas (in endocrinology, gynecology, urology, cosmetic medicine, preventive medicine, sexual medicine, and dermatology):
3-Day Fat Burn,
Total Surrender Orgasm with Female Ejaculation,
O-Shot,
365 Health Strategies,
Vampire Wing Lift,
Botox Blastoff Class,
Vampire Breast Lift,
P-Shot,
Savage Factors,
Institute for Lichen Sclerosus and Vulvar Health,
Official Orgasm Day,
Female Orgasm System,
Anytime..for As Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation,
Premature Ejaculation Cured by the Magic Nine
Extend Sex with ICU–the 30-Second Trick
Practical Implementation of Integrative Sex Transmutation
How I Lost 77 Pounds Eating All I Wanted of Everything in this Book
Defeat Fatigue & Fear: 12 Daily Practices
CryoYoga.com
Sexual Wellness: Optimize Your Relationship, Pleasure & Sexual Health
Cellular Medicine Association
Michelle King MSc, Hillary Tolson, Charles Runels MD, Meghan Gloth MD, Richard Pfau MD, Andrew T Goldstein MD (lead investigator). Autologous Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Intradermal Injections for the Treatment of Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus
–>> click here & scroll to next to last abstract to read
Runels CE, Melnick H, DeBourbon E., A Pilot Study of the Effect of Localized Injections of Autologous Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) for the Treatment of Female Sexual Dysfunction. J Women’s Health Care 2014, 3:4
—>>>Click here to read.
Posey K, Runels C, In-Office Surgery and Use of Platelet Rich Plasma for Treatment of Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus to Alleviate Painful Sexual Intercourse, Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease. 2017 Vol 21, #45. S14Goldstein AT, King M, Runels C, Gloth M, Pfau R,
Goldstein AT, King M, Runels C, Gloth M, Pfau R Intradermal injection of autologous platelet-rich plasma for the treatment of vulvar lichen sclerosus. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2017, 76(1), 158-160 (click to read)
And quite a few others, including ideas in the physical chemistry arena.
I am not offering here a “how to be successful” or “how to make money” course; you have done that already. I am offering to show you two things (that I have done and continue to do), (1) How to Mine your mind for good ideas in medicine & (2) how to market those ideas (to change lives and make money).
Here’s where to register at the early-sign-up price (this price goes up by $1,000 on Oct. 24) Click (10 seats left)<-