Testimonials

June 1, 2015

 

To whom it may concern,

During my years as Senior Plastic Surgeon and Professor at the University of Montreal Hospital (Hotel-Dieu campus) and head of the Burn Unit, I have been constantly facing the difficult issues of wound and skincare. As anyone who has had to deal with burn patients readily will acknowledge, no one in this world has higher and more profound skin care needs. We are not talking about cosmetic creams and balms, of well-scented applications and seducing or stimulating fragrances aimed at pleasing and enjoying, but of frequently life-threatening and deadly situations. Because the skin is the biggest organ of the body, if only a small percentage of its protective and physiological function is compromised, the short and long-term consequences are immeasurable.

The same applies to chronic wounds. In a, alas, increasingly diabetic setting, mostly of the acquired type II group, adequate management of the skin and wounds is of paramount importance. And with an ever-aging population, with longer bedridden periods that lead to pressure sores and similar issues where, again, to keep the patient alive and well and not an open door to the most opportunistic invaders with their proverbial predilection for badly vascularized tissues or exposed bones, focusing on these problems becomes a crucial aspect of the therapeutic approach.

For a certain time, there was some hope that modern therapies would bring about major changes in these fields, but unfortunately the enemies our patients with skin and wound afflictions have to face still largely dominate the scene an any significant improvement or innovation is most certainly welcome. And it is precisely in these most desperate cases, like an open Achilles tendon secondary to venous ulcerations, exposed metatarsals in a diabetic foot and repeated skin breakdowns in burn patients that very often the clinician is essentially powerless despite the best efforts, utmost care and cleanest methods.

It is in this context of difficult to treat skin problems and wounds that I had the pleasure some years ago to discover the products Mr. Graeme J. Robertson, at that time President/CTO of Dermatol Inc. in Montreal was developing and trying to bring on the market. Let’s face it: this is a highly competitive environment where most of the time hyperbole and fancy marketing play a more important role than basic considerations, research and the concerted effort to bring forward something really new. After a few brief discussions with Mr. Robertson, it was evident to me that he might have something of interest in his bag and that is why I asked him to provide me with some material so I could, on my side, experiment with it at will.

I was fully open to anything and appreciated the fact that he would not even ask me to be part of my explorations. So, entirely free from any “indoctrination” or interference, I had ample opportunity to make my experiments and observations. Granted, the number of patients I could treat remains relatively low since, not much later, I then moved to New York City for some other medical activities. Because of this, I was not, and in retrospect I really regret it, able to make a longitudinal double-blinded study of the benefits and efficacy of the products Mr. Robertson’s company was working on.

But I still treated a sufficient number of patients with these products to allow me to conclude that we were on the right path. Unfortunately, in my several moves since I left Montreal, a few boxes mysteriously disappeared and the big collection of clinical pictures taken during my entire medical career in Canada has vanished. But what can I do against the ever-present move towards entropy? Tempora mutantur nos et mutamus in illis, the Romans used to say. In any case, I vividly remember several patients that were put on this kind of therapy and I was happy to note that the long-term effects were very satisfactory and appealing. What had looked like hopeless gaping breaks in the skin’s continuity slowly but surely ended up showing promising signs of recuperation that could finally be treated by different methods, including epidermal grafts. One might object that this could as well have been the result of waiting just long enough. Whoever actively and in big numbers treated such cases knows, that this is in fact only most rarely the case. In addition, I had some other patients on whom I did not use the products, precisely because I wanted to observe if there was a difference or if I was simply taken over by a juvenile enthusiasm. No, very honestly, I was under the definite impression, and indeed still am, that these products brought something I hardly could get anywhere else and, as I said above, had I stayed longer in my previous functions, I certainly would have done a full-fledged research.

In the treatment of both surgical and traumatic wounds, it is very important to provide protection against dehydration, abrasion and infection in order to enable the lesion to benefit immediately and without interruption from the normal healing processes until new and healthy skin tissues capable of fulfilling their normal physiological function are formed. Thus, any factor or substance promoting and favouring these natural mechanisms can only have positive effects on the overall healing.

In this context, what I found particularly favourable was that the Dermatol products, despite their oily composition, are very resistant to erosion from the skin either by water, sweat, body fluids or soapy water, as well as the usual day to day wear factors. In addition, I very much appreciated that, unlike most other products commonly in use, the ones under consideration here can easily be applied evenly and durably even over wet skin or raw wounds. This helps to establish a lasting barrier between surrounding air or cover material and exposed nerve endings, thus greatly reducing the patient’s discomfort and the need for, most often, narcotic analgesic drugs which carry important consequences and side effects that may interfere with the therapeutic plan. I was impressed to note again and again that the patients experienced immediate relief and no stinging effects after application of these products. This alone was, for me, a major advantage compared to other products available on the market.

Based on what I just outlined, I must say that, as a physician who constantly strives to alleviate suffering and pain of my patients, I often thought how fantastic it would be if for instance first responders or ambulance personnel would have at their disposal something like Mr. Robertson’s products to apply liberally over wounds, burns and the like to reduce the pre- hospitalization pain or severe and excruciating discomfort. What I also very much liked was the way these substances act, fully in the background so to say, without the need of complicated or extensive manoeuvres. I was equally favourably impressed that the patient’s acceptance, tolerance and compliance were very high. I don’t remember a single incident of discomfort, intolerance or allergic reaction.

So overall, my experiences and recollection of Mr. Robertson’s product is very positive and I am encouraged to hear that he has assiduously continued to work in this field and that, apparently, some new breakthroughs are in the making. I would encourage anyone interested in these topics to have a close look at his products, which certainly deserve serious evaluation and thorough methodological investigation.

In the last years I have been deeply involved as a representative of a non-governmental organization in the United Nations discussions here in New York about sustainable development 2015-2050. Among the plethora of subjects analysed figure of course the tremendous increase of the world population within the next thirty or so years by about two billion, predominantly in the developing world, as well as the expected migration during this relatively short period of about one million people per week from the countryside to urban areas, mainly in Africa and Asia. Sanitation as well as providing clean water, food and sustainable employment will become major issues. Affordable healthcare too will become a focal point. The number of patients and accidents will evidently skyrocket accordingly and in such a context I would assume that efficient and comparatively economical products as the ones I have been referring to in this document might play an important role and could thus be beneficial to large parts of our globe.

Before concluding I would like to state that I have never gotten any advantages personal or other nor compensation of any kind from Mr. Robertson, his company or Associates. The comments made above, which are entirely mine and not written by anybody else, are the result of clinical application and observation and are not biased in any way whatsoever.