LPA
Services - Scotland and UK

Mike has spent more than 30 years in the medical laser industry after gaining his joint honours degree in physics and astronomy from Glasgow University in 1983. Following that, he enroled in the Bioengineering Unit in Strathclyde University for a Ph.D. His first company, Derma-Lase Limited, was borne out of ten year's of clinical research in Canniesburn Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland into the removal of tattoos and benign pigment lesions using the Q-switched ruby laser.

 

During this research they noticed that the laser also vapourised surface hair. At the time this was seen as an 'annoyance' and had to reassure patients that it was "merely a transient issue". Little did we know....

 

He opened the world's first commercial tattoo removal clinic using this technology in Glasgow in 1989. He was involved in the original clinical research program from 1986, and also studied the effects of the pulsed dye laser on vascular lesions (such as port wine stains). In fact, his group purchased the second long pulsed dye laser produced by Dr Horace Furomoto in the very early days of Candela (the first being purchased by Dr Rox Anderson's group in Boston).

 

While working in the hospital Mike became the Laser Safety Officer responsible for the safe use of all the lasers within the Canniesburn Laser Suite. At the same time he had to implement the recently formed COSH regulations where they applied to lasers in hospital settings.

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Mike is currently a member of the British Medical Laser Association (BMLA) and the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS). In 2014 he became a certificated Laser Protection Advisor (LPA) through the Association of Laser Safety Professionals, and in 2017 he became the General Secretary of the Association.

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