EDMONDS — Dr. Michael Lau is a kind and compassionate surgeon who throughout his career has held a fierce commitment when it comes to women’s health.
Patients who visit his gynecological or cosmetic clinics in Edmonds can be assured that the distress caused by worrying about expensive and time-consuming surgery is something that Lau is always working to heal.
To that end, Lau, 65, has spent much of his career at the forefront of technology development looking for ways to create noninvasive or minimally invasive procedures for women to be treated for infertility and gynecological problems such as fibroids.
“I really respect women and want to help them and what they put up with,” Lau said. “I always had an interest in medical devices and my goal has always been how can you avoid major surgery?”
In his position as chief medical officer with Mirabilis Medica, Lau might just have the answer.
Along with his colleagues, Lau has held successful studies in Mexico with a high intensity focus ultrasound, a noninvasive procedure to remove fibroids from the uterus through ultrasound on the skins surface.
“The sound wave goes through the tissue so there are no cuts,” Lau said. “You focus the ultrasound, ablate it and the fibroid dissolves.”
Lau was one of the first gynecologic surgeons in the Pacific Northwest to perform laser surgery as an alternative to a traditional hysterectomy. Many of his patients are some of the 16 million women in the United States who have fibroids; benign non-cancerous tumors located in the uterus that vary in size. Although found in about 70 percent of women of child bearing age, some patients have no symptoms.
But up to 25 percent of women ages 18 to 50 experience fertility issues, bleeding and cramping because of uterine fibroids.
“I know for sure there is a better way to do it,” Lau said. “I know that there’s a better way rather than using scissors or knives.”
Fibroids can also be found in the breast, liver, thyroid and pancreas but the 37 women treated in the Mexico study had uterine fibroids. More formal studies in that country and perhaps some in Canada will be needed before the team can approach the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2014 and apply for a U.S. study.
The high intensity focus ultrasound procedure can be done in a clinic, only takes 30 minutes and the patient does not need an anesthetic. Patients save time and money and are back at work in a day or two.
“I’m pretty excited by it,” Lau said. “It’s the first time for this noninvasive surgery.”
Lau considers himself and others to be lucky to be in this area where technology is at the forefront.
“Bothell is the ultrasound capital of the world. You have Philips, Sonosite and Liposonix,” Lau said.
He also acknowledges that the University of Washington is one of the top research institutions in the ultrasound world.
Before going into medicine, Lau studied nuclear physics and chemistry at the University of Washington. He is one of only a handful of gynecologists to be a Fellow of American College of Surgeons, and recently received an MBA in technology innovation and implementation from Oxford University in England.
In the late 1990s, Lau became interested in cosmetic procedures and studied with two renowned plastic surgeons eventually applying the same principle as he did to his gynecological work: how could he make procedures less invasive.
“A lot of women are not happy with their intimate area,” Lau said. “No doctor will address it.”
Patients come to Lau for vaginal reconstruction and labioplasty that can be performed in his clinic under a local anesthetic in one hour.
Lau has also had young women in his clinic crying because they are experiencing urinary incontinence and their doctors have told them they just have to live with it, he said. Older women are told it is their age.
“That’s not the case,” Lau said. “I can help.”
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