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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Dr. Brandon Crawford, Functional Neurologist and Co-Founder of 528 Innovations
00:09:18
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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger and today I'm delighted to speak with Dr. Brandon Crawford, co founder of 528 Innovations, who joins the podcast today to share insights into his background healthcare trends. He's keeping an eye on what he's focused on going into 2026 and a bit more. Dr. Crawford, thank you so much for joining me. Can you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background and organization?
- [00:25]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to speak with you guys today. So. So cl, I have a fellowship in developmental functional neurology. So I've actually, over the course of my 16 years of doing this, I've been able to develop my own proprietary methods to actually rehab those various complex neurological disorders, things like traumatic brain injuries, neurodevelopmental disorders, movement disorders, chronic pain syndromes, those types of things. And what happened is over the years, obviously my main focus is trying to develop neuroplasticity so we can maximize rehab potential. And I've always been thoroughly interested in laser and light therapy. And what I noticed is that there was a lot of things left on the table when it came to laser devices. And I did reach out to several different laser developers. No one really wanted to listen to me. And so I then partnered with a software engineer in 528 Innovations, and together we started developing these therapy lasers that are very innovative and have some proprietary technology in them that set them apart from the rest of.
- [01:34]
A
Absolutely. And now moving into the meat of the podcast a bit, can you talk about what trends you're watching either in healthcare overall or in laser or whatever you'd like to talk about?
- [01:43]
B
Absolutely. There's several trends that I have really earmarked and actually are doing some clinical trials in my own space. And it's the coalescence of photo medicine with regenerative medicine. So in regenerative medicine, there's a heavy focus on stem cell therapies. Obviously there's more than that, but I've always been very interested in stem cell thera therapies and we offer some various regenerative medicine procedures in my office. But then what I've noticed over the years is that there's more and more research showing how we can actually alter the outcome of these procedures by using different wavelengths of light. So whether it's to activate cells or different growth factors within plasma or whatever the target is, that's where I'm really excited. Is this coming together a photo medicine with Regenerative medicine. It's very exciting.
- [02:34]
A
That is exciting. So when you speak about light therapy, do you mean like red light therapy? What kind of therapy are you talking about specifically?
- [02:41]
B
Right. So that's probably the most well known component of the term photo medicine or photobiomodulation. Red light is just one component. So yes, we definitely use red light therapy, whether it's via laser diode or LED or whatever it may be. I primarily use laser diodes. But then there's also benefits to different wavelengths, such as near infrared, mid infrared, we use those heavily, but then even green and violet. So there's different reasons to use different wavelengths of light. Basically, we have these things called chromophores scattered all over our body and inside of our body. And these are receptors for light. Think of them like solar panels. So just like a solar panel will take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical impulses, these chromophores will react to these different wavelengths of light and that will create a different electrophysiological response and neurophysiological response in our body based on the wavelength that we use. And so we'll use a full spectrum of wavelengths of light. But yeah, most people know red light therapy the most.
- [03:53]
A
Got it. Got it. And now looking into the future of it, we are about to step into 2026. It's hard to believe, but with that in mind, what are you most focused on and excited about going into the new year?
- [04:05]
B
So there's several things, I guess one thing that I'll focus on is I've taken about two years to really create and refine a new methodology that we've begun to use in my office here in Austin. I call it the catalyst method. It has four pillars which are power, awareness, coordination and elevation. So the power phase of this is really focused on the bioenergetics of the cell. So we're really looking at how do we properly fuel cells via the principles of and magnetism so that we can then activate these systems more effectively. And then we move into the awareness phase where we're really heavily focused on sensory systems, sensory mapping, sensory integration, because sensory drives our motor systems. And then we focus on the coordination phase, which is the feed forward feedback mechanisms of our motor systems, and the elevation phase. Because I have seen a lot of elite athletes or top level CEOs where, you know, they don't necessarily have a disease process going on, but we're trying to optimize their neurophysiology and that's what the elevation phase is. All about now, that method also encompasses the regenerative medicine components and things that I was talking about where we're combining photo medicine with the regenerative medicine, coupled with the functional neurology principles and methodology as well.
- [05:24]
A
Got it, Got it. Now that we've looked into the future a bit, looking back the past six to 18 months, can you talk about an initiative or a project or just something that you're proud of that you'd like to share?
- [05:36]
B
Well, it's still ongoing. I guess the one thing that I can talk about is the proprietary technology that we have created in 528 innovation. So basically, when we formed the engineering teams that we have, that's composed of software engineers, mechanical engineers, optical engineers, et cetera, we have these teams of engineers.
- [06:00]
A
We.
- [06:00]
B
When I got them together and I said, hey, this is the type of laser beam that I want to create. So this is not your typical beam physics. Right. So I wanted to take a very powerful Class 4 laser. I wanted to make it be produced at the Class 3R safety rating, so it's even safe enough to use in home. And there's other components too, where I wanted to have varying duty cycles and being able to polarize the light in a very specific way. They all looked at me like I had a third eye. And they said, brandon, I don't know if this is possible, but they worked on it for over two years. We were able to achieve it. And that's honestly, it's something that I'm very proud about and we collectively as a team are proud about it. But there is an ongoing project that I have and it is this conversation that I keep bringing up in regards to photo medicine combined with regenerative medicine. I cannot speak about the details about it right now, but again, that's why I'm so excited about it, because we are knee deep in that project still.
- [06:59]
A
That's amazing to hear. I look forward to hearing more about that in the future. And now with all of your I can tell, passion and drive that you have in your career, I'm curious to hear what advice you would share to evolving leaders looking to have that type of success in their careers.
- [07:15]
B
Absolutely. You know, we have a trademarked saying in my practice and then all the different things that I do and it's never accept, never. And from a patient perspective, which is really where this came from. Right. We'll have someone that, let's say they had a debilitating brain injury or something like this, and they're told this is the best you'll be or you won't do this, you'll never do this, all this kind of stuff. The saying never accept never really came from that. But it doesn't stop with patients. It also applies to physicians. Right. So whenever we're learning from medical textbooks and we're going through all these classes, which is good information, I'm not saying anything bad about it, but there's several limiting beliefs that we're being taught. We need to question those. We need to also never accept never. And we need to always push back on anything we learn, especially when it comes to limitations. But then, even healthcare executives, same thing. The model currently in America is somewhat broken. The concept of never accept never applies here, too. We should be pushing back on the healthcare system. We should be trying to improve it, not just for better finances and whatnot for the country and for the executives, but really from a patient care perspective. So the concept of never except never applies ubiquitously to everyone, in my opinion.
- [08:40]
A
I love that. Well, Dr. Crawford, I want to thank you for your time today. But before I let you go, is there anything else that listeners should know?
- [08:47]
B
No, I would just say, you know, whether you're a patient, whether you're a provider, whoever you are, the impossible is always possible. And make sure that you're working with people, surrounding yourself with people that agree with that and are not continuously putting you down, because that is a very toxic environment to move forward in.
- [09:07]
A
Well, that's a great note to end on. Dr. Crawford, I want to thank you once again for your time today and for sharing your insights on the Bickers Healthcare podcast. Thank you so much.
- [09:15]
B
Thank you.