About Us - CM Robbins Company Mark Robbins

The Inventor's Bio

Mark Robbins received a Bachelors Degree from California State University at Northridge in 1975. Robbins' development specialty was communications hardware and software to facilitate business and consumer file sharing. In 1983, he was the co-Founder, director, and Executive Vice President of Software Development for United Software Industries, Inc. (USII), a publicly traded company. He managed the development of ASCII Express "MouseTalk", a mouse-based software communications program for the Apple II computer. It was the first mouse-based, full featured communications program developed on any personal computer. In 1986, Robbins authored Firefile, also known as Rapid Transit - a direct-connect file transfer utility designed to quickly move files between any IBM-PC compatible computers using the serial port. After Mousetalk and Firefile, he authored the first three versions of LapLink file transfer software for MS-DOS and DeskLink file transfer software between 1987 and 1992. In the early 1990s, he was a technology reporter for The Denver Herald Dispatch Newspaper in Denver, Colorado.

Later Life

In 2000 after several years of incipient symptoms, Robbins was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Robbins redirected his engineering skills and was awarded US Patent number 6,228,048 B1 for a precision low-flow water temperature controller and a pressure-to-gravity converter for use as a colonic irrigation apparatus and method. Parkinson's eventually causes neurological deficits throughout the body. An early indicator is the gradual loss of colonic peristalsis function. The invention is designed to assist with reducing the discomfort of that issue. After further deterioration of his condition, Robbins became an early subject in a CERE-120 gene therapy]] study at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center in 2006. In December of that year Robbins underwent brain surgery by UCSF neurosurgeon Dr. Philip Starr to critically deposit CERE-120 in the putamen brain region. Robbins was the first participant in the second phase of FDA approval trial guidelines for the CERE-120 agent. Robbins makes periodic visits to UCSF as part of the ongoing study in order to generate reports on his condition. As a new medical treatment paradigm, gene therapy is in its infancy, and this is one of many focused trial scenarios in present-day gene therapy development.

Background of This Invention

Colonic irrigation is a process of cleansing the tissues of the lower intestine with water for purposes of removing impacted fecal material and other potentially toxic waste. Colonics are performed both as a preventive measure to sustain healthy digestion, peristalsis, and bowel tissue, and as a treatment for specific diseases such as colitis. Many of the problems addressed by colon hydrotherapy are associated with the typical “western” diet which is low in fiber, centered on meat, dairy, and processed foods, and which is poorly suited for the human digestive tract. Medical devices have been employed in colonic irrigation for many years. For example, in 1935, a patent was issued for an apparatus to rehabilitate peristalsis of the colon.

Over the years, colonic lavaging devices have evolved to include certain controls such as water temperature and pressure regulating devices, which ease administration of the colonic while insuring the comfort and safety of the patient. In the typical hydrotherapy procedure, the patient lies on her back or side, and a tube is inserted into the rectum. Fresh water flows into the bowel, loosening waste material from the walls of the colon and allowing the loosened waste material to flow out of the colon.

In the past two decades, colonic machines have reached a relatively high degree of refinement, as has the growing practice of colon hydrotherapy. While most devices are intended for professional use by a licensed colon hydrotherapist, devices have also been designed for home use. Throughout the continuing evolution in hydrotherapy devices, two variables have remained key in delivering quality colonic treatment: water temperature and water pressure. Precise temperature control is important, not only for safety and comfort of the patient, but also because temperature can affect the peristaltic action of the bowel. Selecting the proper temperature, or alternating the temperature between warm and cool during the colonic, heightens the benefits of the procedure. Precise pressure control is important as excessive water pressure can cause pain and even injury.

Early colonic machines used hot and cold water from a building’s plumbing system and simply used gravity to provide safe water pressure. The hot and cold water are passed through a mixing valve to achieve the desired temperature. Water is then delivered into an elevated tank or reservoir. From there, the water flows down naturally into a speculum and to the patient. By the late 1970s, several problems had become apparent with this type of system. First, the reservoir, which may hold five or more gallons, makes the machine bulky and a more or less permanent installation. Second, precise temperature control is extremely difficult. If the reservoir is inadvertently filled with water that is too hot or too cold, the patient must wait either for the water to adjust on its own, or for the tank to be drained and refilled. Third, once the temperature in the reservoir is established, it cannot be easily varied during the course of the colonic. Fourth, the only way the pressure can be varied is by raising or lowering either the patient or the entire reservoir.

Later colonic machines have addressed these problems by employing regulating valves to control water pressure. In such machines, hot and cold water still come from a building’s plumbing system and are mixed through a thermostatically controlled mixing valve to achieve the desired temperature. However, one or more pressure regulating valves then keep the water pressure controlled within a certain range. While this method represents a major improvement over the earlier reservoir method, it too has several shortcomings. First, while temperature is certainly more controllable, water temperature through the mixing valve may still vary by a factor of many degrees. Second, the temperature of the water delivered during the procedure is vulnerable to pressure variances within the building’s hot and cold water supply lines. Third, after nearly two decades of using such devices, a number of colon hydrotherapists and patients have come to perceive the earlier, gravity-pressure system as an inherently safer method. Their preference for this more natural type of pressure control is evidenced in part by continued sales and usage of the older reservoir systems, despite their numerous limitations. The present invention, therefore, is directed at alleviating all of these problems and limitations that are associated with both previous types of colonic irrigation machines.