Trust

Dr. Gardner believes that trust is the foundation of the doctor-patient relationship. Trust includes many things, including trust in the doctors breadth of k\nowledge and experience, trust in his or her integrity and honesty, and trust that your physician has your best interest at heart, is an advocate who is compassionate and non-judgmental about your suffering, and will be aggressive and relentless in finding and treating the root causes of your health problems. Doctor Gardner has earned the trust of many thousands of long-term, loyal patients over his 27 years of practicing medicine. Patients who could choose any doctor they want entrust their care to Dr. Gardner and value their long-term friendship and professional relationship, including Oscar winners, Gold Medal Olympians, Hall of Fame recording artists, and fortune 500 CEOs and CFOs.

Availability

Dr. Gardner recognizes that a big complaint that many patients have with the health care system is the ability to see their doctor or get advice over the telephone in a timely manner to alleviate their worry and suffering. For this reason, his staff leaves several appointment spaces blank each day for emergency work-in patients that call the same day to be seen urgently. He also routinely comes in early or stays late to accommodate acute conditions, saving many people from unnecessary emergency room visit expenses. He answers all telephone call requests by the end of the day before he goes home, and his patients have his direct cell phone number to call without having to navigate a difficult system to get a hold of their doctor. Non-urgent appointments can usually be accommodated within a few days. As he carefully integrates electronic medical records into his practice, Dr. Gardner plans to offer more web-based services for making appointments, reviewing lab work, and communicating concerns.

One-Stop Practice

Dr.Gardner’s broad range of interests and training creates a unique value for patients that maximizes convenience and piece of mind, while also saving you money. First, Dr. Gardner has a vast array of services to offer, including appointments to evaluate and treat urgent care or chronic conditions, surgical procedures to repair wounds or biopsy skin growths, and cosmetic procedures using lasers, Botox™, fillers, and even liposuction under local anesthesia to make you look better. He has also written three books on emotional health issues, such as anxiety, depression, phobias, and panic attacks, and enjoys helping people through emotional turmoil. Most recently, Dr. Gardner added bio-identical hormone pellet therapy for men and women to enjoy full hormonal optimization throughout life. Rather than a doctor who sees you briefly and triages you to five other specialists, Dr. Gardner prides himself on being able to address and treat a wide variety of problems, often in the same visit.

Professionalism

Professionalism in a physician starts with a top-notch education and the desire to stay on top of new information and treatment strategies. Professionalism also includes respecting the individual differences and sensibilities of patients to offer customized approaches, providing a clean and efficient office with well-trained and compassionate staff members, providing state-of-the-art equipment and procedures, and being committed to quality outcomes and high patient satisfaction. After years of consistently offering a high level of professional service to the community, it is no wonder that Dr. Gardner is a perennial winner of the Bay Area Top Doctors Award voted on by his peers in the medical community. Marin County medical and surgical specialists have called him “the hardest working primary care doctor in Marin,” “the doctor’s doctor,” and have voted him “the physician to whom they would most likely refer their friends and family.”

James C. Gardner, MD
Interview on Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Treatments

Minimally-Invasive Cosmetics

Dr. Gardner began performing cosmetic surgical procedures over 25 years ago through the UCLA Department of Dermatology. As they became FDA approved, he gradually expanded the number of cosmetic services offered by his practice. He first added BOTOX®, followed by dermal fillers, laser skin rejuvenation, laser leg vein and hair removal, and , finally, body, face and neck sculpting with SMARTLIPO™. This procedure, also known as laser lipolysis, is the first liposuction technique to dramatically tighten the skin through tiny incisions (the size of the opening of a ball point pen) under a local “awake” tumescent anesthesia. This allows us to perform tummy tucks, male breast reduction, and lower face/neck lifts without scars or significant downtime.  Dr. Gardner believes in a natural, minimalist approach to cosmetic procedures that makes you look great for your age. He is a certified cosmetic surgeon who has trained under some of the top specialists in the country. Dr. Gardner also teaches laser safety and technique to other physicians as a consultant. He serves as a clinical instructor for UCSF and Stanford University Schools of Medicine.