Monterey Peninsula Surgery Centers has Long Played Leading Role in Promoting Outpatient Surgery, Efforts Spotlighted in National News Story in New York Times

Thomas Wilson, CEO of Monterey Peninsula Surgery Centers, one of the largest locally owned and operated outpatient surgery organizations in the U.S., has long played a leading role in promoting the benefits of outpatient surgery.

Monterey, CA, December 30, 2016 — Thomas Wilson, CEO of Monterey Peninsula Surgery Centers, one of the largest locally owned and operated outpatient surgery organizations in the U.S., has long played a leading role in promoting the benefits of outpatient surgery.

The work of industry leaders Wilson and MPSC is symbolic of what the Ambulatory Surgery Center industry can achieve, and was spotlighted in a recent article published by the New York Times. The article discusses the ongoing debate over whether Medicare should pay for knee replacement surgery in free-standing surgery centers or outpatient facilities. Wilson, past-president of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA), presented compelling evidence to support this assertion including a lower infection rate when compared to surgeries performed in a hospital setting, sky-high patient satisfaction scores and significant cost savings.

This could save Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars annually. MPSC, located in Monterey, California, performs approximately 200 total joint replacement surgeries per year, with infection rates three times lower than similar surgeries performed in hospitals. The age of patients receiving total joint replacements at MPSC ranges from 38 to 82 years old, with the average age of 59. This compares to the national average of 62. He asserts most patients receiving a total joint replacement are not sick and do not need to be surrounded by sick people and thus an outpatient facility is an ideal choice.

How can you tell if a person is a good candidate for outpatient joint replacement surgery? Wilson says the best candidates have a low to moderate body mass index, healthy heart and lungs and a good social support system. A patient meeting these criteria is teamed with a friend or family member who functions as a coach. The patient and coach attend an educational session before the operation and learn about the anatomy of the procedure, how the patient’s pain will be successfully managed without opioids or narcotics, and will undergo the recovery process in the comfort of their own home. The major difference in outpatient surgery is that the patient spends one night in the facility and goes home with a physical therapist visiting the patient soon thereafter. According to Wilson, this is possible because of surgical advances with minimally invasive techniques and the use of long-lasting, non-addictive anesthetics. Many hospitals are adopting these innovations and sending total joint replacement patients home after one or two days in the facility.

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As a leading proponent of ASCs and outpatient surgery, Wilson was contacted by the New York Times to represent the ASC industry and relate MPSC’s experience with TJR cases as it relates to Medicare’s position on outpatient knee surgery.

A debate has been raging nationally in the medical community regarding this issue, with physicians weighing in on both sides. The Times’ story said the issue “is sowing deep discord in the medical world, and the debate is as much about money as medicine.”

The article noted that demand for knee and hip replacement surgery is growing — 1,000,000 are performed each year in the U.S. — and that number is likely to grow to three million annually by 2030, “making these complex and expensive operations some of surgery’s biggest potential growth markets,” said the Times.

The article headlined “Should Medicare Allow Outpatient Knee Replacement? Doctors Are Deeply Split,” was written by Christina Jewett, a senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, and was posted to the newspaper’s website on Dec. 20 and appeared in print on Dec. 21 on Page B1 of the New York edition.

Presented with such evidence by Wilson and board certified orthopedic surgeon Sohrab Gollogly of Monterey Spine and Joint in 2016, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Advisory Panel that recommends outpatient payment policies to Medicare officials, unanimously recommended that Medicare remove the total knee replacement procedure from the inpatient only list, effectively allowing it to be performed in the outpatient setting.

Opponents of the change by Medicare say that there are concerns that moving surgery out of hospitals will force vulnerable patients into emergency rooms with uncontrolled pain, blood clots or other complications.

But proponents such as MPSC’s Wilson say the change will give patients more choice and potentially better care and save Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars. And, according to recent rule-making documents, an “overwhelming majority” of those who commented said they want to allow the operations out of hospitals.

In December 2016, the Secretary of HHS did not adopt the recommendation. However approval could occur in 2017 under the Donald J. Trump administration. President elect Trump and Tom Price MD, his selection for Secretary of HHS, have suggested they favor limiting government controls and fostering innovation and increased competition in healthcare.

In recent months, Medicare has shown a strong interest in outpatient knee replacements, noting the potential for “overall improved outcomes” as well as the potential savings for the government program.

Many doctors, however, caution that not all patients are candidates for outpatient surgery, such as those who are frail or have chronic health issues, live alone or in a dwelling with stairs, and don’t have good caretaking at home.

“While we realize this can be good for some patients, it’s not for all patients and all locations,” says Dr. Thomas C. Barber, the chairman of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons’ advocacy council. Wilson agrees that outpatient total joint replacement is not for all, however to deny it to those who seek it is unjust and unwise public policy.

About Thomas D. Wilson

Mr. Wilson is CEO of the Monterey Peninsula Surgery Centers, which has partnered with two local hospitals and 90 surgeons and is one of the largest locally owned independent surgical services organizations in California. He leads the Minimus Institue, the destination medicine division of MPSC, as patients have traveled from 47 states and 10 countries for outpatient surgery at MPSC over the last five years. Wilson and Scott Leggett founded Global 1, one of the largest medical service organizations in the country providing commercially insured transparent all inclusive Bundled Payments through a network of 53 ASCs and over 350 physicians in California.

Mr. Wilson is a past president of Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, the California Surgery Center Association and is Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones’s appointee to the California Insurance Guarantee Association Board of Governors.

Tom Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Utah State University and a master’s degree at the U.C. Berkeley Hospital Administration program.

Background on MPSC:

MPSC and its surgeons are recognized leaders in outpatient surgical care as measured by the high demand for its services, extremely low infection rates, 99% patient satisfaction scores and affordable, transparent pricing. It is known for performing complex surgery, including total joint replacements, major spine surgeries, hysterectomies, breast reconstruction and thyroidectomiesin the outpatient setting. In excess of 31,500 surgical procedures in 13 specialties are performed annually at MPSC by its 190 physicians on staff.

About Minimus Institute:

Wilson also founded and heads the Minimus Institute, a national state-of-the-art concierge surgical institute located in a beautiful setting on California’s Central Coast, providing patients access to world-class surgeons. Offering transparent pricing and clear, comprehensive outcome information and patient-satisfaction scores, Minimus demystifies the surgical-care experience allowing patients to make the most informed decisions about their care.

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain

Chatterbox PR

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 747-7455

http://www.chatterboxpublicrelations.com

Canadian Gaming Company Sharing its Secrets of Success: Introducing Blazesoft’s Gaming Backend as a Service

They may show themselves as little icons on your smartphone or tablet, but mobile games are big business.

Vaughan, ON (Canada), December 30th, 2016 — They may show themselves as little icons on your smartphone or tablet, but mobile games are big business. According to mobile data tracking firm Newzoo, in 2016 the worldwide gaming market reached $99.6B with mobile gaming accounting for 37 percent – a proportion that has been increasing year over year, and a trend that is expected to continue.

According to Mickey Blayvas, CEO of Blazesoft, the most common mistake made by mobile app developers is the amount of time and money they dedicate to reinventing technological wheels. This is where Blayvas’s company comes in. “We want game development companies to be able to focus on making the best game possible instead of spending countless time and resources on backend and server development and maintenance,” says Blayvas.

Blayvas explains that gaming companies often commit countless numbers of hours and dollars planning and working on various backend aspects that are common to most games such as server configuration, performance optimization, and backend architecture, and development of features such as retention reports and notification mechanisms, all of which could be found in any game. This means that a significant part of their production effort is spent working on elements that have been developed by others many times before.

Blazesoft is offering their gaming backend solution to meet these needs of developers while saving them a substantial amount of R&D time and money, helping them to focus on what will set them apart – developing a great user experience, reaching their audiences through marketing, and improving game monetization. Blazesoft’s solution is a backend platform that game development companies can plug into that enables them to implement complex game features instantly.

One advantage of Blazesoft’s gaming backend service is that it offers developers the ability to make incremental changes to the game’s operations without requiring the developer to resubmit their game to online stores such as Google Play or Apple’s App Store. This means that developers can experiment with game level configuration, products available within the game and how easy or costly it is to obtain them, achievement tracking, in-app ads, and other features, without disrupting their apps’ users. “This not only saves development and QA efforts, it also shortens time to market and is less disruptive for users,” explains Blayvas.

Other features of Blazesoft’s service include the ability for game development companies to communicate directly with their players with personalized messages and offers through push notifications and emails, powerful analytics such as player information and use data, and full customer service case management so that developers don’t lose track of customer questions, issues, or other communications.

“We enjoy working with game development companies big or small,” says Blayvas. “Whether for an indie gaming company looking for its first big breakthrough game or a seasoned company with hundreds of games, the Blazesoft backend as a service will make the development of any game more efficient, and the final game much more successful.”

To learn more about Blazesoft and their gaming backend as a service product, visit – http://www.blazesoft.ca

Press & Media Contact:
Mickey Blayvas, CEO
BLAZESOFT
9600 Bathurst St,
Vaughan, ON – L6A 3Z8, Canada
+1 647 939 3457
info@blazesoft.ca
http://www.blazesoft.ca

Output Factory for Adobe InDesign Now Supports Creative Cloud 2017

Zevrix Solutions announces Output Factory 1.5.60, a compatibility update to its output automation solution for Adobe InDesign. Output Factory automates printing, exporting and post-processing from InDesign and offers batch processing, export as single pages, variable file names, layer versioning, preflighting, detailed history and more. The new version makes Output Factory compatible with the recently released InDesign CC 2017 and improves the reliability of TIFF export on network volumes.

Toronto (ON), Canada — Zevrix Solutions today announces the release of Output Factory 1.5.60, a compatibility update to its professional solution to automate printing, exporting and preflighting from Adobe InDesign. Output Factory automates and simplifies workflows of printers, prepress bureaus, ad agencies and publishing houses worldwide by offering batch processing with powerful and time-saving output options.

The new version makes Output Factory compatible with the recently released InDesign CC 2017 featured as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. The update is offered free of charge to licensed users. The new version also improves the reliability of exporting InDesign documents as hi-res TIFF images on AFP network volumes.

“When every second counts Output Factory is a life saver!” says Glen Saville of Glen Saville Design studio, Hornchurch, UK. “It’s a sublime beast that saves a lot of time. I just drag my files into the job list, set them up as I want and then sit back and watch the computer do its stuff.”

Output Factory supports printing as well as exporting to PDF, PostScript, EPS, Flash, INX, IDML, EPUB, INDD and several image formats. It offers the following key features:

Batch printing and exporting of InDesign files
-Output as single pages
-Create custom workflows for different job targets
-Output files to multiple formats with one click
Variable output file names
-Layer versioning: output layer combinations as single files
Preflight InDesign documents and skip the ones with errors
-Split InDesign files into single pages
-Preflight final PDFs
-Keep track of jobs, output files and errors

Pricing and Availability:
Output Factory can be purchased from Zevrix website for US$169.95 (Light version $119.95), as well as from authorized resellers and Adobe Exchange. Trial is also available for download. BatchOutput users can upgrade to Output Factory for $84.97. Output Factory requires Mac OS X 10.7-10.12 and Adobe InDesign CS3-CC 2017.

About Zevrix Solutions
Located in Toronto, Canada, Zevrix Solutions provides productivity solutions for Adobe Creative Suite software, PDF workflows, graphic file diagnostics, file delivery and Microsoft Office on Mac OS. Zevrix is dedicated to help professionals increase their profits through automating everyday tasks, producing error-free documents, saving disk space and cutting production costs. For more information, visit http://www.zevrix.com.

Contact:
Leo Revzin
Owner
Zevrix Solutions
105 McCAUL St, Suite 301
Toronto Ontario M5T 2X4 Canada
858-206-0607
media@zevrix.com
http://www.zevrix.com

Northwestern Mutual Presents Soar Women’s Empowerment 2nd Annual Summit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Restoring, Reviving, and Rebuilding Women in Our Communities “It’s the year of Elevation”.

Milwaukee, WI, USA — Soar Women’s Empowerment Summit is the definitive global market and conference for women around the world, and a must attend event for women, entrepreneurs, business professionals, book authors, film producers, and those seeking growth building opportunities. SWES’s 2017 highlight moments will be live streaming in over 188 countries accessible from any mobile device compliments of GETITLIVE.TV.

Soar Women’s Empowerment Summit is presented by Northwestern Mutual the summit will start on February 23 – 25, 2017 guests will have an opportunity to attend: presentations, workshops, open panel discussions, TAMTALK pitch series, and more. SWES’s daytime events are scheduled to take place at the Holiday Inn Riverfront hotel 4700 North Port Washington Rd, Milwaukee, WI. The event ends on February 25, 2017 with a red carpet award ceremony “Women of Excellence,” opening with gospel recording artist Tammy Warren and featuring national recording artists Julia Huff, performing a tribute to the legendary award-winning songstress, Phyllis Hyman. In addition, appearing on the red carpet will be “Married to Medicine,” reality celebrity Lisa Nicole Cloud, Dr. Myla Bennett, Dr. Sonja Stribling, Dr. Christopher Chappell, Wisconsin Senator Lena Taylor, former NFL player Victor B. Cohen, Mayor Franklin Deese of Marshville North Carolina, film producer Cedric Ne ttles, former Judge Michelle Havas, Wisconsin State Representative Jason Fields, Pastor Deon Hayes, and a host of other prestigious guests will join the celebration; being held at 1451 Renaissance Place 1451 North Prospect Ave, Milwaukee, WI.

Guests can purchase a three day access passes online at http://www.soarwomen.com for $189. For every pass sold SWES will donate a pass to a woman living in a shelter and/or in improvised conditions. The organization’s goal is to revive, restore and rebuild lives. The organization is also providing discounts for military $65 and students $45 passes (must have valid ID#).

“2017 is the year for elevation,” said SWES’s founder.

About Us
Roth & Lawrence LLC, Director of Communication Tam Lawrence launched Soar Women’s Empowerment Summit in 2016 as a humanitarian project. In efforts, to keep her mother’s work alive Lawrence started SWES. The summit was developed to empower, inspire, and promote compassion amongst women.

“My mother was a community advocate who had marched for fair housing, ministered in churches and loved on others in silence,” said Ms. Lawrence Founder of SWES.

The upcoming event is expected to attract over 300+ plus women from WI, NY, IL, DC, MD, VA, FL, SC, and NC. Reservations have been rolling in since the campaign started back in late November, since over 104 women have registered. With the support of sponsors such as: Northwestern Mutual, Muse Gallery Guesthouse, 1451 Renaissance Place, Exposure Magazine, Urban Wall Street Journal, and Get It Live.TV this event will be a success.

“Our children will suffer if adults continue to resist our opportunity to create change. My parents taught me when you see a problem, you solve it,” stated Lawrence.

Roth & Lawrence LLC, in 2015 expanded its boutique public relations firm to Milwaukee, WI. Founded by Tam Lawrence a Marquette University grad. For over 15 years as publicist, Lawrence has worked with celebrities, pro athletes, politicians, and the alike. Traveling around the country from Dallas, TX, Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, GA, Kailua Kona, HI and now residing in Milwaukee. Lawrence relocated back to Milwaukee to be closer to her mother, together they fight to win–beyond unwarranted conditions. To learn more, visit http://www.soarwomen.com or call us at (414) 856-5330.

Media Contact:
Taylor Scott
Roth & Lawrence Public Relations Firm
342 North Water Street Suite 617
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202
414-856-5330
tl@rlassc.com
http://www.rlassc.com