Eight’s award-winning medical series The Latest Procedure receives Emmy nomination

Eight, Arizona PBS and Phoenix producers educate patients on healthcare risks and latest treatments with live operations

PHOENIX – (Sept. 25, 2013) Eight, Arizona PBS’s award-winning series The Latest Procedure was recognized for exceptional instructional/informational television programming with a 2013 Emmy Award nomination from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Phoenix-based producers Wayne Dickmann and Chris Wooley accepted the nomination for The Latest Procedure: Anterior Total Hip Replacement Surgery, the first installment in the series, which aired Nov. 13, 2012.

“We were thrilled to learn of the prestigious Emmy nomination for this project,” says series producer Chris Wooley of VAS Communications. “We are hopeful that this recognition will help to bring The Latest Procedure to a wider audience.  The information contained in it can be life-saving to literally hundreds of thousands of Americans.”

Eight developed The Latest Procedure series to keep viewers current on healthcare advances and options available to them during a time when America's healthcare landscape is changing, and the burden of responsibility is shifting toward patients, requiring them to take a more assertive and informed role in their own care.
The locally-produced series currently includes three episodes:

• TLP: Endovascular Leg Therapies, premiering Monday, Sept. 30, which encourages patients across the United States to better understand the risk factors of a sweeping national epidemic. The one-hour broadcast will take viewers into an operating room to observe live endovascular treatment options of leg artery stenosis, which are less invasive than previous options for this condition.
• Award-winning TLP: Anterior Hip Replacement, whichallowed viewers to step inside the OR with Arizona orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ted Firestone, Medical Director of the Total Joint Replacement program at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea for a step-by-step explanation of this innovative hip replacement technique, which results in less pain and quicker return to normal activities for patients. The program provided a bird's-eye view of the operation through a mini-cam strapped to the surgeon's head for a unique play-by-play account of the surgery. (Premiered Nov. 13, 2012.)
• TLP: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, which aired Feb. 20, 2013, marked the 30th anniversary of Eight’s landmark live telecast of open heart surgery – the first-ever worldwide. The program took viewers inside the OR with Arizona's own Dr. David Rizik for an up-close step-by-step tutorial of this catheter-based approach, also known as TAVR, which requires only a small incision on the leg, and dramatically reduces patient recovery time and complications.

Eight, Arizona PBS General Manager Kelly McCullough views the series as part of the station’s overall commitment to bringing viewers the latest in potentially life-saving medical information, and helping them to make more informed decisions about their healthcare. "Beginning with our landmark broadcast in 1983 of The Operation, Eight, Arizona PBS has been the original source for medical programming that brings viewers into the operating room, for a real-time, close-up look at some of the latest life-saving medical advances. We plan to offer The Latest Procedure series to PBS affiliates nationally starting later this year, and are presently seeking partners who want to join in this important effort to inform the public on other innovative healthcare treatments.”

Each program will also be offered on-demand via the extensive Eight website, where the episodes can be viewed anytime. The online component of the series, www.azpbs.org/procedure/, also offers additional in-depth information about the disease and the latest available treatments, medical questionnaires, and other resources, free of charge, and accessible 24/7.

Media Contact:  Colleen O’Donnell Pierce
[email protected]
(602) 496-0579
(602) 478-3867 (cell)
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