Eightshines at 2014 Telly Awards, winning highest honor for ASU Discovers and second Bronze Telly for original series The Latest Procedure

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Eight Wins Silver Telly Award for “ASU Discovers” and Bronze Telly Award for “The Latest Procedure: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement”

PHOENIX – (July 1, 2014) Judges in the 35th annual Telly Awards presented Eight, Arizona PBS’ program ASU Discovers with a Silver Telly Award, the ceremony’s highest honor, for outstanding creative achievement in education in 2014. The Silver Telly Council also awarded Eight’s program The Latest Procedure: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement with a Bronze Telly Award for exceptional creativity in health and fitness in 2014, marking the series’ second Bronze Telly Award. The Telly Awards celebrate the very best film and video productions, groundbreaking online video content, and outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs. Entries in the national and international competition do not compete against each other, but rather are judged against a high standard of merit. Eight’s award-winning programs were judged by a panel of industry experts from a pool of nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries.

Fewer than 10 percent of entries are chosen as winners of a Silver Telly. The judges awarded the ceremony’s highest honor to Eight’s ASU Discovers, produced by Melody Cavanary, for its innovative educational method of taking viewers into the laboratory and out into the community with Arizona State University’s top investigators as they examine some of the ground-breaking work taking place at ASU. The show highlights researchers’ work in detecting bone loss, developing programs that will help to prevent diabetes and maximizing the efficiency of solar energy technology.

ASU Discovers presented a wonderful opportunity to share the excitement and promise of cutting-edge research at Arizona State University with our viewers,” says Cavanary. “It’s great to be recognized for work that is not only satisfying on a personal level, but also furthers Eight’s mission to deliver engaging and informative programs to the community.”

“In ASU Discovers, we wanted to explore how researchers at Arizona State University are approaching questions from unexpected directions. For example, we feature a geochemist who uses earth-science techniques to detect bone loss in humans. When we look at problems from new angles, using techniques from multiple disciplines, we can often find surprising and effective solutions,” says Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, senior vice president of ASU's Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development (OKED), who was recently named to the National Science Board by President Obama.  OKED collaborated with Eight on the show.

The 35th annual Telly Awards also selected The Latest Procedure: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement for a Bronze Telly, honoring the program’s focus on an innovative, non-surgical approach to treating aortic valve stenosis – a narrowing of the aortic valve that hinders the heart from pumping blood to the upper and lower extremities. During the hour-long special, viewers accompanied Arizona’s own Dr. David Rizik into the operating room for an up-close step-by-step tutorial of this catheter-based approach, also known as TAVR.

“The Latest Procedure is all about informing patients of what new treatment options are available.  Showing patients an aortic valve replacement being performed through a catheter is truly an exciting medical advancement, which offers patients new less invasive options to open-heart surgery,” says Wayne Dickmann, director in charge of production. “We are honored by this award and look forward to sharing many other medical advancements in future episodes.”

Producer Chris Wooley, executive producer Nancy Southgate and Eight’s General Manager Kelly McCullough, who served as executive in charge of production, oversaw the multimedia project, which encourages patients to become smarter healthcare consumers by providing integrated and interactive content via television programs, various online health resources, including interactive health surveys and background information on various conditions and treatment options, social media and educational outreach efforts. 

“As the healthcare landscape changes, The Latest Procedure continues to provide the public with the latest in potentially life-saving medical information though its extraordinary real-time, up-close procedures,” says McCullough. “We are pleased that the series’ success has allowed for national distribution, allowing more people to benefit from Eight’s commitment to keep viewers current on healthcare advances and treatment options available to them.”

The judges of the 35th annual Telly Awards recognized Eight, Arizona PBS’ productions for their innovation and ingenuity in education and health and fitness programming. The Telly Awards annually showcase the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators and corporate video departments in the world. To view the complete list of 2014 winners, visit http://www.tellyawards.com/winners/.

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