Medical Alliance Services Showcasing TICKLE LIPO™ at ASPS Conference in Toronto Oct. 1 - 5, 2010

Oct. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Dallas, Texas - Medical Alliance Services, a U.S. medical technology distribution and services company distributing TICKLE LIPO™ (www.ticklelipo.com)  will be in Toronto October 1-5, 2010 attending the ASPS Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Medical Alliance Services invites all its current Plastic Surgeons customers and other interested Plastic Surgeons visit booth, #1045 to discover the benefits of the TICKLE LIPO.

"Our goal is to offer a turn-key solution which will assist all physicians to safely, effectively and efficiently shift appropriate liposuction procedures from the more expensive surgery center environment into the physician office-based setting", said Paul Herchman, CEO of Medical Alliance Services. "Over the last year a large percentage of the US placements for TICKLE LIPO have been in the offices of Plastic Surgeons. Because of the growing interest by Plastic Surgeons to meet the requests of potential patients and the excellent feedback we have received from our U.S. Plastic Surgeon customers we are expanding our efforts to meet this growing demand."  

A. Jay Burns, M.D., an assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and a partner of the Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute, said: "Over the past decade, one of the common occurrences in health care has been the shifting of surgical procedures to more cost effective environments. Plastic surgeons have seen liposuction shift first from the hospital setting into AAAHC physician owned surgery centers and now we are seeing many liposuction procedures shift to the outpatient setting."   According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, plastic surgeons performed 301,138 liposuction procedures in 2007, but only 245,138 in 2008. Historically, liposuction has been in the domain of plastic surgeons whose primary tools consisted of traditional surgical techniques.  However, industry experts point out that for the last few years, many major medical device manufacturers had significant revenues associated with the sale of office-based liposuction systems to non plastic surgeons. These non-plastic surgeon physicians have driven the shift of liposuction to the office and have successfully gained market share by utilizing the latest minimally invasive tumescent based technologies.  

Dr. Burns continues, "I believe that Plastic Surgeons will need to offer a continuum of body contouring options in various settings to meet the increasing fat reduction and skin tightening demands of patients. This will include traditional operative procedures in the operating room, minimally invasive outpatient procedures, and the already emerging technologies which will offer safe and effective non-invasive treatments. The challenge for all physicians is proper patient selection. While patients are demanding minimal downtime and restriction of post operative activities, we as medical professionals need to strike the optimal balance of patient safety, clinical efficacy and these patient demands. Many patients seeking office-based liposuction and even non-surgical procedures are simply not good candidates and should be guided toward more traditional liposuction.

Statistics show an increasing number patients are having tumescent liposuction procedures in the office and recent advancements in technology are focused on less physical patient trauma, therefore reducing anesthesia requirements and post surgical recovery. As plastic surgeons,we have a choice to let those less qualified do the procedures, or to take outpatient liposuction to a level that will ensure patient safety and create quality that is not currently offered. We can lead the way in defining who is a candidate, what the optimal environment for safety is and what equipment is optimal to expedite such outpatient procedures."  

Richard Y. Ha M.D., board certified plastic surgeon at the Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute said, "We are utilizing the TICKLE LIPO, or Nutational Infrasonic Liposculpture system for our outpatient or 'awake' surgeries as it offers several tangible benefits to our patients. The unique nutational infrasonic vibration mitigates much of any discomfort experienced during the procedure. I believe that the art of a successful office-based procedure is to overcome patient discomfort as much as possible, minimize post surgery downtime and achieve a realistic clinical result in terms of fat reduction and skin tightening and we choose the technologies to work with accordingly."  
 
Herchman said, "I have been involved in surgical procedures moving to the lowest cost setting for 20 years and liposuction is proving to be one of the next procedures which will shift to the office setting. It is our objective to offer physicians a safe, reliable turnkey program to meet their need to establish an office-based liposuction program."

About A. Jay Burns, M.D.:
Dr. Burns received his Doctor of Medicine Degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas, and served his Internship for General Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah, from 1981 - 1982 under Frank Moody, M.D.

Dr. Burns is Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery (expired) and the American Board of Plastic Surgeons, Inc. and has a teaching appointment at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas where he has served as an assistant professor since July of 1988. Dr. Burns served as president of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery from April 2006-2007. The Society has over 3,000 members representing more than 45 specialties and is a valuable resource for laser research, safety, education, and clinical knowledge.

About Richard Y. Ha, M.D.:
As a partner of the internationally acclaimed Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute, Dr. Richard Ha specializes in cosmetic surgery and performs a variety of procedures including face/neck lifts, eyelid lifts, rhinoplasty, brow lifts, breast augmentations and lifts, liposuction, tummy tucks, body/thigh lifts, arm lifts, quick recovery laser resurfacing, BotoxTM and fillers. He also performs a wide range of reconstructive procedures including cleft lip and palate, and facial reanimation surgery.

Dr. Ha graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine and completed his Internship, Residency and Fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  He is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is a clinical instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Department of Plastic Surgery.  Dr. Ha is also a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
 
About TICKLE LIPO™:
Nutational Infrasonic Liposculpture (NIL) is one of the newest forms of Liposuction offered in the United States. It was first introduced in Belgium by a physician who was performing several Liposuction procedures per day. Liposuction requires a good amount of physical exertion on the part of the physician performing the procedure, so NIL was developed with an objective of increasing the physician's performance while decreasing the physician's effort.

The technology has been used in thousands of procedures and presented at more than 100 scientific sessions worldwide. The NIL System offers all of the benefits of current Liposuction technology without most of the inherent risks. NIL is FDA cleared for the removal of soft tissue and fluid from the body during general surgical procedures including suction lipoplasty for aesthetic body contouring.

TICKLE LIPO™ is distributed in the United States exclusively by Medical Alliance Services. Visit www.ticklelipo.com  or call (866) 981-5017.

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Medical Alliance Services provides experience, support and resources to insure that new product / procedure introductions are successful at both the distribution and end-user level.