Gone like Sheet and Tube

After four years, it's unfortunetly time to hang it up. I just don't have the time due to work, being heavily involved in a volunteer fire department, and the fact that I live three states away. I wish all of my former readers the best of luck in '08.

Defend Youngstown.

Respectfully,

Joe Lowry
Proprietor

Youngstown's High Technology: It's Not Just Software

The "da Vinci," a robot that is already changing how surgery is done in Youngstown, is only one of the ways that the city is changing from a manufacturing base into a high technology corridor. While high-tech companies like Turning Technology are leading the charge to make Youngstown a player in the software industry, we shouldn't discount the significance of St. Elizabeth Medical Center getting its own high tech robot that will change the way health care is delivered in the Valley.

The St. Elizabeth's Center for Robotic Surgery has been in operation since September of last year, and using the da Vinci have already performed 40 robotic prostatectomies (prostate surgery), 20 robotic hysterectomies, one robotic pyeloplasty (removal of a blockage in the ureter leading from one of the kidneys to the bladder), and one robotic cystectomy (removal of all or part of the urinary bladder).

What are the advantages of the da Vinci? The benefits to the patients are significant. Surgery times of six hours for a prostatectomy have been reduced to four hours and the goal for the program is eventually to do the surgeries in two hours. This leads to a reduction in blood loss to the point where a transfusion is unnecessary and less time in the hospital. Average stays are only 32 hours. Other advantages include reduced pain, less time on a catheter and less post-surgery narcotic use.

The St. Elizabeth's Center for Robotic Surgery staff includes Dr. Daniel Ricchiutti, his brother Dr. Vincent Ricchiutti and Dr. Mark Memo, all of N.E.O. Urology Associates. The doctors and the hospital hope that the center will become a regional referral center, and they hope that patients from the Mahoning Valley will stay here for their surgeries. Those that need hysterectomies or prostate surgery now have good reason to seriously consider that option.


Dr. Daniel Ricchiuti


Dr. Mark Memo


Dr. Vincent Ricchiuti

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes

If you haven’t been downtown for a while, the Taft Technology Center on West Federal Street is nearly complete. Turning Technology will be moving 130 jobs into the building by May 1st.

What does this mean for a Valley that is still losing manufacturing jobs? Recently, Indalex, GE, and Mold-Tech have either ceased or significantly cut back operations. In spite of the difficult transition—one that is sure to continue—there is a bright future for Youngstown, and the Taft Technology Center and Turning Technology are certainly part of that future.

Excerpt From the Vindicator, Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Inc. Magazine last year ranked Turning Technologies as the fastest-growing, privately held software company in the U.S.
Entrepreneur Magazine ranked it last year as the seventh-fastest growing small business in the nation with $20.6 million in sales in 2006. Sales increased to nearly $28 million in 2007.
Broderick and two others started the company in 2001 and recorded just $111,000 in sales the following year.