Desert Companion - August 2012

Health MEDICine2012

topDentists

150+ Reasons to keep you smiling

A u g u s t 2 01 2

Friends With Benefits

The Healthy Upside of Choosing your pals Wisely

The DocS Are In

Local docTors give Nevada health care a frank Rx

Meet The champions of Health Care keeping Southern Nevada Strong

heroes Tom kha club Taking Thai off the beaten path Space upgraders The young designers remaking your city Get lost! And then found — in local labyrinths

Survivors They fought grave illness and injury — and now live to inspire

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P R IMARY STROKE CENTERS

Know the Warning Signs of Stroke I am enjoying my life today because my daughter recognized the signs that I was having a stroke and because of the excellent care I received from The Valley Health System after my stroke. ~ Virginia Furnish, Stroke Survivor pictured with daughter Sharon Chaves

WARNING SIGNS OF STROKE ~ ACT FAST* F = Face.

Is one side of the face drooping?

A= Arms.

When you raise both arms, does one arm start to drop?

S = Speech. Is speech slurred?

T = Time.

Time is critical. Call 9-1-1 immediately.

* Information from the National Stroke Association

Learn more about stroke and our Stroke Centers at www.ValleyHealthSystemLV.com

Five hospitals. One passion. Quality care.

Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of The Valley Health System. The System shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians.

editor’s note

h

A second, third and fourth opinion Health care in Southern Nevada.

Next Month in Desert Companion

Step out in style for our fall culture and fashion issue

2 | Desert

Admit it: You can’t read the phrase without mentally supplying an orchestral da-dum! The topic is so complex and monolithic it makes us stiffen with anxiety (or, alternately, induces snores). But let’s talk about what we do know: It’s no surprise that a state whose official bird is the Marlboro Light doesn’t rank too high when it comes to the health of Nevadans and our access to health care. Just a quick browse at a website such as statehealthfacts.org reveals we’ve got significantly more uninsured adults than the national average, and more uninsured children as well. Our kids are more obese and our teens more likely to die when they’re young. It’s enough to make you want to collar the nearest doctor — someone, anyone sporting a stethoscope — and ask them to please, please, please put things in perspective.

We followed exactly that impulse.

For our second annual Health and Medicine Issue, we formed a steering committee of medical professionals to get a second opinion — and a third and a fourth, and so on — on health care in Southern Nevada. Through an indepth, online survey, the 17 members of The Desert Companion Health and Medicine Steering Committee told us what they think are the biggest problems with health care in Southern Nevada. They told us what patients can do to make their medical visits more informative and productive. They shared with us what keeps them practicing in Nevada — a challenging environment for anyone in health care.

You’ll find their answers throughout this issue under the heading “The DC Docs.” The hardest part was fitting all their insight and generous wisdom into the magazine.

Companion | AUGUST 2012

Some of their answers surprised us, but a few common themes emerged. For instance, we asked them how to choose a good doctor.

Nowadays, your impulse might to be Google a prospective physician, but almost universally, our docs cautioned against putting too much stock into online reviews. “Online reviews can be manipulated and, if not, disgruntled folks tend to be over-represented; an unhappy person talks to many and a happy one to few,” wrote Dr. Herve Bezard, echoing the views of many on the committee. Dr. Sean Palacios added: “Online reviews tend not to be a good source, since usually only the angry patients take the time to write something on the Internet about physicians.”

Dr. Nick Vogelzang advised looking for a good communicator: “Pick a physician with whom you can easily communicate, who speaks well and slowly, who explains carefully and who is not rushed.” In this age when waiting rooms sometimes seem more like cattle corrals, that’s something to appreciate.

The DC Docs also urged people to take more responsibility for their health — not through complicated home diagnostic tests and obsessive self-monitoring, but rather through tackling those age-old hobgoblins: quitting smoking, cleaning up your diet and getting off the couch more often. “People would be better off concentrating on their weight, exercise and not smoking,” wrote Dr. Stephanie Wishnev.

Because sometimes the doctor won’t be in. Indeed, another touchy topic we explore is how we can keep our best docs in town (see page 52).

It’s a snarl of a topic with no easy answers, but many of our docs spoke

their minds. Dr. Joseph Adashek wrote: “Obviously, being the lowest paid doctors in the country is detriment to good health care. Having patients not be able to get Medicaid is another. It is pure economics: Other places pay doctors twice as much!

How can we get doctors here when we promise them half as much money?” There are many such honest prescriptions in the pages to follow.

Thanks to Dr. James Atkinson, Dr. Herve Bezard, Dr. Sean David Palacios, Dr. Judy Craythorn, Dr. Stephanie Wishnev, Dr. Dino Gonzales, Dr. Leslie Sims, Dr. Warren Wheeler, Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang, Dr. Ron Kline, Dr. Leonard Gallia, Dr. Kelly Van Wagner, Dr. Celeste Bove, Dr. Joseph Adashek, Dr. Traci Grossman, Dr. Lisa Glasser and Dr. Keith Boman. Our DC Docs took time out of their hectic schedules to provide our readers with a free — but priceless — consultation.

Read and be well.

Andrew Kiraly Editor

The promise of a better world lies in the commitment

to make it happen That’s why the Caesars Foundation supports The Public Education Foundation and the Teacher EXCHANGETM. The Teacher EXCHANGETM is a re-use resource center for all Southern Nevada public school teachers, providing them with new and ®

The will to do wonders® reusable materials collected from businesses and individuals throughout the valley

at no charge. They still need your help. Visit www.thepef.org or call 702-799-1042 to find out how you can volunteer or donate to the Teacher EXCHANGETM.

® The will to do wonders®

contents desert companion magazine // desertcompanion.com

08.2012

DEPARTMENTS 11

All Things to All People

An app for mother and child

By Andrew Kiraly

22

Design

Young turks of urban design

By Tony Illia

26

Leisure

Get twisted in labyrinths

By Kristen Peterson

30

Health

Where the docs are

By Heidi Kyser

52 Should I stay or should I go?

The tough choices Nevada’s underpaid docs make

56 Trickledown health Let’s fix our social infrastructure for a healthy change

COVER STORY

60 Heroes

Five medical champions who are keeping Southern Nevada in good health

4 | Desert

Companion | AUGUST 2012

67 Survivors

36

History

The Riv gets a remake

By David McKee

43

Dining

Fit to be Thai’d

By Brock Radke

105

Guide

From rock to theater to dance, your guide to culture

112

History lesson Paint the town

By Andrew Kiraly

Through illness and injury, these Las Vegans came back from the brink

75 Top Dentists

There are more than 150 reasons to smile in our list of peer-recommended dentists in Southern Nevada

on the cover Photography Christopher Smith Model & Photo retouching Eddie Roberts/CDI Studios

D O C TO R : B I L L H U G H E S ; N U R S E a nd O F F I C E : C H R I S TO P H E R S M I T H ; F O O D : S A B I N O R R

FEATURES

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Mission Statement

Desert Companion is the premier city magazine that celebrates the pursuits, passions and aspirations of Southern Nevadans. With award-winning lifestyle journalism and design, Desert Companion does more than inform and entertain. We spark dialogue, engage people and define the spirit of the Las Vegas Valley.

Editorial & Art

Your family. Your legacy.

Building wealth today and sustaining it for future generations can be challenging. Effective investment management must be integrated with strategic tax and estate planning, philanthropy and family culture.

Andrew Kiraly Editor CHRISTOPHER SMITH Art Director

Advertising

CHRISTINE KIELY Corporate Support Manager laura alcaraz National Account Manager Sharon Clifton Senior Account Executive elizabeth guernsey Account Executive Markus Van’t Hul Senior Account Executive

Marketing

At City National, we’re with you every step of the way as

Catherine Kim Marketing Manager

you grow your wealth, enjoy it with your family and build

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a lasting legacy.

Chris Bitonti Subscription Manager

Online

Senior Staff

Florence M.E. Rogers President / General Manager Melanie Cannon Director of Development Cynthia M. Dobek Director of Business, Finance & Human Resources Phil Burger Director of Broadcast Operations

Contributing Writers

Cybele, Chantal Corcoran, Alan Gegax, Michael Green, Amira Hall-Hood, Tony Illia, Jarret Keene, Heidi Kyser, Danielle McCrea, David McKee, Christie Moeller, Scott Nowicki, Kristen Peterson, Brock Radke, Marina Rankow

Contributing Artists

Troy Cummings, Bill Hughes, Aaron McKinney, Sabin Orr

Danielle Branton Web Administrator

Experience the City National Difference.

Contact Dianne Merkey at (702) 952-4447.

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To submit your organization’s event listings for the Desert Companion events guide, send complete information to guide@desertcompanion.com. Feedback and story ideas are always welcome, too.

Editorial: Andrew Kiraly, (702) 259-7856; andrew@desertcompanion.com Fax: (702) 258-5646 Advertising: Christine Kiely, (702) 259-7813; christine@desertcompanion.com

Subscriptions: Chris Bitonti, (702) 259-7810; subscriptions@desertcompanion.com

Website: www.desertcompanion.com Desert Companion is published 12 times a year by Nevada Public Radio, 1289 S. Torrey Pines Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89146. It is available by subscription at www.desertcompanion.com, or as part of Nevada Public Radio membership. It is also distributed free of charge at select locations in the Las Vegas Valley.

All photographs, artwork and ad designs printed are the sole property of Desert Companion and may not be duplicated or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

The views of Desert Companion contributing writers are not necessarily the views of Desert Companion or Nevada Public Radio. Contact Chris Bitonti for back issues, which are available for purchase for $7.95.

City National Wealth Management Non-deposit Investment Products:

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Companion | AUGUST 2012

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World-class physicians.

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Right here in our community.

St. Rose Dominican Hospitals and Stanford Hospital & Clinics have teamed up to provide our community unparalleled, comprehensive neurosurgical care through the St. Rose Neurosurgery Clinic.

The clinic provides academic-focused, advanced patient care for one of the most complex disease areas in medicine - right here in southern Nevada - while enhancing the neuroscience services already offered through St. Rose’s three campuses. Let St. Rose care for you.

To learn more about the St. Rose and Stanford partnership:

Call 616-6580 or visit strosehospitals.org/Stanford

The SMA Lifestyle Centers Now that’s powerful medicine.

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Nevada Public Radio Board of Directors

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Officers

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Chairman Fisher & Phillips, LLP

Elizabeth FRETWELL, Chair City of Las Vegas Susan Brennan, vice chair Brennan Consulting Group, LLC cynthia alexander, Treasurer Snell & Wilmer Florence M.E. Rogers, Secretary Nevada Public Radio

Directors

shamoon ahmad, m.d., mba, facp Cynthia Alexander, Esq. Louis Castle, Director emeritus Patrick N. Chapin, Esq., Director Emeritus KIRK V. CLAUSEN Wells Fargo sherri gilligan jan L. jones Caesars Entertainment Corporation John R. Klai II Klai Juba Architects

There’s just no denying it. Active seniors are healthier seniors. That’s why The SMA Lifestyle Centers are so important. Finally, there’s a place you can laugh, learn and stay healthy.

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David Cabral Business Finance Corporation DENNIS COBB President, DCC Group Richard I. Dreitzer Fox Rothschild LLP bob gerst Boyd Gaming Corporation BOB GLASER BNY Mellon Wealth Managment adriana gonorazky INNOVA Technologies Carolyn G. Goodman Meadows School Marilyn Gubler The Las Vegas Archive Kurtis Wade Johnson Absolute Auto Care Megan Jones MKJ Consulting max kuniansky NV Energy edmÉe s. marcek College of Southern Nevada JENNA MORTON Steve Parker UNLV Richard Plaster Signature Homes

Chris Murray Director Emeritus Avissa Corporation

Kim Russell Smith Center for the Performing Arts

Jerry Nadal Cirque du Soleil

CANDY SCHNEIDER Smith Center for the Performing Arts

Peter O’Neill R&R Partners William J. “Bill” Noonan, Director Emeritus Boyd Gaming Corporation kathe nylen PBTK Consulting MARK RICCiARDI, Esq., director emeritus Fisher & Phillips, LLP

Stephanie Smith Bob Stoldal Sunbelt Communications Co. kate turner whiteley Kirvin Doak Communications Brent Wright Wright Engineers

Mickey Roemer, Director Emeritus Roemer Gaming TIM WONG Arcata Associates

Follow us online:

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8 | Desert

Companion | AUGUST 2012

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NE W S

to all people

PEOP L E C OMM U NIT Y S H OP D ESI G N

Community

t e ch n o l o gy

An app for mother (and child)

Brain trust

A n n a W r o b l e : c h r i s to p h e r s m i t h

t

When Devin O’Day was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in December 2005, she felt alone.

Her condition, hypothalamic hamartoma, is rare. It’s a deep-brain tumor that attaches to the hypothalamus, the brain’s controller of hunger, thirst and emotions. The symptoms are even more isolating; the tumor often causes outbursts of uncontrollable crying and laughing.

“When I was diagnosed, me and my parents had no one to go to,” says O’Day. There were online groups and email lists, but nothing closer to home. “We wanted people locally to connect to, people we could ask, ‘How do you handle all this without going crazy? How do I prepare mentally and emotionally for brain surgery?’” says O’Day. She appreciates local groups

The birth of a child is supposed to spark smiles and laughter, but Anna Wroble often sees different expressions in her line of work: teary eyes and worried brows. She’s a neonatal intensive care nurse at St. Rose Dominican Hospital; she helps newborns coping with health issues, from minor coughs to major birth defects.

Those infants benefit from medical tech and specialist docs. But what about parents — worried, confused, frightened parMother of invention: ents? Anna Wroble thought there should Anna Wroble’s app aims to help mothers be an app for that. and their newborns in “Stepping into the neonatal intensive intensive care. care unit with a sick infant can be scary, and even traumatic, for most families. It’s a parents what they can do.” Wroble’s stake is partly place with a lot of noise, monitors, pumps, alarms and personal, too. She’s the mother of four daughters, one all sort of things going on,” says Wroble. “I thought it of whom had to go into neonatal intensive care after would be useful if there were a smartphone app that birth. gave parents a sense of what to expect — and what Others at St. Rose chipped in. Jennifer McDonnell, they could do to get some control.” director of communications for St. Rose Hospitals, The catch: There’s no such app. So Wroble made came on as project manager — from a personal place one. She created Helping Mothers Helping Babies, a as well. Her son was born prematurely and suffered free app slated to hit virtual shelves this month for from collapsed lungs shortly after birth. “For me, iPhone, Android and tablets. The app, a one-stop not understanding what was going on was shop that covers the ins and outs of NICU, very scary,” says McDonnell. “What’s exincludes a video tour of St. Rose’s NICU fac t ! citing is that this is a grassroots app, not unit, an infant health progress-tracker something we bought off the shelf and and extensive tips on breastfeeding. To slapped a logo on.” turn her idea into software, Wroble Indeed, Wroble leveraged her years was awarded $150,000 in grants, of professional experience in creatfrom Dignity Health’s Greenlight Number of months it took ing Helping Mothers Helping Babies, Challenge, St. Rose Dominican Siena Anna Wroble to and commissioned Dom & Tom, a New campus, the Chandler Regional Medidevelop the app York-based app developer, to make it live cal Center in Arizona, and the Children’s on the screen.

Miracle Network.

“I’m passionate about being a nurse, and about “In my experience as a neonatal intensive being a mother,” says Wroble. “If one family’s fears are care nurse, the biggest thing I hear from parents is calmed, and they learn something, and they feel like that they feel out of control,” says Wroble, a nurse for they’ve gotten some sense of control of circumstances, 8 years. “Instead of telling them you can’t do this or the app is a success to me.” — Andrew Kiraly that with this itty bitty fragile baby, we wanted to tell

7

HEAR MORE

continued on pg. 12

Experts share tips on avoiding skin cancer on “KNPR’s State of Nevada” at desertcompanion.com/hearmore DesertCompanion.com | 11

that support children with cancer, but that’s the catch: Her tumor isn’t cancerous.

So, with a scholarship from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, O’Day launched Brain Tumor Outreach of Southern Nevada in October 2008. She’s held several support events for young people with brain tumors, and is working on attaining nonprofit status. Arguably her biggest service: a phone number. “I thought the most powerful thing I could do is just to make myself available. Whether they call me on a holiday or at three in the morning, I’m going to answer,” she says.

Alex Nietrzeba, a brain tumor survivor and member of the group, says being able to talk to someone who knows the struggle makes a big difference. “Beyond the medical concerns, there are so many questions. How do I finish school? How do I handle medical expenses? But even just talking to someone who’s been through this is a great help.”

Learn more at btosn.org.

— Andrew Kiraly

ON THE TOWN Rev it up at the 8th annual Las Vegas Ride for Kids Sept. 30. The leisurely road ride goes from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to Town Square — while raising money for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

Info: lvrideforkids.org

T H E ANS W ERS

Q: What was the first hospital in Las Vegas like?

i

A: It was a tent — a hot, dusty railroad yard tent — but it got the job done, thanks to the man behind it.

Allowing for Southern Paiute shamans and the ailments that early settlers like the Gass and Stewart families dealt with, the first hospital in Las Vegas was not, as some Las Vegans seem to think, the old clinic at 8th Street and Ogden Ave. that Dr. Roy Martin built in 1931. Nor was it the Clark County Indigent Hospital that opened that year on a dirt road now called West Charleston Boulevard.

The first doctor was Halle L. Hewetson, who came here in the employ of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. Born in Ohio in 1864, Hewetson graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical program and served in the army before going to work for the Union Pacific Railroad.

While the rail line was under construction in 1904, he pitched his tent in the railroad yard and installed four cots for patients. Nothing resembling air conditioning existed, so he followed a couple of general rules that future Las Vegas doctors employed: no

surgery unless in case of emergency, and if possible, then only in the early morning hours, the coolest part of the day.

In 1905, with the railroad built, Las Vegas became a townsite. Dr. Hewetson talked his bosses into erecting a wooden building and concentrated on treating railroad workers, while Dr. Roy Martin joined him in town and opened his own clinic.

The two doctors often helped each other (including the time Hewetson broke his leg; he set it himself, then Martin accompanied him to Los Angeles for treatment). Hewetson talked the railroad into a better health-care facility for its workers, renting a building with 14 beds, a nursery, an area for indigents and room for Hewetson to live on the ground floor. Today, Hewetson’s legacy lives on in an elementary school named for him (Martin has a middle school), and in his family: His grandson B. Mahlon Brown served for 25 years as a state senator, his great-grandson Mahlon as U.S. attorney, and his great-great-grandson Bert as a municipal judge. — Michael Green

Got a question? We’ve got the answer. Email it to editor@desertcompanion.com.

12 | Desert

Companion | AUGUST 2012

Illustration BY TROY CUMMINGS

r i d e f o r k i d s p h oto c o u r t e s y o f r i d e f o r k i d s ; a n s w e r s i l l u s t r at i o n b y t r oy c u m m i n g s

continued from pg. 11

news

PROFILE

Learning — in sickness and in health Alvin Matthews

Director of educational Services for the Nevada Childhood cancer foundation On the table are plenty of iPads stocked with cuttingedge learning apps, but Alonso Fragoso, 12, has his nose buried in a kids’ detective novel. He’s indulging in a bit of guilty-pleasure summer reading before diving into a math tutoring session. But he’s earned the right to a little down time. After a more than three-year battle, the 7th grader is in remission from lymphoma — a cancer that took the sinister form of a tumor in his chest that had pushed aside Fragoso’s heart and paralyzed a lung. “I missed a lot of school. I didn’t get to see my friends, but I still felt I was part of the class.” That’s because he continued his studies in part through the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation’s Torino Foundation Education Services Program. “Cancer touches children not only physically,” says the foundation’s Director of Educational Services Alvin Matthews. “It affects their entire lives — and their siblings and family as well. We give those kids a sense of stability, allowing them to continue their education while they’re in treatment.” Cancer may sideline these kids, but it won’t rob them of an education. In addition to overseeing the cheerful Torino Foundation Classroom at the Sunrise Children’s Hospital (which starts bustling with kids and volunteers as soon as they open their doors), Matthews also does bedside tutoring and manages educational accommodations for ill kids who can still attend schools. Matthews’ passion for this project comes from a personal place. “My sister passed away after a six-year battle with bone cancer, and I promised to volunteer in honor of her memory,” he says. He quickly volunteered up the ranks to a full-time position. Today the program serves about 128 kids and their siblings coping with serious illness. Is the program effective? You bet your high school diploma. Matthews is proud to report that one young cancer survivor who took advantage of the foundation’s classes boosted her GPA in order to qualify to run for student body president — and win. But this program is decidedly different than your typical classroom in one crucial way. “Sometimes,” says Matthews, “the kids are so into it, we have to force them to leave!” — Andrew Kiraly 14 | Desert

Companion | AUGUST 2012

PHOTOGRAPH BY Christopher SMith

ING T UR A E F NEERW IAL A

2

S ACT

SHOP

Th e B r o w s e r

A hat for every occasion, style and head

t

There are hats, and then there are Louisa Voisine’s hats. Hats? They might be better called crowns or headpieces, so detailed and ornate is their styling.

That reflects her philosophy. Voisine believes that a woman doesn’t need to live in Kentucky to look fabulous in a Kentucky Derby hat. That same dare-to-wear perspective goes for sporting one of her Victorian-inspired hats, complete with ostrich feathers and silk flowers, or a velvet, 1940s-themed cocktail hat, for example. “Some (hats) whisper softly ‘adorn me,’ while others boldly state, ‘I want to lead the Easter Parade’ or ‘Get me to the derby on time,’” Voisine says. And really, how great would a bonnet look in your closet propped next to a 51s baseball cap?

N e w a n d n o t a bl e

Bling with meaning

Since she moved to Las Vegas 21 years ago, Voisine has designed hats that were sold exclusively at special events, appearances and through her website.

This September, Voisine will expand her business when she opens a private design studio in the Longford Plaza in Henderson. That’s after her return from France, where she will study with a designer who has created hats for Queen Elizabeth (not to name-drop or anything).

Whether a client wants a custom design or a hat from her seasonal collection, Voisine says she can create a piece in one day to two weeks. Stock hat prices range from $65 to $170 and original designs from $125 to $1,000. Custom design prices vary to work within the budget that the client decides. You can see her work at louisavoisine.com. — Marina Rankow

Jewelry can have a special meaning to the woman wearing it. Accessories often tell a story. But jewelry from nonprofit organization BeadforLife items aren’t just conversation-starters — they’re a life-changer for Northern Ugandan women.

BeadforLife (beadforlife.com) empowers impoverished Ugandan women by offering them the skills, training and resources needed to make and sell jewelry. Members roll colorful beads from recycled paper to create about 12 different earring, bracelet and necklace designs. The pieces are bought twice

Companion | AUGUST 2012

From sunshine to soiree Summer days seem to go by so fast — from starting early to beat the blazing desert heat to afternoons spent seeking out a/c to refreshing cooler nights.

In the midst of all of that, running back home to change into a nighttime outfit is a huge inconvenience — and getting into a car that’s been parked under the sun is nothing short of torture. Patty Barba of Patty’s Closet (multiple locations, ilovepattyscloset.com) has a few tips that will help anyone transition from a day at the beach to a night out on the town.

Pack your look. To start, Barba suggests packing an evening clutch inside a daytime summer tote. That way, you can still pack a bathing suit, sunscreen and towel, but ditch all of it for something more formal when you need to.

Go easy. Barba says cream and black rompers and maxi dressers are easy to wear — and even easier to throw on over a swimsuit.

The key is to swap out sandy flip-flops for cute wedges or heels later on.

Give it an accent. Pair the fancy footwear with chunky jewelry and a kelly green or fuchsia pink blazer for the perfect seasonal burst of color. — M.R.

a month at fair trade prices by BeadforLife and sold for $5 to $50.

Jewelry is just the beginning, however. BeadforLife’s goal is for members to be independent of the organization within 18 months, and ready to support themselves within the Ugandan economy by launching their own small business or revenue streams. Step aside, diamonds; paper beads might be a girl’s new best friend.

BeadforLife jewelry is available locally at MJ Christensen, where owner Cliff Miller serves on the BeadforLife Advisory Board. — M.R.

MJ Christensen is located at 10400 S. Eastern Ave. in Henderson and 8980 W. Charleston Blvd. in Las Vegas, and at mjchristensen.com

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TRAVEL

w D e s t i n at i o n k n o w n

Mars in the Mojave Gas up the car — we’re taking a trip to the Red Planet (or close)

Few locals know about Lee Canyon’s other high-adrenaline destination, the Camp Lee Challenge Course. Open to groups of 20 to 50, Camp Lee offers teambuilding low elements and confidence-building high elements up to 35 feet above the ground.

Their signature obstacle, called the Leap of Faith, sees participants climb straight up a telephone pole, stand on the top, and then jump off to grab a rubber chicken dangling out of reach. Don’t look down! — Alan Gegax

Walk a mile (in your own shoes)

20 | Desert

For millennia, humans roamed the Earth with nothing but calluses to protect their feet.

Then came shoes. Today, hikers have so many options that navigating the shoe department can be tougher than navigating outdoors. Here are a few tips for your summer footfalls.

Size matters. Proper fit is critical. Each manufacturer judges size slightly differently, and a half-size of variation can

Companion | AUGUST 2012

cones dominate the landscape and dark black basalt flows nearly reach the road. Among the volcanoes, a collapsed lava tube resembles the cave skylights recently discovered on Mars. Just south of the preserve is Amboy Crater, where the combination of volca-

Rover right over: Mars-like environs are just up the road.

nism and wind produced one of the best examples of Martian-style wind streaks on Earth.

Among the playas and alluvial fans of Death Valley is “Mars Hill,” whose rocky surface has been compared to the Viking landing sites from the 1970s. Researchers have used this location to determine how difficult it would be for rovers to navigate Martian terrain. The list goes on, including Badwater Basin, Ubehebe Crater and Dumont Dunes, where in May, the Mars Science Laboratory test rover “Scarecrow” was taken out for a trial run and photo-op.

— Scott Nowicki Scott Nowicki is an assistant professor in residence in the Geoscience Department at UNLV. He has worked on four missions to Mars.

cause blisters, cramps, and injuries. Try out your shoes thoroughly before you take them hiking.

Know your terrain. Wet or snowy conditions demand a waterproof boot, while heat requires breathable fabric so your feet don’t bathe in sweat.

For hiking through streams, remember that the same holes that let water out of your shoes will let rocks and sand in. Try a

hybrid like Vibram’s Five Fingers or Columbia’s PowerDrain.

You get what you pay for.

Outlets sell hiking shoes for as little as $20, but they’re not really made to withstand the demands of the trail. It may sting to spend $150 or more on boots, but your feet will thank you — and the shoes can last for years. If you’re nervous about your purchase, buy from a store with a “no questions” return policy like REI. — A.G.

c a m p l e e : A L A N GEG A X ; r o v e r : c o u r t e s y n a s a

Camp Lee Challenge Course

When the Mars Science Laboratory rover touches down on the surface of Mars Aug. 5, don’t be surprised if it looks a lot like the desert surrounding Las Vegas.

Ever since the Cold War jump-started space exploration in the late ’50s, planetary geologists have been coming to the Mojave Desert to study what other worlds might look and feel like to robotic and human explorers. Although the first extraterrestrial target was the moon, scientists quickly shifted their sights to Mars, drawn by the presence of Earth-like geologic features. Wind, volcanism, catastrophic floods, faulting and alternating wet and dry conditions left characteristic marks on the red planet, but these same processes dominate the landscape of the Mojave as well.

Many of the classic test and study sites are just a few hours from Las Vegas. A short drive south on I-15 to Primm puts you in the middle of the Ivanpah playa. This wind-swept, ephemeral lake is a potential analog for the evaporite deposits that formed in Meridini Planum, where Opportunity, one of the twin 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers, is still operating. Although no evidence of life has yet been found on any other planet, the alternating wet and dry conditions are what we hope might foster a life-friendly environment on other worlds.

It seems like there’s a Mars analog at every turn in the Mojave National Preserve (nps.gov/moja).

The historic Kelso Depot visitor center is a civilized outpost from which you can explore the extraterrestrial landscape. The Kelso Dunes, eight miles south, is an impressive mountain of sand produced by the shifting desert winds. North of Kelso is the Cima Volcanic Field. Impossible to miss, massive cinder

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design

Design on the mind: Amy Finchem of COLAB hopes young designers can help remake Las Vegas.

Space upgraders Now is a good time to ask: What do we want our city to become? COLAB urban design gallery has some answers

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By Tony illia | Photography Christopher Smith Look out, uninspired tract subdivisions and big-box strip malls: COLAB Gallery — the valley’s first exhibition space dedicated to local architecture, design and planning — could become a spark for reshaping Southern Nevada’s urban landscape. The 600 square foot space is housed in a nondescript stucco storefront at 817 South Main Street, next to office interiors supplier Faciliteq. There isn’t even a sign on the door. Yet, the modest nonprofit gallery aims to become an interactive force for intellectual discourse about the past, present and future development of Southern Nevada.

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Companion | AUGUST 2012

“It’s meant to create a dialogue about our built environment,” says 34-year-old gallery founder Amy Finchem. “What do we want for our city, and what should it look like? We want to give the public a voice in those decisions, and ultimately, a sense of ownership in the community we create.”

COLAB (colablv.com) made its public debut April 5, with an exhibit of unbuilt projects from the Las Vegas chapter of the American Institute of Architects that have been either shelved, curtailed or canceled due to the recession. Displays consisted of poster-sized, three-dimensional

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The remakers: COLAB designers hard at work on Project Neon, the rehab of central I-15.

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Companion | AUGUST 2012

Few attendees at COLAB’s inaugural show were actual design professionals.

But reaching out to such laypeople is exactly the point.

computer renderings of eight diverse developments, from a Wyndham Resort at Taichi Lake, China, to a port of entry in Southern California, to the Safety Training and Rescue Skills complex, or STARS, in North Las Vegas, which still hopes to raise enough money to break ground. STARS is a proposed child safety and training complex that mixes entertainment with education for a sort of Disneyland-meets-the Learning Channel attraction.

The development, designed by assemblage STUDI, calls for interactive learning displays and buildings, plus a safety village and amphitheater, among other things.

“People are starting to understand how architecture affects them,” says assemblage STUDIO principal Eric Strain, who is a gallery supporter and next-door neighbor. “COLAB can engage people outside of the profession to become involved in how buildings, parks and facilities are designed and built.”

The gallery’s inaugural show was smash hit, attracting more than 200 people, including Zappos chief Tony Hsieh. And turning heads has already resulted in landing gigs, too: The city has hired COLAB to design the bridges and landscape islands that will be created during Project Neon, the grand rehab of I-15 just south of the Spaghetti Bowl.

Few attendees at the show were design professionals, however. And that is exactly the idea.

“We want to advance public understanding and appreciation of architecture,” says Finchem, who works a daytime job as a residential design consultant. “We hope to educate people about what our industry does.”

Architecture gives shape and form to the buildings that form a society. A well-conceived school, home, park or office can give people a sense of belonging, uniting them under a common umbrella of civic pride. Build-

ings can embody a city’s cultural values and ambitions, while also fashioning an identity.

(After all, what would Las Vegas be without the Strip?)

To that end, COLAB plans to stage about six shows a year with accompanying workshops and panel discussions; topics will range from affordable housing and sustainable neighborhoods to downtown redevelopment and long-term master plans. The brick-and-wood gallery serves as a sort of experimental think tank for addressing the valley’s myriad problems through a free exchange of ideas that draws upon different disciplines and regional examples.

“I like the concept. There are issues that need a platform for discussion,” says Thomas Schoeman, the recently retired president of JMA Architecture Studios whose contribution helped kick-start the gallery. “In one way, it’s going to challenge the community by offering alternatives to what is currently happening.”

COLAB’s current show, “Las Vegas Young Guns,” is a blind-juried exhibit of the valley’s best up-and-coming young designers and firms. Unlike traditional galleries, there is no art for sale. Viewings are currently by appointment only. Meanwhile, at the newly opened Art Square creative offices at 1025 First Street, COLAB has opened an annex space with another exhibit, “The Young Guns Neon Gateway Project,” which showcases their design work on the central portion of the I-15 revamp.

“Commingling art and architecture can generate new interest and spark discussion that brings greater exposure to building and civic planning issues,” says Faciliteq owner Quentin Abramo, who is donating the COLAB start-up space. “I’m a fan of anyone who wants to improve our city.”

The gallery is largely the product of Finchem’s determination, persuasiveness and moxie. Opened on a shoestring budget, COLAB is seeking grants and financial aid as well as volunteers and pro bono assistance to sustain its momentum. It’s housed in a cozy industrial space formerly used by Faciliteq for storage that has since been transformed through grit and hard work. Finchem is making the most of the opportunity.

“People care about what gets built. This is their home,” says Finchem, who also sits on the citizens’ advisory committee for the city of Las Vegas redevelopment agency. “Before the economy tanked, we built things as fast as possible with no consideration to design. Things have slowed down, and we now need to ask: What do we want our city to become?”

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Twisted thinking Get lost — and then find yourself. Local labyrinths offer reflective steps in the right direction

i

By Kristen peterson Photography Christopher smith I wouldn’t say that I’m a labyrinth junkie, but if there’s a unicursal maze in front of me, I’m going in. I’ve walked the labyrinth outside Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (more than a couple dozen times, even well after midnight), visited the labyrinths here in Southern Nevada and even printed out a labyrinth to tape to my desk.

As with all habit-forming interests, moderation is probably key. But if I had a labyrinth behind my house, I’d be there day and night. Why? The experience of walking the winding, narrow path — spatially limited enough to keep your attention and restrict your pace — is invaluable. Whisked from quadrant to quadrant, you reach the center with your troubles shed, and then you exit by that same circuitous path, unleashed back into the world, lovingly ejected from the meditative reprieve.

There’s a reason why labyrinths — not to be confused with route-blocking mazes — dot the international landscape, from churches to hospital grounds to new age retreats, backyards, spas and even gardens.

They offer spiritual recharge, religious resonance or just simple relaxation.

According to the online Worldwide Laby-

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Walk the line: The labyrinth at St. Andrew Catholic Community Church in Boulder City

rinth Locator database (yes, you read right), more than 3,950 labyrinths reside in more than 70 countries. Lectures, websites, pamphlets and books talk of labyrinthine solace and religious practice throughout history, dating back more than 4,000 years to Delphi.

They’re accompanied by photos of unique or more famous labyrinths, such as the Chartres Cathedral in France. Whether classical, tribal or Roman mosaic, they vary in materials — constructed from rocks, gravel, con-

crete, bricks, snow, masking tape, marker or paint on canvas. Or pixels: There are even virtual labyrinths to watch on the Internet.

We’ve got our share. The labyrinth on the hilltop campus of St. Andrew Catholic Community Church in Boulder City, with its nearby line of cypress trees, surrounding benches and, quite poetically, birds, is by far my local favorite. The entrance is through a xeriscaped prayer garden, where placards on stones highlight the history of the uni-

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Path the time Local labyrinths worth a walk St. Andrew Catholic Community Church, 1399 San Felipe Drive, Boulder City This labyrinth is open to the public and can be used daily until 10:30 p.m.

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St. Rose Dominican Hospital San Martin Campus, 8280 W. Warm Springs Road Designed and created by Robert Ferré and completed in 2007, the labyrinth is just outside the hospital’s emergency room and available 24 hours.

UNR Cooperative Extension, 1651 E. Calvada Blvd., Pahrump Designed by Master Gardener and UNCE President Alice Rossington, this seven-circuit labyrinth is in the gardens of the Cooperative Extension office and available 24 hours.

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verse from its formation 13 billion years ago to the arrival of algae and bacteria, then humans and, finally, the perspective-altering phrase that the church is only five seconds old in relation to the age of the universe. The peaceful walk on the concrete labyrinth, interrupted only by church bells on the hour, is heavenly (for lack of a better word). But then most of them are.

My next local labyrinth adventure will likely be the seven-circuit labyrinth in Pah-

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Path time: The labyrinth at St. Rose Dominican Hospital San Martin Campus

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rump at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Designed by Master Gardener Alice Rossington and built using the help of other master gardeners, it sits among native plants and trees and is made from stones on the desert floor. (In true casino-culture fashion, it’s open 24 hours.) Also offering a desert experience is a labyrinth made of gravel and stone at The Temple of Goddess Spirituality in Indian Springs. Locally, there’s a monthly vigil on a canvas labyrinth held at Christ Church Episcopal on Maryland Parkway. There’s also a labyrinthinspired walking path in Huntridge Circle Park, but it shouldn’t be confused with a real labyrinth, in that it has a separate entrance and exit.

But should you need a quick, middle-ofthe-night labyrinth stop in town, the 24hour labyrinth on the St. Rose Dominican San Martin Campus on Warm Springs Road is there for you. Surrounded by trees, hedges, rows of small flowering plants and blooming rose bushes, it offers a sense of quiet in the otherwise busy valley, and engenders solitude and connection, even despite the building’s windows looking down onto the labyrinth and garden. As with the St. Andrew labyrinth in Boulder City, nearby pamphlets explain the history of labyrinths and stages of walking, from the cleansing, shedding and releasing of everyday life to the receiving in its center of illumination and insight. Or just a relaxing end to a long day.

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i

Where the docs are

Can Southern Nevada become a medical tourism destination? Judging by these specialists attracting patients from far and wide, we’re on our way By heidi kyser | Photography Christopher smith

In the post-recession search for a more diverse — and thus secure — local economy, Las Vegas leaders have set their sights on medical tourism. With the city’s nationleading convention and visitors bureau putting heads on beds at impressive rates, along with its well-established street cred as an accessible, affordable destination, adding “medical” to existing leisure and convention tourism seems like a natural move.

Except for one thing: The Las Vegas health care community’s national reputation isn’t on par with those of its convention or culinary or entertainment industries. And that’s putting it nicely. But we’re not necessarily alone.

Medical tourism is fairly new territory for an American city. According to Patients Beyond Borders, the U.S. isn’t in the top 10 destinations people travel to for medical treatment.

It falls, instead, into the category of “destinations starting to get attention,” along with China, Puerto Rico and the United Arab Emirates.

Doug Geinzer, CEO of the Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition, says a handful of U.S. cities — Cleveland, Houston, Miami — have found success targeting specific markets that are nearby or have high demand for the specialties in which they excel.

But why, some people might wonder, would anyone come to Las Vegas for medical treatment when even locals joke that the best place to go for good care is McCarran International Airport?

As it happens, there are people here who can answer that question, and they’re not pitchmen or pundits. They’re specialists who offer treatments, use equipment or simply have knowledge in their heads that is so rare — and so good — they already attract travelers from far and wide to Las Vegas.

“When you look at the influx of medical institutions that are affiliating here — Cleveland Clinic, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD — they’re doing so because we have a good size population, but also because we have 40 million people who travel through here,” says Geinzer. “Medical tourism is going gangbusters because people are willing to travel for good care.”

Geinzer’s group is working with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to compile a list of local medical centers of excellence.

Essentially a directory of high-quality specialty care, it would serve to

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Dr. Gary Mayman, left, and Dr. William Evans of the Children’s Heart Center of Nevada. The center performs a specialized procedure unique to the Las Vegas Valley.

draw patients to the city for extended stays that bundle treatment with travel packages.

Geinzer says the list won’t be complete until later this year. Compiling a credible information source is no easy task, he adds. First, a complex algorithm will cull providers of top-notch care from all local licensed practitioners by looking at outcomes, training and other factors. Then, the short list will be stacked up against leading providers in their fields nationally.

Some trends have already begun to emerge. It’s apparent to Geinzer,

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for instance, that Las Vegas excels in bariatrics, dental implants, fertility, orthopedics and plastic surgery. He likes the idea of promoting practices in these fields because, he says, the anonymity that patients of such procedures often prefer is a natural fit with the Las Vegas ethos. (All together now: “What happens in Vegas …”)

Talk directly to physicians in these fields, as well as in other specialties that serve outsiders, and you get a sense of what it will take beyond good marketing in order for medical tourism to succeed. Surprisingly, it boils down to some pretty basic concepts: Fill a niche, be the best at it, keep getting better — and connect with the community.

Tip 1 F i l l a ni che William N. Evans, M.D., FACC, FAAP and Gary A. Mayman, M.D., FACC Children’s Heart Center of Nevada Children’s Heart Center surgeons

Nurturing medical tourism boils down to some basic concepts: fill a niche, be the best at it and connect with the community. perform a hybrid procedure that combines cardiac surgery with catheterization on babies who are born lacking a pumping chamber in their hearts. The condition used to be a death sentence, Evans says, but this procedure saves almost all who undergo it. Subsequent surgeries over succeeding months further improve heart function.

Evans and Mayman are pediatric cardiologists who see patients and direct the center, but they don’t perform the hybrid procedure themselves. Rather, they’ve brought together interventionists (to do the catheterization) and surgeons — along with radiologists, psychologists, social workers and a host of others — who perform the procedure, then follow each patient and his or her family through the process. The group meets weekly to discuss ongoing cases.

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“To have the kind of team we have is rare,” Evans says.

According Evans and Mayman, only a handful of places in the country offer the hybrid procedure, and virtually nowhere outside Children’s Heart Center performs it on the West Coast. They estimate some 20 percent of their patients come from outside Nevada, and many of those are from Idaho. Although independent, they have agreements to operate on patients in every hospital in Las Vegas.

In the five years the center has offered the hybrid procedure, it has performed it on more than 50 children. With so many cases under their belt, Evans and Mayman say they’ve collected enough data to write an article that they hope to have published in a medical journal by year’s end.

Although fame helps spread the word about

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Companion | AUGUST 2012

what the center does, it’s not their main motivation or reward.

“The greatest feeling is to see a newborn who’s very, very sick and, over a period of time — it may take a month or two — they get better,” Mayman says. “Then, in two or three years, you see them running around your office. It’s incredible.”

Tip 2 B e t he b est at what you do James D. Atkinson, M.D., FACS Surgical Weight Control Center of Las Vegas Atkinson takes pride in the Surgical Weight Control Center of Las Vegas’ designation as a center of excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

A bariatric surgeon for a dozen years, he and partner Darren Soong, also a bariatric surgeon, have worked hard to achieve the outcomes that caused Health Grades to rank the center at the top of its field in Nevada in 2007.

The center touts itself as having performed more gastric band and gastric bypass surgeries than all other bariatric practices in Nevada combined, and having trained more than 100 surgeons from around the country.

“Nobody can say, ‘We’re the very best,’ but there are groups at the highest level, and then tiers below that,” Atkinson says. “We’re certainly in that highest level.”

Atkinson says people are often surprised to hear this about a private, stand-alone practice that isn’t affiliated with a large university health system. When you’re in need of specialty care, you think of places like Stanford or UCLA, he says, but while those large teaching hospitals are great for research and rare diseases, private practices often outperform them when it comes to more standard medical procedures, such as joint replacements and plastic surgery.

Bariatric surgeons are also lacking outside large, metropolitan areas, according to Atkinson. When you’re a leader in your field, people from rural areas and small towns who don’t have specialists in that field find you.

“I think the leaders looking at (medical tourism) need to be very sure about the physicians they team with,” he says. “There’s not the same level of care in every practice or every specialty. They need to align themselves with the ones that are at the highest level.”

Tip 3 K e e p getting better Waldo Feng, M.D., Ph.D. Children’s Urology Associates In Feng’s case, it’s not the specialty procedures he performs so much as how he per-

DesertCompanion.com | 33

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forms them that make him stand out. Or, rather, what he performs them with: the da Vinci Surgical System — or, as Feng call it, “the robot.”

Feng sits in front of a large machine, peering into a screen displaying a live, magnified image and controlling the movements of highly sensitive robotic arms that do the actual surgery.

Nearly every hospital in Las Vegas has such a robot, he says, and they’re used to do all kinds of surgeries — from hysterectomies to prostatectomies. Few people in the country, however, use the da Vinci for two procedures Feng does: extrauretral reimplantation and pediatric pyeloplasty.

These surgeries focus on correcting malformations in the bladder and ureter, which carries urine from the kidney to the bladder. Surgeons have been doing them on children for many decades, but until recently had to make relatively large incisions to get their adult hands inside the infant-sized abdomens. Minimally invasive, laparoscopic surgery reduces the amount of bleeding and scarring, and patients usually recover from it more quickly than from open surgery.

Besides using the robot on patients from California and all over Nevada, Fengs says, he’s hosted several surgeons from around the U.S., who come to learn how he uses it for his specialty.

Why did he make the move to robotics, which has made him so sought-after?

“I’ve always been interested in new techniques, and I like technology,” Feng says. “But I really feel this is where surgery is going. …

I thought, ‘We’ve been doing (extrauretral reimplantation) the same way for 70 years. Can’t we do it better?’”

Ti p 4 Connect with the community Ryan Walsh, M.D. Ph.D. Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health The Huntington’s Disease Comprehensive Clinic at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health epitomizes collaboration.

The bimonthly, one-day clinic, launched in February of this year, allows patients to stay in one visitation room while a team of specialists trained to treat various aspects of the disease rotate in and out, making a thorough exam over the course of up to four hours. The team includes a neurologist — Walsh, who is also director of the clinic — along with a psychiatrist, neuropsychologist and three physical therapists.

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the

docs

While patients are being Answers from our Health and Medicine examined, family members and other loved ones can Steering Committee* take advantage of education and services for careWe asked: givers of people with Hun“What are some positive aspects or promising tington’s Disease. developments in Southern Nevada health care worth Walsh says the approach noting?” aims to treat not only the whole patient, but also the They said: whole family. It’s a valu“It’s great to see that the Las Vegas Convention and able gift to people with Visitors Authority is focusing on promoting medical Huntington’s, a genetic tourism. You truly can get the highest level of care at a disease that tends to strike destination spot such as Las Vegas. I’ve always known people during their most that the private practices in Las Vegas have some of productive years, both the best doctors in the nation, and this new initiative in terms of family and fiwill help bring this to light in other cities.” — Dr. James nances — meaning it has D. Atkinson, Medical director, Surgical Weight Control strong emotional, mental Center of Las Vegas and familial implications, besides disrupting normal “Physicians at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of movement.

Nevada have created a cancer clinical trial powerhouse “It affects your ability without the help of a medical school or university. to work,” Walsh says. “You We have almost 30 on staff employed to do strictly start behaving differently. cancer research and placed 309 patients on clinical You may get depressed, trials in 2011. We are on track to reach over 400 in 2012. divorced. … The clinic ad... We have over 170 trials open and virtually all of the dresses that whole constelCCCN docs participate. We have phase one trials of lation of issues in a coordithe newest drugs. Patients are coming for such trials nated way.” from across the U.S. Many times, we are able to obtain A spokesperson for the free drugs. In the last two years, major pharmaceutical Lou Ruvo Center says the companies have been coming to us asking our clinic was not intended to assistance in conducting their trials, rather than going attract medical tourists, but overseas to find patients.” — Dr. Nicholas J. Vogelzang, Walsh notes that a couple Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada out-of-towners have been to it anyway, likely due to “In an emergency, Las Vegas has one of the best its comprehensive nature. trauma units in the nation, with a fellowship program Why schedule four differof advanced training in trauma at UMC. For emergency ent appointments, when situations, I feel Las Vegas is completely equipped.” — you can see four specialists Dr. Sean David Palacios, neuro-otologic surgeon in one visit?

Walsh is interested in “MGM Resorts’ new Direct Care Plan incorporating the helping as many people as principles of the Patient Centered Medical Home. It’s a possible — regardless of good start.” — Dr. Keith Boman, cardiologist where they come from. To *We surveyed a hand-picked group of local doctors and health care that end, he’s cultivating professionals on a variety of health care topics. We share some of relationships with regional their answers here. doctors, who may be seeing patients for other reasons but need to refer them to the clinic for the services offered there.

“There are wide-ranging distances beHe says such community-building haptween people here, and not a lot of subpens not only by contacting other providers specialty care,” he says. “We’re aggressive directly, but also by hosting public events, about identifying physicians within a cerspeaking at symposia and making sure the tain radius and making them aware that clinic is listed with national associations and we’re here.” referral centers.

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DesertCompanion.com | 35

history

Remake it ’til you make it: Riviera CEO Andy Choy

t

History in the (re)making How to rebuild a classic casino on a shoestring budget? The Riviera attempts to blend upscale touches, grind-joint virtues and international savvy

By David McKee | Portrait Sabin Orr Talk a few minutes with Riviera hotel-casino CEO Andy Choy and you’ll hear the word “authentic” — frequently. It’s the 36-year-old casino boss’s mantra. Built in 1955, the Riviera can’t go head-to-head with recent megaresorts such as The Cosmopolitan and Encore. Age forbids it — nor can Riviera owner Barry Sternlicht afford it. But that doesn’t alter Choy’s mission: “to turn the tables on” the Riv’s reputation as a dormitory with poor food and worse customer service, restoring the luster of those years when Frank Sinatra hung his hat there and Liberace attacked the ivories.

He makes a careful distinction, though, between “authenticity” and “nostalgia.” Choy arrived at the Riviera in April 2011 and, early in his tenure, attempted marketing it around nostalgic, old-school entertainers such as Connie Stevens and David Brenner. Conclusion: “It sounds like a better niche than it really is,” he says. “It didn’t have the success we were looking for.”

Like a homeowner with a fixer-upper, Choy has to restore the Riviera’s champagne glory on a beer budget. While $20 to $30 million sounds like a lot, it’s pocket change by Strip standards. Sternlicht is sell-

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Companion | AUGUST 2012

ing the Riviera’s sister property in Black Hawk, Colo., and the proceeds will bankroll the Vegas makeover. As the Riviera’s Mr. Fix-It describes his chewing-gum-and-shoelace allowance, “We’re trying to be very judicious with our capital and MacGyver these things.”

Can’t rearrange your slot machines, which are anchored atop a thick, concrete pad? Convert retail space into a new-slot showcase.

Need an extra revenue source? Add a huge, quarterly bingo tourney.

Check-in desk too far from parking? Move it!

The CEO, whose experience extends from grind joints like Arizona Charlie’s to exotic casinos like Four Seasons Macao, defines authenticity as “what Wrigley Field is for baseball fans, what Graceland is for Elvis fans, (but) there’s not a real analogy for Vegas gambling enthusiasts. If I asked 10 people, I’m not sure if anyone can definitely say, ‘Oh, that place has got the best gaming product. That’s where you want to go for the action.’ Fifteen or 20 years ago, people would say Binion’s Horseshoe. But that hasn’t been the case in some time.”

Regular Riviera player Jeff Leatherock, an Oklahoma City business-

man who visits four times yearly, summarizes the Riv’s appeal as “the purest retro Strip property.” He says Choy’s on the right path but “give it a couple of years to make its market. Stop changing every six months.”

T wo worl ds, one casino Choy stands with one foot in the low-odds, value-driven, dog-eat-dog world of the Boulder Strip and the other planted in the equally hardcore but higher-stakes world of Chinese casinos. Those two spheres represent the two extremes of the Vegas universe he’s trying to bring together at the Riv. It’s not an easy balancing act to achieve. “(The Riviera) still has that slightly worn, classic-Vegas vibe,” says Washington, D.C., book dealer Howard Park, who stays there once a year — but usually not unless his room is comped or heavily discounted. Mainly a video-poker player, Park rates the Riv’s odds “a little better than the Strip but not the value that downtown is.”

“I’ve never seen a decent lounge act there,” Park adds and, when he’s hungry, he still won’t eat at the Riviera but goes next door, to the Peppermill.

The Riv is way up on the north Strip, an area shunned by high rollers. The nearest other casino is the garish, decrepit Circus Circus and its ultra-low-rent sibling, Slots A Fun. Choy’s place is literally in the looming shadow of hulking, unfinished Fontainebleau. New “F-bleau” owner Carl Icahn won’t complete the $4 billion-plus bust and is expected to flip the site whenever land prices improve. Another folie de grandeur, Echelon, sits idle to Choy’s south. Boyd Gaming is believed to be years away from resuming work and, meanwhile, is “developing plans to enhance the appearance” of the skeleton.

In such a hostile environment, reinventing the Riviera is a long-shot wager and Sternlicht’s best hope of improving those odds is to tax Choy’s creativity and not the Riv’s bank account. This cost-conscious method is much in vogue with downtown casinos. The El Cortez successfully turned a dodgy motel into the modish Cabaña Suites.

The Plaza’s $35 million redo is still a work in progress. An expansion of the venerable Golden Gate was done for a quick $12 million. By contrast, a proposed conversion of the defunct Sahara into SLS Las Vegas is budgeted at $415 million.

“If they can just survive as long as they have with the Fontainebleau and Echelon white elephants alongside, they’re doing fantastic,” says Park, who would like to see

DesertCompanion.com | 37

“ (The) rich history that we have is an advantage that we need to the Riviera evolve into someplace “that’s not do a better job of exploiting,” trying to be The Cosmopolitan, but a little more up-to-date.” says CEO Andy Choy. history

L ast of an era The proposed path to authenticity at the Riviera is threefold: Offer the best gamble, improve its amenities and emphasize atmosphere. The heavily mirrored and marbled Riviera is — now that the Sahara has been stripped bare — the last Rat Pack-era casino on the Strip. “(The) rich history that we have is an advantage that we need to do a better job of exploiting,” Choy admits. “Barbra Streisand got her start here,” opening for Liberace in 1963.

“Other properties will pay a huge royalty to use the Sinatra name,” he says, in an offhand reference to Encore, “whereas we’ve got a room here that he used to stay in all the time, that we don’t market.”

Photos from the Riv’s celebrity-rich past, which used to be clustered around the upstairs showrooms, are now omnipresent.

Grail of gamblers, single-deck 3:2 blackjack.

In the era of house-friendly 6:5 blackjack — despised by serious players — a singledeck 3:2 game could get you canonized.

The Riviera started with one, which some dismissed as a marketing gimmick, but has since added two more.

In pursuit of atmosphere and action alike, Choy’s dimmed the casino floor, at patron request. Previous ownership had tried thinning out its slot machines. Choy and Sternlicht beefed up the inventory, from 850 to 970, and packed them tighter. Choy’s Macanese tenure taught him the importance of baccarat — and Pacific Rim players. So he added a crepuscular Asian table-games pit. “(The former regime) literally had one game with a sign that said, ‘Open upon request,’” he says.

Choy also counts the living history that is the Riviera workforce as an edge, citing player relationships with valets and cocktail servers that go back 20 or 30 years. “It’s hard to get that in this day and age, no matter where you are.”

Choy’s trump card is player-friendly odds. “(We want) to attract people who value gambling over a luxurious environment. Sometimes you want to go to a bar where there’s peanut shells on the floor,” he says. “There’s a market for the dive bar.”

Of the Riv’s much-touted 1,000X odds on craps, Choy says he believes his is the only casino with a house edge of but 0.0009% and, he adds, “I might be missing a zero. It’s the best rule in town, by far.” There’s also a single-zero roulette table and that Holy

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C h i n ese fortunes The new, Asian orientation is reflected in the upgrading of Banana Leaf, which was more or less a food court when the late William Westerman owned the Riviera.

Choy wanted something closer to something in Las Vegas’ Chinatown. Enter new menu offerings, lighting, décor and wallpaper. During Chinese New Year, it hosted a private party for “a couple of hundred guests” and, by February, business had tripled.

Dining was targeted for improvement at every stratum, with Queen Victoria’s British Pub one of the few holdovers from the ancien régime. Long since banished from the premises are the military-issue vats that supplied Riv diners with “eggs” and “potatoes” made from powder. (Timeshare pitchmen were also exiled.)

Those who haven’t been to the Riv may remember a “gauntlet of hawkers” peddling dreck along the corridor between the convention center and the casino. They’ve been expelled. “It was just detrimental to the guest experience,” Choy says, “even though they were pretty lucrative.”

Instead, guests now enjoy a superior ground-floor view of the pool, which is literally central to Choy’s strategy for reorienting the Riviera’s “center of gravity” 1,500 feet back from the Strip. On nights when a pool party is in session, there’s suddenly a dynamic interrelationship between the outdoor pool and indoor promenade, where there used to be a deadly tunnel of schlock shops.

Poolside, a bar deck will extend around the north and east sides, hopefully enlivening the sedate courtyard. Along its south side, six old bungalows are being converted to cabanas.

Choy moved hotel check-in from just off the gaming floor to the Paradise Road entrance after noticing that the least-used portion of the Riv was, paradoxically, the one next to where customers park. That’s also where he added the Strip’s only bingo room. Instead of daily games, the casino recently launched a quarterly tournament with payouts as large as $200,000.

But perhaps the most important change Choy has to make comes not in the form of new décor or games, but improved customer expectations. Last May, the revamped R Steak & Seafood inaugurated monthly “tasting dinners” … wine, liquor, beer. When a Riviera customer saw a placard advertising the premiere dinner, she exclaimed, “A wine-tasting event at the Riviera? Imagine that!”

Somewhere, Andy Choy was smiling.

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Companion | AUGUST 2012

The pinball wiz of the Riv Nothing distinguishes the Riviera from its Strip competitors quite like its pinball arcade: Fifty-two beautiful vintage machines, given pride of place along the Strip side of the casino floor, near the food court. That used to be the spot for “some pretty bad video games,” CEO Andy Choy recalls.

The unloved video machines have given way to an offshoot of Las Vegas’ beloved Pinball Hall of Fame. The Riv and Hall of Fame owner Tim Arnold split the coinage 50-50, what Arnold calls an “industry-standard percentage deal.” ¶ “He doesn’t want any press for it,” Choy says admiringly of Arnold. “He just does what he does.” ¶ To hear Arnold tell it, he was just minding his own business one night in the Hall of Fame’s Tropicana Avenue facility in early 2011 when “a guy came up to me and said, ‘I’m the new head of the Riviera hotel.’ So I thought, ‘I’ll play along with the gag.’

He knew things that only the head guy would know.” Choy eventually brought Arnold to the Riv for a tour. What particularly impressed Arnold about Choy was that he wanted pinball, even though it was hardly the most lucrative use of the space. ¶ “Usually what casinos want is maximum revenue per square foot,” says Arnold, joking that if slot machines make less than a toe-ring store or a strudel machine, out go the slots and in come the toe rings and strudel. Arnold did, however, have a few stipulations: no dance games or violent video games and absolutely no ticket-spitting games, like the ones you find at Chuck E. Cheese. “That just teaches your kids how to gamble,” Arnold says. ¶ “It’s not setting the world on fire,” Arnold says of the coinage he’s getting, “but that was never the intention. We’re (subsidizing) a lot of losers, which is something a normal business won’t do. Our goals were to present pinball to the public.” And also, in Arnold’s case, raise money for local charities. After maintenance costs, roughly 40 cents of each dollar go to other nonprofits. ¶ If pinball belongs anywhere on the Strip, the Riviera is definitely it. Back in 1955, the casino’s initial ownership group included David, Meyer and Louis Gensburg, who’d made their fortunes in Chicago, where they had founded pinball machine manufacturer Genco. ¶ “I should have a Genco pinball machine in there,” muses Arnold, “but I don’t.” — David McKee

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News Reviews Interviews at f i r s t b i t e O n t h e P l at e

44

The dish

The life of spice

47

AT First Bite

Sweet truth at Chocolate & Spice

47

On the Plate

August’s dining events

48

eat this now!

The fish sandwich that oinks

The heat is on: spicy-sweet basil chicken at Weera Thai

PHOTOGRAPH BY Sabin Orr

DesertCompanion.com | 43

dining

The Dish

The Thais that bind

g

Here’s a spicy secret: Las Vegas has some of the best Thai restaurants anywhere

By Brock Radke Photography Sabin Orr

Google “Thai food Las Vegas” and — boom — Lotus of Siam comes up on top. If you performed a sort of verbal Google search within your real-life social network, among the Flavor punch: Angus beef foodie friends whose recommendasalad at Kung Fu Thai tions you trust, you’d likely get the same result. It’s always Lotus, on Sahara off the Strip, best Thai food Thai, boldly balanced between hot, sour, ever. With the possible exception of the Japasweet and salty, the quietly refined cuisine nese eatery Raku, there isn’t another Vegas resof Japan and oily-savory eats of China seem taurant that so singularly defines the awareness boring. It’s just good stuff, and often lighter of its entire cuisine. and healthier, which helps explain its growHere’s the thing: Along with deep-fried fish ing popularity across the country and the cakes, green papaya salad and creamy curries, prevalence of restaurants in Las Vegas, even unfairness is being served. It’s not that Lotus without a large Thai population. And no matisn’t a terrific restaurant; award-winning, alter how delicious, one restaurant cannot be ways busy, perpetually mentioned as one of the end-all of Vegas Thai food. our city’s best — it’s a success by every possible measure. Most importantly, the food is fantastic. But can it really be “the single best Thai The (martial) art of flavor restaurant in North America,” as Jonathan The first Thai restaurant in Vegas Gold so famously wrote in Gourmet Magazine wasn’t a Thai restaurant. “In 1974, no one more than 10 years ago? Hyperbole runs ramknew what Thai food was. There were probpant in the food writing world, where critics ably only one or two restaurants in the United often build reputations upon “discovering” States, in Southern California. So we think we great and hidden restaurants. were probably the third Thai restaurant in Your opinion is most important, and the the country,” says Allen Wong, general maneaters of Las Vegas are clearly in love with ager at Kung Fu Thai & Chinese Restaurant this cuisine. You crave its intense, euphoria(3505 S. Valley View Blvd., 247-4120). inducing flavors. Once you get a taste for His is a Chinese family born in Thailand,

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Companion | August 2012

and he’s a Vegas native. The family helped open a restaurant in 1973, at the downtown spot that is now Ocha Thai (2211 Las Vegas Blvd., 386-8631). It didn’t work out, so they moved on and opened Kung Fu in 1974 at Third and Fremont streets.

“Bruce Lee was popular then, so everyone knew what kung fu was, but in Chinese it actually means ‘to work harder at something,’ not martial arts,” Wong said. “There were probably four or five Thai dishes on the menu.

But over the years, Thai food became more popular and we gradually added more. Now it’s about 60 percent of the menu.” The most popular dishes there are Bangkok-style pad Thai, chicken curry, and chopped chicken with chilies and mint.

The largest Thai population in the world outside of Thailand resides in Los Angeles, and when that population comes to Vegas — all Californians do — this is their place.

“Almost all Thai people that frequent Vegas,

Bird is the word: chopped chicken with chilies and mint from Kung Fu Thai

they don’t know Lotus. They know Kung Fu,” says Jet Tila. “My father was a gambler and we were probably out there 20 times a year.

There were only a few founding Thai families in America. Mine was one of them and Kung Fu is one of them.”

Other than his appearance on “Iron Chef America” last year, Vegas knows Jet Tila for his Panang curry and drunken noodles; he created some of the best Thai food ever to touch the Strip at Wazuzu (Encore, 2483463). He’s back in L.A. now, where in the ’70s his parents opened the country’s first Thai restaurant and first Thai market. Just as Vegas is often called the “Ninth Island” for its large Hawaiian population, Hollywood’s Thai Town is considered the “77th Province” of Thailand, and Tila is one of its most recognizable culinary figures.

“Thai people don’t go to a restaurant just to eat Thai food,” Tila said. “They go out to eat based on the dish they’re craving, and they’ll go to the place that does that meal the best.

That kind of restaurant, one that specializes in noodles only or a place like Ganda (in Hollywood) that does already-prepared dishes in steam tables, that doesn’t exist in Vegas. And it’s okay because there aren’t enough Thai people to support that yet.”

T h e spawn of spi ce Tourists help make up the difference. Kung Fu, which moved into the Plaza downtown during the 1980s, now resides at the gateway to the city’s Chinatown, and much of its business comes from delivery or takeout orders to the nearby Strip. A few real Thai restaurants have opened in Strip

DesertCompanion.com | 45

dining

Thai-ing it up My Thai The first time I ate in a Thai restaurant, it was at Lotus of Siam. It was a transcendent

casinos in recent years, first Lemongrass (Aria, 877-230-2742) and then Sea (Bally’s, 967-3888). “But the front desk at Bally’s still orders from us. They like our soups,” Wong says with a smile.

Many of Vegas’ most popular Thai restaurants, such as the multiple locations of Archi’s (archithai.com) and Pin Kaow (pinkaowthai. com), offer a catch-all approach to Thailand’s regional cuisine. Different dishes come from different areas of the country, such as larb (ground meat) salads from the north, or rich, fragrant, non-coconut curries from the south.

But no matter the geography, the balance of the four key flavors is always present. Many American diners only identify the spicy side of Thai food, but equilibrium is the essential element. It’s common for local restaurants to sweeten things up a bit to offset the heat — just as it’s still common to see quite a few Chinese dishes on the menu — as the kitchen is aiming to please the American palate.

Another decades-old local spot is King & I (2904 Lake East Drive, 256-1568), which has literally spawned something new.

“My mom is more traditional, and she found a formula that works for her,” said Daniel Coughlin. His mom owns King & I. He owns Le Thai (523 Fremont St., 778-0888), the buzzy downtown joint that opened Nov. 1. “I’m more about Thai street food. It’s basically my grandma’s recipes with my style of cooking.”

His style is working well. Le Thai’s menu is small but powerfully flavorful, and Coughlin is obsessed with making the best pad Thai possible. Good luck finding a better version in Vegas.

“It’s the taco of Thai food,” he says. “When I went to Thailand, people were eating it on the street everywhere. I took a lot of notes to see how different it could get. It’s one of my favorites, but I feel like the dish has gone south lately.” Not at Le Thai.

For every creative new eatery putting a special twist on things — Nittaya’s Secret Kitchen (2110 N. Rampart Blvd., 360-8885) is creatively tweaking traditional dishes into a tapas-like experience — there’s another serving a more traditional menu with dynamic results. If you really want to gauge whether Lotus of Siam’s northeastern Thai (Issan) cuisine lives up to the hype, compare it with the mind-blowing fare at Weera Thai (3839 W. Sahara Ave., 873-8749). After a recent feast of crab stick, duck curry, crispy catfish salad and spicy-sweet basil chicken, I was ready to declare it the single best Thai restaurant in the universe.

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Companion | August 2012

meal, a blur of complex curries, spicy noodles and crisp white wines. But my real introduction to what is now one of my favorite cuisines came courtesy of my wife, who could and has eaten Thai food every day. We have an agreement: I am free to explore all the decadent dining Las Vegas has to offer as long as she rides shotgun on Thai night. She opened my eyes to a neighborhood treasure I had passed over for years: Pin Kaow. I am stuck on one dish here, just as I am stuck on the restaurant itself. I cannot stop myself from ordering a simple, sublimely spicy dish of Chinese broccoli with crispy pork in a light, garlic-and-chili brown sauce. Each bite of this Thai-Chinese fusion plate falls somewhere between sauce-absorbing meatiness and a fullblown cracklin’, and it always comes out with the perfect amount of forehead sweat-inducing power. Though I mix it up with a softshell crab salad, Masaman curry with potatoes and crushed peanuts, or duck fried rice, crispy pork and broccoli must be on the table. This is my food, at my Thai restaurant. (Pin Kaow, 1974 N. Rainbow Blvd., 638-2746, pinkaowthai.com) Tiny Thai Much of the best Thai food in Vegas can be found in the most unassuming restaurants, little hole-inthe-wall eateries hiding in plain sight. Seek them out and reap the bounty. Weera Thai (3839 W. Sahara Ave., 873-8749) Must-eats: Tom Kha Kai soup (coconut, lemongrass, mushroom), roast duck curry, crispy catfish salad. Thai House (9850 S. Maryland Parkway #17, 361-5233) Must-eats: Pad Kee Mao (flat rice noodles with chicken, basil, bell pepper and chilies), spicy catfish with herbs. Penn’s Thai House (724 W. Sunset Road, 564-0162) Must-eats: Thai beef jerky with spicy dipping sauce, chicken larb, Thai-style Som Yum (papaya salad) with shrimp.

Prommares Thai Food (6362 W. Sahara, 221-9644) Must-eats: Pad See Ew (rice noodles with pork and broccoli in garlic sauce), chicken Panang (peanut) curry. Thai one on in your kitchen It may be perceived as an exotic cuisine laden with hard-to-find ingredients, but it’s not tough to cook Thai in your home. Don’t worry about authenticity; focus on the flavors you love and experiment with combinations of key ingredients like fish sauce, fresh lime juice, palm sugar (or brown sugar) and Thai chilies. To get started, soak some sliced beef in this marinade from Chef Jet Tila (chefjet.com), grill it up, and serve over a salad of mixed greens, cucumber and mint leaves. Your cookout guests will be impressed. Thai Beef Salad Marinade (For 2 lbs. sliced beef flank steak) \\ 2 oz. minced garlic \\ 2 oz. minced cilantro stems \\ 1 tsp. white pepper \\ 2 tbsp. fish sauce \\ 1-1/2 oz. light soy sauce \\ 2 tbsp. sugar \\ Combine all ingredients and cover beef with marinade for about two hours. — Brock Radke

Catch of the day: Weera Thai’s crispy catfish salad

ON THE PLATE

August’s dining events you don’t want to miss BET ON THE FARM FARMERS MARKET Thursdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

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FRESH52 FARMER’S & ARTISAN’S MARKET Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

Fresh bites and fresh sights. Tivoli Village hosts a farmer’s market every Saturday, featuring fresh vegetables, crafts and more with assorted street performances. Tivoli Village Spoon me: the Chocolate Nutella Bomb and Nutella ice cream with candied hazelnuts

BLUEGRASS BRUNCH

AT FIRST BITE

Chocolate & Spice Bakery

By Brock Radke | Photography Christopher smith There is no understating the magnificence of desserts that taste as good as they look. Be honest: even the stale creations in the supermarket bakery can tantalize. And who hasn’t tried out one of those trendy cupcake bakeries, with their shiny, frosting-covered beauties — only to be disappointed by dry cake and cloying sweetness? This will never happen to you at Chocolate & Spice. In fact, the taste and texture outdo the brilliant visuals.

It comes as no surprise. This is the new headquarters of Megan Romano, Desert Companion’s Pastry Chef of the Year 2011 and veteran of Charlie Palmer restaurants in Las Vegas and beyond. The only surprise at Chocolate & Spice is how casual this sparkling new westside cafe turns out to be. Pick out what you want at the corner, and attack your breakfast or lunch with plastic utensils. The vibe fits the neighborhood well, and shows Romano’s adaptability.

Though many are pre-packaged grab-and-gos, the savories do not disappoint — tasty stuff like Mediterranean salads, burly turkey or ham sandwiches on baguettes or ciabatta bread, and a light, fresh pasta with toasted garlic, parmesan and broccoli rabe. The coffee does the trick, and we’re ready for the summer to fade so we can order Mexican hot chocolate.

But don’t dare do Chocolate & Spice without indulging in at least a couple desserts. You’d be missing the point. There are flaky raisin pinwheels or apricot croissants. The banana cream pie is small but so rich, you’ll beat yourself up for not being able to finish it alone. Chocolate? How about blended with Nutella in a decadent dome, swirled with caramel in a linzer torte, or married to peanuts in a dense bar that begs for more coffee. And then there are daily special desserts and rotating, featured bites ... just get one of everything.

Sundays, 11 a.m. Nurse Saturday night’s wounds with guitar-picking, folk cries, and brioche flan French toast. Bar+Bistro offers up a “Hangover Brunch” served with a side of live bluegrass.

Bar+Bistro inside the Arts Factory, barbistroaf.com

SUNDAY ROAST AT JALEO Sundays, 8-9 p.m. Chef José Andrés brings a big element to the little portions of Jaleo’s tapas-style menu. Every Sunday, Jaleo roasts a whole animal on a spit —over olive and orange wood — that’s manually rotated for more than 8 hours in the middle of the dining room. Jaleo inside The Cosmopolitan, jaleo.com

FARM TO STRIP DINNER Aug. 3. Eat locally grown, fresh treats at FIRST Food & Bar’s special monthly dinner. Features ingredients from Downtown3rd Farmers Market. FIRST Food & Bar inside the Shoppes at the Palazzo, firstfoodandbar.com

Chocolate & Spice bakery 7293 W. Sahara Ave., chocolatenspice.com, 527-7772

DesertCompanion.com | 47

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48 | Desert

Companion | August 2012

Charlie Tuna Oink Cheddar at Balboa Pizza Company I’m on a quest for the most mouth-watering, tear-inducing, pleasure-sense-peaking tuna sandwich ever created. (Hey, we all have dreams.) And I came pretty close to finding it at Balboa Pizza Company. Theirs might not be the end of my holy tuna pilgrimage, but this sandwich certainly satiates and satisfies. First of all, it’s got pepper bacon, a key ingredient that shifts any sandwich into flavor overdrive. Second, the mayo doesn’t overpower the tuna, meaning it’s not a gooey mess but actually a tasteful texture of sauce (garlic-tomato mayo) and fish. Finally, the thin, doughy pizza bread pulls it all together — none of that thick sourdough crust that out-machos the fleshy goodness of the tuna salad. It also comes with homemade chips, which truly hold their own against this catch of a sandwich. — Danielle McCrea

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Seafood inaniwa pasta at Mizumi

There’s more than a touch of metaphorical significance to Mizumi taking over the space formerly occupied by Okada in the Wynn — something about sweeping away bad vibes from that whole Steve Wynn-Kazuo Okada mogul bromance gone sour. Mizumi aims to cover up that era with a décor that calls to mind the boudoir of a glam geisha, equal parts fantasia and restraint. That’s also an apt description of this standout dish on Executive Chef Devin Hashimoto’s menu. The seafood elements (scallops, king crab, octopus) and uni butter sauce scream pure decadence, but the light touch and delicate inaniwa noodles — offset by lime and the tonic of shiso — make this pasta dish a Zen study in savory balance. — Andrew Kiraly

Mizumi Inside the Wynn, 770-3463

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52 | Desert

Companion | AUGUST 2012

Should I stay or should I go?

Doctors who rely on Medicaid patients will have to make some tough decisions if the state budget — and our attitude toward health care — don’t improve

By H EI D I K Y SER

•

Illustration A a r o n m ck i n n e y

By almost all measures, the Medicaid and Medicare situation in Nevada looks grim for doctors and hospitals. Ballooning numbers of unemployed, uninsured and elderly residents mean higher numbers of people who need public health care coverage. At the same time, a withering state economy and budget mean fewer government funds to support these programs. It all converges like a laser beam — aimed right at revenue for health care providers. ¶ “We’re at a really critical juncture,” says Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association. “Whether or not the federal reform (President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or ACA) will make things better … is hard to say.” ¶ If things don’t get better, Matheis and others believe, physicians may start leaving the state, and practices may close their doors. Is it just posturing in preparation for the upcoming legislative session? Or could Nevada really set off a medical brain drain if it doesn’t fix its problems with public health care?

A c o m p l i c at e d d i ag n o s i s It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that a government-run program is about as easy to get your arms around as a 15-headed staff of Asclepius. Putting it simply, Medicare is funded fully by the federal government and is mainly meant to provide care for the elderly; Medicaid is funded partially by the federal government and partially by each state (and sometimes, as in Nevada, constituent counties) and is meant to provide care for people living in poverty, especially children, pregnant women, parents of eligible children

and people with disabilities. People have to qualify for Medicaid, and there is some overlap between the two programs.

Nevada can’t control what happens with Medicare, other than through its U.S. senators and representatives, who may get involved with relevant legislation. That’s not to say Medicare doesn’t pose problems for Nevada; it does — largely due to a number of factors: a rate schedule in dire need of an update; the colossal number of Baby Boomers who will soon be eligible for their hard-earned free ride; and a flawed piece of the 1997 law meant to reform Medicare that has actually ended up slowly sapping its funding.

On the other hand, following federal rules, each state administers its own Medicaid and related programs, such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP (called Nevada Check Up here). So, Carson City does decide what happens with these programs; hence, the recent fracas over whether Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval will expand the state’s Medicaid in line with ACA guidelines, which would make more people eligible for the program.

In today’s Nevada, lots of folks already fit the “low income and limited resources” description of qualified recipients. Nevada’s population is not doing well, in terms tracked by health care organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, producer of the industry standard in reports on government data, statehealthfacts.org.

We have a high number of people living in poverty (20 percent of the total population), and higher-than-average numbers who are unemployed (11.6 percent as of May 2012, compared with 8.2 percent nationally) and uninsured (21 percent, compared with 16 percent nationally). Yet, in 2009, we spent the fifthlowest amount of money per capita in the U.S. ($5,735) on health care for our residents.

How is Medicaid funded? The state and federal government don’t each necessarily contribute 50-50. Instead, the federal government calculates how much to give each state using a formula based on individuals’ average incomes, with the basic idea being that the federal government foots more of the bill in poorer states. The feds can’t provide less than 50, or more than 83, percent for any state. In Nevada, it’s 56 percent.

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Here’s the kicker: Because it’s a matchingfund program, the more money a state puts in, the more it gets from D.C. A state where the federal government covers 50 percent will get dollar-for-dollar matching, while a state where the federal government covers 75 percent will get three dollars for every dollar.

The problem, according to providers, is that Nevada doesn’t put enough in, leaving matching dollars on the table. According to Kaiser Permanente, in 2010 Nevada had the 11thlowest total Medicaid spend, at $1.5 billion including state and federal expenditures — lower than every other Southwest state. Utah, whose population is 2.8 million (compared with Nevada’s 2.7 million) spent $1.7 billion on Medicaid. New Mexico, with 2.1 million residents, spent $3.4 billion.

What’s worse, during the state budget crisis that came to a head during the 2011 legislative session, Nevada cut its Medicaid funding for 2012-’13. Some things (e.g., non-medical vision services for people over 21) are not covered at all; others (non-primary care physician visits) are covered at lower rates than they used to be.

“It really comes down to — there’s only so much to go around. This was not someplace where we wanted to make cuts. Unfortunately, we had to,” says Nevada Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, who chairs the state’s Health and Human Services Committee.

Public health care is a whopping piece of low-hanging fruit for a cash-strapped state, with health and human services taking $2.7 billion (30 percent) of the 2012 budget.

The upshot for the population is: Nevada has many people in need of free or reducedcost coverage and less coverage for them.

Although participation in Medicaid is voluntary, every state does it. Participating entails compliance with regulations — including some having to do with qualified residents’ ability to access their state’s program. If Nevada continues to fund Medicaid so low and set eligibility standards so high, Matheis argues, access may reach critically low levels. Groups such as his could sue the state government.

“The way we’ll once again get the attention of lawmakers is when our emergency departments can’t meet demand,” he says, recalling a two-year period in the last decade when ERs were turning people away for lack of beds.

Hospitals aren’t the only providers affected by weak public health care coverage.

Pediatric specialists, who treat children with serious illnesses, are likely to have a greater percentage of patients on Medicaid than, say, plastic surgeons, who treat adults with a desire to alter their appearance.

"It's depressing to have to consider reducing your visibility to people who have coverage that doesn't pay you a living wage," says Dr. Howard Baron, a pediatric gastroenterologist.

The business of medicine The situation affects some health care providers more than others. General hospitals treat disproportionately high numbers of people on public assistance, and their emergency rooms are often both the first place that newly unemployed/uninsured people think of going when they’re sick, and the last resort for the chronically ill who have been turned away everywhere else.

“These are patients who may not even have Medicaid,” Matheis says. “They access health care through emergency care.” Some may find their way to qualified medical clinics and get enrolled in public programs, but Nevada’s high uninsured rate suggests many don’t.

Matheis believes it has to do with access, made more difficult here by the state’s tendency to apply stringent eligibility standards.

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Howard Baron, a pediatric gastroenterologist in Las Vegas, estimates 40 percent of his patients are on Medicaid. Local pediatric oncologist Ronald Kline ballparks his percentage at around half.

The trouble with Medicaid and Medicare, from a provider’s perspective, is that they pay lower rates for services than going averages — much lower, in some cases. Baron, who is also president of the Clark County Medical Society, estimates his Medicaid reimbursements are about 30 percent of what a typical thirdparty insurer pays.

In other words, physicians like Baron and Kline get reimbursed at lower-than-average rates for a bulk of their services.

Kline says he’s a simple guy who looks at things simply: “At the end of the day, you have to pay your bills and have enough left over to support your family. However you have to get to that point, you do it, and if you don’t, you shut your doors and move to another state.”

Has Kline considered this? Yes, he admits. Although it would be difficult for him, having a family and being established in Las Vegas, he says he’s hearing more and more buzz among his colleagues about seeking greener pastures.

In the meantime, they compensate by making administrative changes, such as freezing hiring and transitioning to less-qualified, lower-paid staff. This has a ripple effect on the local economy, they note.

And the impact is more than just fiscal.

They recognize that by treating Medicaid recipients, they serve a population most in need of their skills.

“It’s depressing to have to consider reducing your visibility to people who have coverage that doesn’t pay you a living wage. It’s frustrating,” Baron says. “I see it happening around me. Let’s say I have a child who can’t swallow and needs a feeding tube. It takes six to nine months to see a therapist. What are his chances of getting it and successfully feeding by himself? Very slim.”

Doctors could simply refuse to treat patients on Medicare and Medicaid, or adjust the percentage of those patients they accept, but none of those interviewed for this story said they wanted to do that. They’d prefer, they said, to see the system fixed.

A case of hypochondria “Where would they go?” asks Christopher R. Cochran, chair of UNLV’s Department of Health Care Administration and Policy, reacting to the notion doctors would leave the state if Medicaid weren’t fixed.

“It’s no better anywhere else.” And as far as individual rates are concerned, Nevada does reimburse at higher average rates than other states.

Cochran wonders if physician groups are making a political play like the one they pulled in 2004 over TORT reform. Back then too, he says, the mantra was, “Keep our doctors in Nevada.” The implied threat was that if reform didn’t happen they would leave.

TORT reform passed.

In any case, it is evident Nevada needs more — not fewer — doctors. As of 2010, the state had 221 physicians per 100,000

population, according to the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s forthcoming Health Professions Report. Although that’s a 50-percent increase from 1980, it still lags the national average of 312 per 100,000 people. In fact, Nevada is No. 47 out of 50 in number of doctors per capita in the U.S., the report shows.

“Any way you look at it, our numbers are below regional and U.S. averages,” says John Packham, co-author of the report and director of health policy research at the school of medicine. “The number (of physicians) has grown over the decades, but given population growth, we’re just treading water the last couple decades.”

Robert Lang, an urban planning and policy expert with Brookings Mountain West, has argued publicly that the real issue is jobs: problems with Medicaid and other aspects of the state’s health care not only hamper growth in that sector of the economy, but they also deter outside investment in other sectors.

Exit interview Terrible Medicaid and Medicare alone wouldn’t drive people away if the stellar economy and work environment made up for it, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Experts say other factors make it hard to recruit doctors. Our educational system, which health care providers rely on to supply them with well-trained staff, is underfunded.

Our higher ed system lacks a reputable medical school affiliated with a reputable teaching hospital. And some Las Vegas physicians complain that the city’s hospitals being controlled by three corporations is deleterious to collaboration and specialization, which doctors require in order to excel.

There may be hope yet. Mastroluca points out glimmers of an economic turnaround that would allow the state to put back into Medicaid some of what it’s taken away.

The state and local medical associations have suggestions as well. Baron believes patients on public health care programs would be more invested in the system and their own health if they shared part of the burden through a small co-pay. Other states do this, and it is allowed by federal regulations.

Matheis says the “difficult and challenging” effort to bring together the school of medicine and University Medical Center is worth exploring, because it would use scant resources to address several problems at once: keeping a hospital afloat, training new doctors and treating indigent patients.

In planning for programs geared toward

the

docs

Answers from our Health and Medicine Steering Committee* We asked: “What can patients do in preparation for their doctors visits to make for a more positive and productive experience?”

They said: “As a native Las Vegan, I’ve seen the city grow from a few hundred thousand to a city of between 1 to 2 million. Vegas is my home. We need good education at all levels, K-12 and beyond. Medical insurance reform may help prevent the drain from Nevada. “ — Dr. Dino Gonzalez, internal medicine “I love taking care of the patients of this big and beautiful state. I love taking care of veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and more recent conflicts. I love learning about the lives and the stories of each special patient. The needs are great and being able to focus my practice almost entirely on prostate, testis, kidney and bladder cancer allows me to stay at the cutting edge of research and offer the best care to each patient. … As I give lectures around the U.S. and the world, I get to brag about this wonderful city and state and how we are doing cancer research here that makes many universities and teaching hospital envious.” — Dr. Nicholas J. Vogelzang, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada “I am ambivalent about continuing to practice here. I think without a pediatric center of excellence, there is no chance things will get appreciably better.”

— Dr. Lisa Glasser, pediatrician “Ten years ago I realized I would have to change the way I practiced medicine, or quit. I refused to compromise my care, so I became a membership doctor without (physician network) MDVIP. This allowed me to continue giving 30to 60-minute appointments, same-day appointments, seeing patients in the hospital, and knowing my patients. I believe doctors are going to have to believe in themselves again and stop letting themselves be brainwashed by insurance companies. We trained long and hard, desire to take the best care of people we can and want to have a long commitment without burnout. This means a community fostering this mantra and supporting changes in health care that allow doctors to reassume control over medicine that was handed to insurance companies in the Nixon era and has continued to escalate.” — Dr. Traci Grossman *We surveyed a hand-picked group of local doctors and health care professionals on a variety of health care topics. We share some of their answers here.

economic growth, he adds, Nevada’s leaders should remember that everything earned from and spent on medicine stays in the local economy.

“The Medicaid problem is a money problem,” Kline says. “To fix it, the state has to put more money into the system. That’s a controversial

statement, because you either have to take money away from someone else or pay taxes.”

Matheis adds, “We can make the case for what we need, and how we better structure things, but it’s really going to be a decision for Nevadans. … You have to spend money, or decide you’re not going to provide that service.”

DesertCompanion.com | 55

Public health is about more than eating right and exercising.

We must fix Southern Nevada’s social infrastructure for a healthier community

Trickledown health

By J. Patrick Coolican

56 | Desert

Companion | AUGUST 2012

A

couple years ago, two forces were whipping me around as if in a storm of anxiety. First, I was preoccupied with illness and death. And, second, I was unhealthy. Naturally, the two fed off each other like evil conjoined twins.

Anxiety about my health contributed to unhealthy habits, which led to still more anxiety, and so on. ¶ I was by no means unique, and I don’t mean for this to be some self-indulgent memoir, so I’ll keep it short. I was getting no exercise. Sure, I only smoked when I drank, but that was a few nights a week, as a crew of newsroom pals and I would submerge ourselves in a boozy ongoing conversation about the shabby state of the world, the fecklessness of the bosses, the incompetence of the other team, the grandness of the craft. (Luckily, there are no tapes, at least that I’m aware of, anyway.)

By the time the conversation ended — remember, there’s no last call in Las Vegas — it was sometimes just a few hours before we were due back in the newsroom. The next day was invariably a dreadful attempt to meet deadlines, combined with the sickening feeling that there was something terribly wrong with my health.

Now, two years later, I’m in the best physical shape of my life. How did I manage this?

In some ways, it was dumb luck, a veritable friendly rim that induced every ball to fall in the basket. But I’ve also come to learn that health is more than diet and exercise — it’s your social network and dealing with stress and even figuring out where to live. I only share my story because I hope it will illuminate public health challenges here in Las Vegas — and show how small tweaks upstream can mean big changes downstream.

Countless Las Vegans face these challenges, challenges they can’t control, challenges that make good health difficult and progressively so with time. Moreover, the stakes are high: These public health challenges — which reveal themselves in Southern Nevada’s dreadful health statistics — will create obstacles to Las Vegas becoming something more than a party town in the desert.

I suspect public health is viewed in our community as someone else’s problem. I’m healthy, so leave me alone. In fact, however, public health should be viewed as an important ingredient of economic development.

Our failure to confront public health problems could be another obstacle to a diversified economy that will finally deliver us out of this economic morass.

In short, it’s all connected. And with that guiding principle in mind, here’s the story of my own health — and the health of Las Vegas.

Friend me My first step to good health? My drinking buddies left town. This may sound ridiculous, but health researchers now believe that good and bad health habits are contagious.

As reported in The New York Times Magazine in 2009, social scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler used a massive set of data from Framingham, Mass., to hypothesize that our health habits can be viral, that our social networks influence our behavior in ways we don’t even realize. Think of the easy one I just shared. It was much easier to cut down on my drinking and smoking when my pals weren’t around. But it can operate more sub-

tly, as well. For instance, if everyone around you is obese, you won’t sense unspoken cues to stop eating.

Researchers have found the contagion doesn’t just float to the people you know; it’s the people who know the people you know, and so on, for three degrees of separation. If I’m obese, my friends are 57 percent more likely to be obese — that’s what the study found about the residents it tracked. The hypothesis is still controversial, and no one has been able to explain exactly why our health habits are so contagious, but it’s surely worth considering the implications.

Malcolm Ahlo, a health educator who specializes in smoking cessation for the Southern Nevada Health District, told me that in 2005, the smoking rate among gays and lesbians was 67 percent in Las Vegas. In that number, you can see the contagion of health habits: Bars and nightclubs were among the few places where gays and lesbians could find other gays and lesbians, and people at bars smoke. Ahlo has helped bring down the gay and lesbian rate to a still high 42 percent.

Despite the best efforts of the health district, which is trying to employ a sophisticated “social-ecological model of behavioral change,” let’s face it: We’re an unhealthy city. More than one in five of us smoke, which is well above the national average, and a bunch more of us are exposed to secondhand smoke at work. More than one-third of our incoming kindergartners are either overweight or in danger of being so, according to a UNLV survey. We gobble painkillers like candy, according to data from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Deborah Williams, manager of the health district’s office of chronic disease prevention and health promotion, gave me the age-old cliché, that we’re at the top of the bad lists and the bottom of the good lists. If health habits are contagious, however, we need to consider that these health statistics can’t be viewed in isolation. They affect all of us in a web of expensive illness.

T h e p ow e r o f a c c o u n ta b i l i t y Okay, back to my story. Not only did my drinking buddies leave, but my best friend happens to be my girlfriend, and she suggested we run a half-marathon together. I won’t say I didn’t have a choice in the matter, but it seemed like a good idea to say yes, so we started training together.

Here you see how good health can also be contagious. I had what amounted to a willpower partner because most nights, we had

DesertCompanion.com | 57

the

docs

Answers from our Health and Medicine Steering Committee* We asked: “What can patients do in preparation for their doctor visits to make for a more positive and productive experience?”

They said: “Prepare to tell the details of the problem being presented to the doctor. Bring any lab test results and imaging results that have been done relating to the problem you want evaluated. Carry an updated list of all of your current medications and drugs you do not tolerate. Be prepared to briefly relate any significant past medical history and surgeries.” — Dr. Herve Bezard, family physician, private practice in Boulder City “Patients can bring a list of their current medications to doctor visits. Also, patients should think about the main reason for the visit that day and how they can tell the doctor. Frequently, patients cannot express themselves to the doctor. Patients come in with a huge list of problems and expect all of them to be addressed.

Patients need to prioritize their problems so that they get the top two of them addressed." — Dr. Judy Craythorn, ophthalmologist at Shepherd Eye Center “They have to be willing to assume responsibility for their health care. They should know their histories, providers and what previous care they have had.”

— Dr. Leslie M. Sims, oculoplastic surgeon “Always ask whether there is a clinical trial available for the disease being treated.

Clinical trials reinforce the standard of care and many times provide free drugs, blood tests and radiographs, which help to hold down the costs of care and improve the quality of care.” — Dr. Nicholas J. Vogelzang, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada “The SOAP note format is the way docs are taught to think about a patient’s care: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan. Patients can bring notes that help to make the subjective part of this more efficient. What is your chief complaint? When did it start? How has it changed? Have you had this before? What helps and what does not? Have all your medications and how you actually are using them. Know the medical history of your immediate family.” — Dr. Leonard Gallia, family physician “I believe the most productive and important thing a patient can do in a 10-15 minute appointment is expect to cover ONE issue and be prepared with questions.

Also, call ahead to make sure any labs or imaging done for that appointment are available for the appointment, so time is not wasted hunting them down.”

— Dr. Traci Grossman *We surveyed a hand-picked group of local doctors and health care professionals on a variety of health care topics. We share some of their answers here.

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an appointment to run, and we ran. Willpower may be the most important muscle for people living in Las Vegas. Our whole city is based on the idea of giving in to temptation, of surrendering to desire.

John Tierney’s recent book, “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,” explains this complex human ability that seems to fail us so often. Tierney calls willpower “a form of mental energy that (can) be exhausted.” The most discouraging finding: Our willpower weakens when we’re low on glucose. In other words, sugar. You can see how that’s awful for someone dieting — one of the very things you’re trying to resist helps you resist it. But willpower can also be exhausted by attrition, via the sheer number of decisions you have to make in a day, leading to what’s called “ego depletion.” With my running partner, however, I didn’t have to exert much willpower. The sense of expectation — in short, not wanting to disappoint her — saved me from having to rely solely on my (admittedly weak) willpower.

I was also fortunate to end up with a lucky situation in which I was a glorified house sitter, and so living almost rent-free.

I decided I would use some of the savings on my health, so I bought sessions with a personal trainer. Here I was again following Tierney’s dictate, because with appointed and paid-for training sessions, I didn’t have expend much willpower getting to the gym — I’d invested in it and felt it only made sense to get my money’s worth. Moreover, once there, my trainer served as a fitness and nutrition dictator to whom I had to report twice a week, wanting to know if I’d eaten breakfast — accountability.

The stress connection I’m not rich, but I’m also not poor, and this offers huge advantages for my health — especially by cutting down on stress. Let’s contrast my good fortune with our community’s impoverished, whose ranks have skyrocketed since the recession. The portion of children in the Clark County School District eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, for instance, has risen from 37 percent to more than 50 percent since the recession.

Tierney posits that maintaining willpower is especially challenging for poor people, because they constantly have to make difficult decisions that lead to depleted willpower. Do I pay the doctor or the electric company? What groceries can I buy with $30? This ceaseless,

stressful decision-making leads to ego depletion, which can then lead to impulsive decisions. Not surprisingly, as Tierney notes, research shows that self-control — or lack of it — is a key ingredient of poverty. Poverty, and more broadly, the economic travails experienced by so many Nevadans the past five years, are incredibly stressful.

“It’s a stressful place for people who don’t have a good income,” says Nancy Menzel of the UNLV School of Nursing and former member of the Southern Nevada District Board of Health. The website and magazine rankings are, of course, wildly subjective, but given our housing crisis and unemployment, it’s easy to see how Las Vegas has ranked as one of the most stressful cities in America the past few years. As we all know by now, stress is deeply damaging to the body. Stress releases the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol, increases heart rate and blood pressure, and activates the immune system. Too much of this is toxic, leading to sickness of the heart and other organs. Children exposed to toxic stress, such as physical abuse, substance abuse in the home, and even persistent poverty, will also suffer health effects.

“The relationship between childhood trauma and ill health is well established,” Menzel says.

Since we’re talking about kids, let’s return to my own childhood, because that’s where my health advantages started. Our family wasn’t free of misfortune, but I was raised in a loving home with intellectual stimulation, a yard with a makeshift baseball field and basketball court and a steady diet of vegetables.

Does this affect my health now? Yes, especially insofar as I was free of trauma. Dr. Jack Shonkoff, the director of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, recently wrote: “For the one in seven U.S. children who experience some form of maltreatment, such as chronic neglect or physical, sexual or emotional abuse, biological adaptations can lead to increased risk of a compromised immune system, hypertension and heart disease, obesity, substance abuse, and mental illness.” How does this work? The architecture of a child’s brain and body can be influenced, which is to say damaged, by high levels of traumatic stress.

We’re not talking sad memories of a bad childhood. We’re talking fundamental brain wiring.

These findings should be particularly concerning to Las Vegas. Even just five years ago, we could proudly say that although we were plagued with social problems, our laissezfaire economy and thriving construction and gaming sectors had led to widespread pros-

Las Vegas has ranked as one of the most stressful cities in America the past few years. Stress is deeply damaging to the body. It releases the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol, increases heart rate and blood pressure, and activates the immune system. Too much of this is toxic. perity and relatively low rates of childhood poverty. We can no longer say this. Poverty rates now affect more than one in five children, up 32 percent since the recession.

This economic decline is stressful in itself, while leading to other problems that ramp up the stress still more. As Greg Duncan of the University of California at Irvine and Katherine Magnuson of the University of Wisconsin recently wrote, “A long line of research has found that low-income parents are more likely than others to use an authoritarian and punitive parenting style and less likely than others to provide their children with stimulating learning experiences in the home.”

T h e s o c i a l n e t wo r k Finally, even though my drinking buddies left town, I was still left with a good social network of friends and family in other cities, a supportive home life and a fun (for the most part) and stimulating job with interesting colleagues. I was never at risk of suffering from social isolation, aka, loneliness.

By contrast, this is a dangerous risk for many in Las Vegas, a city not known for its deep social networks. We’re a city of transplants and transients, a city most of us came to so we could leave something behind, a city that can be downright lonely. As I wrote last year, neuroscientists are learning about the dangerous effects of social isolation on the body and brain. Social isolation is stressful. Think of this in evolutionary terms: The person isolated from the tribe, alone in the forest, was always scanning the horizon for threats in a lonely and dangerous world. Lonely people face the same situation now, if only assuaged slightly by the random numbers of a slot machine or a few far off “friends” on their computer. Isolation can also damage our brain, specifically the part that’s crucial for our executive function, our impulse control, as evidenced by prisoners held for long periods in solitary con-

finement. Again, this is not the best city to live in if you struggle with impulse control.

C at c h i n g t h e h e a lt h v i r u s Notice that I’ve not even addressed access to health care services, which are infamously mediocre here in Las Vegas. That’s because I haven’t required health care, but that’s sort of the point. Menzel was being flip, but not entirely so, when she told me that a key to good health in Las Vegas is avoiding the operating room here.

Here’s an understandable response to what I’ve thrown at you, especially if, as I suspect, you’re the kind of healthy person who reads this upscale magazine: Who cares? A bunch of people in Las Vegas are unhealthy. No surprise there. I’m healthy, and my spouse and kids are healthy.

Perhaps, but I again take you back to the contagion of good and bad health. If health habits are contagious, the data is worse than a mere blow to our civic pride. It’s more like we all live in an old mining camp, a place where the food and living conditions are unsanitary, allowing disease to move from one house to the next. In our case, it’s a little more advanced, so instead of literal disease, it’s the bad health habits that spread. And those bad habits will surely lead to today’s biggest killers — cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke.

Given this contagion, I wonder if we can continue to isolate our public health problems from our economic problems. There are the links between health and economy in the obvious ways, in that sick people are less economically productive and sick parents less able to properly rear their children, who in turn will also be less productive.

But also, consider America’s healthiest cities, places such as Minneapolis, San Francisco, Boston. Notice how they avoided the worst of the recession and are now again economically vibrant. Conversely, can an unhealthy city be a prosperous city? Las Vegas: Is this a question we really want to test?

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HEROES Meet five medical heroes — from cancer docs to devoted nurses — giving the community an Rx for health

Photography by B i l l H u g h e s

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The fighter Dr. Edwin Kingsley

Hematologist and oncologist, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada

Imagine a 7-year-old boy, so scientifically curious he can’t keep his hands off his home chemistry lab. His father died two years earlier. Now, his mother — at only 42 years old — is losing a battle with gastric cancer. It’s several decades ago, before the days of hospice care. The little boy and his two sisters watch their grandmother tend to their dying mother in her last days.

“It was a terrible experience,” recalls Edwin Kingsley, that little boy, who grew up to become a hematologist and oncologist at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada (cccnevada.com). “Yet, as ugly as it was, it wasn’t a totally negative experience. I saw the difference loving care can make for someone being treated for cancer.”

Kingsley admits that setting healthy boundaries is one of the best ways to stay strong and keep fighting in the war against cancer. Still, he is interested in every patient’s story. One of the best parts of the job, he says, is to simply sit and listen to people talk about their lives, answer their questions, and allay their fears when he can.

“As part of residency, we’re required to rotate through the different specialties,” he says. “During my month in oncology, as soon as I walked onto the oncology floor, I knew that’s where my home would be. I immediately felt comfortable with cancer patients.”

Kingsley’s devotion to medicine carries him beyond the day-to-day work of bedside care. He leads numerous clinical trials and has authored nine research publications. He’s been an adjunct professor at Touro University for 14 years, and, for two

years each from 2000 through 2006, was Sunrise Hospital’s chief of staff, the Clark County Medical Society’s president and the Nevada State Medical Association’s president. Colleagues describe him as a pillar in the community of cancer therapy.

Besides his personal history with cancer, Kingsley credits his faith for fueling his devotion to his work. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he laughs when asked how long

he’ll keep practicing medicine: “Until they ask me to quit. My wife and I talk about doing a mission. If that call came, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Until then, I’ll continue to work. I may cut back, but I’ll keep my hand in medicine until I’m no longer mentally and physically fit to do so.”

However long that turns out to be, he adds, he will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to have been a doctor.

— Heidi Kyser

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Leslie Hunter-Johnson isn’t a

doctor — and doesn’t wish to be. For as long as she can recall, she wanted to be a nurse.

She has realized her childhood dream.

“It was one of those professions where there was a need,” she says. “But when I went back to graduate school, I learned a lot more about stroke and neurological ventilation and how they’re the leading cause of disability and death.”

Hunter-Johnson studied palliative care and brought her knowledge to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center (sunrisehospital.com). In 2009, she helped start the Palliative Care department at Sunrise and now serves as the program coordinator.

Palliative care, a bridge between acute care and hospice care, has only been around for the last 10 years, and remains a new subspecialty across the U.S. “It’s about managing symptoms aggressively and making patients comfortable,” she says. “Historically, neither medicine nor nursing offered much focus on pain management and end-of-life transition.

Unfortunately this is something we’ll all go through, yet because death is a taboo subject, we spend no time thinking about it.”

For years, patients didn’t know they had choices, especially in Las Vegas, which is becoming a major retirement hub for the elderly. Of course, more than 50 percent of what Hunter-Johnson provides is emotional support. She does her job with such passion and commitment that her peers recently honored her as the March of Dimes Southern Nevada Nurse of the Year.

“I give families choices, spiritual options, and basically bring a complete pic-

ture to the decision-making table so they can make better choices,” she says.

She finds that anxiety enters the picture when families make decisions based on what they want rather than on what the patient wants. It’s always a good time, she says, to create an advanced directive. You can put it down in writing, and it’s free. A Living Will Lockbox (www.livingwilllockbox.com) doesn’t require notarization, only two witnesses, and is stored electronically at the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.

“It’s the most important document of

The comforter Leslie Hunter-Johnson

Nurse, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center

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your life,” adds Hunter-Johnson. “If you don’t talk about it now, what you want might never happen.”

Think about it: At 50, our bodies begin breaking down and chronic illnesses may take hold. By age 70, many of us might have two or three chronic illnesses, and not all of us want to end up in the intensive care unit being poked and prodded.

“Eighty percent of people don’t want to die in a hospital,” says Hunter-Johnson.

“They want to make the journey at home.”

— Jarret Keene

The friend Dr. Nancy Donohoe

Surgeon, Cardiovascular Surgery of Southern Nevada

As a young girl, Nancy Donohoe spent her weekends making rounds with her father, a general surgeon at The Donahoe Clinic in Sioux Falls, S.D., where her uncle and grandfather were also physicians. At home, she played nurse to her mother, a victim of polio.

From this unique childhood grew Nevada’s first female cardiovascular surgeon: a medical hero as renowned for her exceptional surgical skills as she is for her compassionate bedside manner.

“I think being a woman has a huge influence on the kind of patient care I give,”

says Dr. Donohoe, a surgeon with Cardiovascular Surgery of Southern Nevada (cvsurgnv.com) and medical director of the Open Heart Surgery Program at the Heart Institute in the Summerlin Hospital. From 1994 to 2005, Donahoe was the only female heart surgeon in Nevada — and one of fewer than 50 in the country. Today, there are two in Vegas.

“By and large, surgeons don’t usually have a warm, fuzzy reputation,” says Donahoe, who cares for her patients as if they were family — seriously. For instance, she asks herself questions such as,

“If this was my dad, would I want him to have this (surgery or medication), given his set of risk factors?” She says her male colleagues tell her she’s too sensitive. She says, “They’re just more pragmatic.”

Donahoe spends Wednesday mornings in the office. She’s in surgery the rest of the week, and on call two weekends of the month. “Weekends can be exceedingly busy to not so bad.” The definition of “exceedingly busy”: On one memorable weekend, responding to calls at University Medical Center, Donahoe repaired a torn aorta to save the life of a car crash victim on Friday, then she turned around on Sunday to save a 19-year-old who’d been stabbed in the heart.

“It’s a really good feeling,” she says, after 18 years, to be frequently greeted by former patients in the grocery store and at the mall.

Discovering a familiar face on the operating table is another story: Responding to a middle-of-the-night emergency, Donahoe was rushing into the hospital when she saw in the waiting room a face she knew well from her favorite pizza place.

The woman told Donahoe: I think you’re here to take care of my dad. Her father was suffering a ruptured abdominal aneurism.

“It adds a bit of stress when you know the patient and the family,” says Donahoe.

“But, you just can’t panic.”

Today, Donahoe’s favorite pizza guy is flipping pies again. After saving his life, Donahoe did him one better: To celebrate the Heart Institute’s 500th heart surgery, the heart doc threw a party for her staff at his restaurant. No doubt that got his ticker beating. — Chantal Corcoran

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Dr. Florence Jameson possesses

the careful intonation and presence of a spiritual guru. A photo of her and the Dalai Lama sits in her office, an intriguing touch given her Catholicism. After chatting with Dr. Jameson, I realize it’s a miracle she agreed to meet this Monday morning. She spent all weekend delivering a dozen babies.

When people ask her how many deliveries she has conducted in her 30 years as an OB/GYN, she insists she doesn’t count.

“Each one is special,” she says. “Each mother is a personality never to be dupli-

cated, her pregnancy and delivery unique.

It’s like falling in love every time.”

Jameson found her calling at UCLA medical school, where she determined OB/GYN to be a compelling blend of family practice, surgery and delivery. After a residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A., she set up private practice in Las Vegas in 1985. Not long after, she helped open a clinic that cares for incarcerated young girls at the Juvenile Justice Center of Southern Nevada.

“Having been raised a Catholic in L.A., I was taught to give food to the hungry,” says Dr. Jameson. “Growing up, I myself was

a recipient of boxes of clothing from the nuns. That helping hand was so appreciated, so critical to our survival. It made all the difference and gave my family hope.”

The juvenile clinic was only the start of Dr. Jameson’s commitment to bettering the community. She also founded and serves as the CEO of Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada (vmsn.org), a free and charitable health clinic providing medical services to the uninsured. The first Volunteers clinic opened at Paradise Park in January 2010, and volunteer numbers —doctors, nurses, pharmacists — stand at more than 750.

“Even as a premed, I thought it would be wonderful to get involved in a free medical clinic,” says Dr. Jameson. “They were available when I was a kid, and the free clinic next to Cedars-Sinai has been there for more than 40 years. When I came to Vegas, I was surprised we didn’t have a free clinic.”

Indeed, with our city’s rapid growth and minimal taxes, Vegas has little money left over for social services. If you fall on hard times and become unemployed and uninsured, you have the least available Medicaid services. This explains why Volunteers is impacting our community. The organization’s volunteer doctors will provide about 6,000 patient visits this year, which translates into more than $3 million in services.

“It’s only natural that we want to help one another,” says Dr. Jameson. “It’s what life is about: random and purposeful acts of kindness. We just want to be loved and cared for. Nothing makes anyone’s day better than that.” — J.K.

The Helper Dr. Florence Jameson CEO, Volunteers in Medicine

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The mentor Dr. Jonathan Bernstein

Pediatric hematologist/oncologist

Caring about kids is in Jonathan Bernstein’s blood — in an odd, literal way, in fact. He remembers his father, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, teaching him and his brother and sister how to draw blood when they were as young as 10 or 11.

“We could always get a job as a phlebotomist if we needed to,” Bernstein says, with a laugh. “We followed my dad around everywhere. We all learned how he took care of kids and listened to parents.”

The siblings took these observations to heart. Bernstein’s brother became a pediatric orthopedist, like their father. His sister went into teaching, where Bernstein himself started out. Early on, he thought going into medicine meant being a surgeon, which didn’t interest him. During his night job in a hospital, he learned differently.

“I was doing anesthesia and, playing with the kids, I realized I could do just as much to help them as a physician as I could as an elementary school teacher,” he says. He went back to college, earning his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Today he is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist.

Besides his father, other people influenced Bernstein’s eventual career choice in the medical field, including his mother, a cancer researcher. For his Master of Science in applied biometry, Bernstein’s thesis advisor was a statistician for a children’s oncology group. The advisor had his head and face shaved for a cancer benefit — something Bernstein now does every year for St. Baldrick’s (stbaldricks. org). This national event, held on St. Patrick’s Day, invites participants to have

their domes buzzed as a way of raising awareness about cancer in children — and raising funds to fight it.

Bernstein has been a St. Baldrick’s Foundation annual research grant recipient since 2007. The money goes toward Cure 4 the Kids Foundation, the nonprofit Bernstein set up to support the Children’s Specialty Center of Nevada, which he also founded. Why the vigorous fundraising?

Bernstein refuses to turn away any patient based on a family’s lack of insurance or inability to pay their medical bills. The center’s doctors are paid either a salary or day rate, rather than by fee-for-service.

“I don’t want them to worry about pay,” Bernstein says. “I want them to focus on giving them the best possible care.”

Parents of Bernstein’s patients are astonished by his devotion to the kids. On the St. Baldrick’s Foundation website, one mother wrote of posting a late-night Facebook message and receiving an immediate reply from Bernstein, who talked her through the difficult moment.

“I’m inspired by the kids,” Bernstein says. “They’re marvelous. They have an outlook on life that they want to live as happily as they can.”

In his clinic, Bernstein fosters an environment designed to reduce children’s fear. He plays with them, offers counseling for bullying and academic issues, even teaches them to draw blood, using himself as the “patient” — a bit of his father’s legacy come to life in his own practice. — H.K.

DesertCompanion.com | 65

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Surv vors Through trials of the body and spirit,these Las Vegans triumphed By c h a n t a l c o r c o r a n , h e i d i k y s e r a n d a n d r e w k i r a l y Photography by B i l l H u g h e s

DesertCompanion.com | 67

Dan Young

A climber with real altitude

The trial: While racing in an Over the Hill motocross competition

in Orange County in December 2001, 43-year-old Dan Young landed a jump much too hard, shattering both his ankles. His ambulance ride from the track to the ER began a four-year ordeal that included multiple surgeries, one with complications causing blood clots to move from his legs to his lungs, nearly killing him. After the right ankle refused to heal, Young got a second-opinion suggestion of amputation, but opted instead for total fusion of that joint. Young’s injury condemned him to a life of pain management and arthritis in both ankles. “I lost my wife, my home, my job,” he recalls.

The triumph: “… but a few years into it, I was ready to walk again,” he adds. Preparing for a job interview for which he was determined not to use his wheelchair, Young went to an Army Surplus store and bought a pair of what he calls “very supportive” boots. They did the trick, enabling him to enter the interview on his own two feet. It wasn’t long before he was back in his beloved outdoors, first biking, then hiking and finally rock climbing, using special ankle braces he still wears under his shoes. Young celebrated his recovery by climbing Mt. Rainier in 2008.

Today: Now 54, Young says he’s “semi-retired and loving it.” He left his real estate development career and guides rock climbers at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. “He’s got a great attitude — that of a very able adventurer,” says friend and fellow climber Sue Schager. “If I did not know of his injuries, I certainly would not suspect he is disabled. In all of our rock climbing and mountaineering adventures, I have never heard him speak of what he’s not able to do.” Although Young acknowledges that his abilities will dwindle and his pain increase over time, he says the day when he succumbs to a sedentary life is “a long way off.” — Heidi Kyser

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The trial: In the space of five weeks in the fall of 2009, Collins

lost a sister to breast cancer and her mother to uterine cancer. Her remaining sister had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer that year, too. In May of 2010, it was Collins’ turn. Three months after being laid off from her job at a communications company, she found a lump that was diagnosed as stage 2, grade 2 breast cancer.

The triumph: Over the following months, Collins underwent chemotherapy, two separate surgeries and radiation therapy. As soon as she was able, she jumped into every activity she could find. To alleviate the bone and muscle aches caused by chemo, she began walking every day with her neighbor Holly Davis. She joined After Cancer Treatment, a women’s survivorship group, and ended up competing on its dragon boating team. She went to a nonprofit called The Caring Place for art therapy and now teaches classes for kids there.

“That is something I can’t imagine me doing before cancer,” Collins says. “I find that I am more open, with all that I have been through.”

Today: Collins is hitting the pavement with plenty of resumes and even more resolve to find a job. Neighbor Davis says she’d be surprised if the dismal employment scene in Las Vegas got Collins down. “She has the fortitude of an ox,” Davis says. “Out of the entire time she was going through treatment, there were only one or two times she couldn’t walk with me. I had just had a baby, but I figured if she can do it, with what she’s going through, I have to be there for her every day, no matter what.” Davis nicknamed her “Determinacia.”

“If I could go back and choose whether to go through it again, would I?” Collins says. “Hell, yes. It has made me who I am today.” — H.K.

Suzette Collins Unstoppable optimist

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Candace Jones Back from the crash

The trial: When Candace Jones came to after the crash, she first

touched a painful knot on her forehead: Blood. Gee, hope I don’t need stitches, she thought. A bump on the head would be the least of her problems. Still in shock from the car accident, she didn’t realize the impact fractured her spine’s L3 vertebrae and tore open her kidney, liver and intestines. It was her first semester at George Mason University, and a teenage drunk driver cut short her night out with friends on Valentine’s Day in 2002 — and changed her life. “My world crumbled,” says Jones, who was an avid swimmer, runner and soccer player. “I was 18, I had just started college, and I was finally free for the first time. Then all of a sudden I’m back at my parents’ house, and I’m dependent on my mom to feed me and shower me.” (Insult to injury: an elaborate spinal brace that earned her the nickname “Robocop.”) During her year of recovery, doctors told her that running again would be a bad idea.

The triumph: Hold the inspirational music montage. Jones’ comeback was careful, methodical, judicious. “I thought, how am I going to turn this situation around? What story will I someday be telling people about how I handled this?” Jones applied a timeworn principle of running: Sometimes slow and steady wins the race. After a semester off, she re-entered college with a 12-credit load to stoke her motivation. She declined spinal surgery, counting on her vertebrae to fuse naturally. By June 2003, she enrolled in women’s soccer. “I always knew she was a strong person,” says longtime friend Kristina Myers. “But it blew me away how determined she was to get better.” It wasn’t long before Jones was tying on her kicks and hitting the trails again.

Today: “The accident put things in perspective. When I’m in a race and I’m getting tired, I tell myself, ‘You survived a terrible accident and came this far — don’t give up now!’” Today she’s sponsored by Snickers Marathon bars, and competes in as many races as her schedule as a wife and mother of two allows. In May, she took first place in the 10k Mums on the Run race. Her counsel for getting back into the groove: patience and perspective. “No matter how fast or slow you’re going,” she says, “remember that you’re still lapping everyone sitting on the couch.” — Andrew Kiraly

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Kassidy Merritt Taking a chance

The trial: As a girl, Kassidy Merritt often had hiccups. Her parents blamed balance issues on clumsiness. And the

doctor wasn’t too concerned about her precocious puberty. Then, in the fall of 2010, the 15-year-old catcher for Centennial High School’s softball team began having breathing problems. By December, headaches. In January, vomiting.

She was diagnosed with a rare, cancerous and inoperable brain tumor called ganglioglioma. “They said I was probably born with it,” she says. Radiation was prescribed; if that failed, chemotherapy. Because the tumor was in her brain stem, the side effects were expected to be severe — a possible tracheotomy, burning of the skull, breathing trouble.

Merritt put down her catcher’s mitt — and her dreams of college softball.

The triumph: She and her parents discovered the Burzynski Clinic in Houston, where Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski employs antineoplaston therapy. It uses human DNA to supposedly trigger the death of cancer cells without inhibiting normal cell growth. It’s controversial: A 2004 medical review declared it disproven; prominent oncologists say the research is flawed; and the American Cancer Society warns against relying on the treatment. Despite this, Burzynski’s clinical trials are in the final phase of the FDA approval process.

Today: Merritt is happy with her decision. “I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t do radiation.” Since treatment, she says, her tumor shrunk by 20 percent and less than 3 percent of her original cancer cells remain. Dragging around a backpack containing medicine administered via a port catheter to her chest is Merritt’s primary complaint. Still, she's been able to keep up with school, coach softball, and even train a little with a club team. She’s due to continue treatment through January. Will she play ball again? Oh yes. “When I lose the backpack.” — Chantal Corcoran DesertCompanion.com | 71

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Their acts of faith, dedication and compassion continue to serve as the foundation of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. Sixty-five years later, and now three campuses strong, St. Rose carries on the time-tested mission of providing quality care to those in need throughout our community.

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TOP DENTISTS 153 of

Southern Nevada's

topDentists,

as chosen by their peers

Photography by C h r i s t o p h e r S m i t h

DesertCompanion.com | 75

Smile,

Las Vegas.

It just got a whole lot easier to choose a good dentist. ¶ It all started with a question: “If you had a patient in need of a dentist, which dentist would you refer them to?” ¶ That’s what Desert Companion and topDentists asked thousands of dentists to help us determine who the topDentists should be. We asked dentists and specialists to take into consideration years of experience, continuing education, manner with patients, use of new techniques and technologies and, of course, outcomes. ¶ The result: a list of more than 150 Southern Nevada dentists — in a range of specialties — who enjoy the professional admiration of their peers. Of course, just because a dentist isn’t listed here doesn’t mean he or she isn’t a fine dentist.

Rather, this list is a sampling of the talent in the field of dentistry in Nevada. Whether you’re looking for braces for the kiddos or a gentle dentist who won’t make you claw at the ceiling, our topDentist guide will keep you smiling.

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How To use this Guide: General dentisty practitioners are listed first, followed by dental specialties. Dentists are listed alphabetically, and the practices are then listed with address and phone number. Note that some dentists may require referrals.

General Dentistry

Guy L. Chisteckoff Island Smiles 8940 S. Maryland Parkway #100, 270-6501

Stanley S. Askew Island Dental Center 9750 Covington Cross Drive #100, 341-7979

Tyler Miller Christensen 2780 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway #20, 719-4700

Steven A. Avena 3117 W. Charleston Blvd., 384-1210

Stephen H. Clark II 2820 E. Flamingo Road #B, 732-2333

Will Baalbaky 7835 S. Rainbow Blvd. #28, 898-8448

Chris S. Cozine 8579 S. Eastern Ave. #A, 739-8289

Peter S. Balle Balle & Associates 2801 W. Charleston Blvd. #100, 877-6608 Laurie S. Bloch Exceptional Dentistry 9501 Hillwood Drive #A, 463-8600 Pamela G. Caggiano Excellence In Dentistry 321 N. Pecos Road #100, 732-7878

Todd Hugh Cressman 5527 S. Rainbow Blvd. #A, 367-4440 Bradley A. Ditsworth 2458 E. Russell Road #A, 798-6216 Jason L. Downey Hale & Downey Family Dentistry 5660 W. Flamingo Road #B, 871-4903 Robert R. Earl 5320 W. Sahara Ave. #3, 871-4990

Barton Humphries Foutz 2510 Wigwam Parkway #100, 792-5929

Thomas J. Keating Keating Dental 880 Seven Hills Drive #240, 454-8855

Benjamin Glick 1070 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway #120, 432-9100

Thomas P. Keating Keating Dental 880 Seven Hills Drive #240, 454-8855

Irwan T. Goh Smiles by Goh 2840 E. Flamingo Road #G, 732-3754

James G. Kinard 2780 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway #20, 719-4700

Blair R. Hale Hale & Downey Family Dentistry 5660 W. Flamingo Road #B, 871-4903

Gregg R. Kolebuck 8685 W. Sahara Ave. #100, 838-5400

Steven W. Hall 2815 S. Rainbow Blvd., 362-9974

Timothy J. Kuiava Dental Designs of Las Vegas 3975 S. Durango Drive #102, 254-1444

Steven Hardy Paradise Family Dental 6320 Simmons St. #100, 294-2739

Jeffrey Lee LaBarre 2510 Wigwam Parkway #208, 269-7401

George Harouni 731 Mall Ring Circle #201, 434-9464

Vernon J. Lamborn 8440 S. Eastern Ave. #B, 451-9111

Paul Kent Hilton 4560 S. Eastern Ave. #B-20, 898-3440

Barry Jay Lasko 51 E. Lake Mead Parkway #102, 564-1818

Michael G. Hollingshead 6392 W. Spring Mountain Road, 871-0304

William P. Leavitt UNLV School of Dental Medicine 1001 Shadow Lane #MS7410, 774-2641

Brian R. Karn Karn Extraordinary Smiles 851 S. Rampart Blvd. #230, 341-9160

Ton V. Lee Distinctive Smiles 2425 E. Hacienda Ave. #120, 456-7621

DISCLAIMER This list is excerpted from the inaugural topDentists™ list, which includes listings for more than 150 dentists and specialists in the Las Vegas area. For more information, call 706364-0853 or email (info@usatopdentists.com) or visit www.usatopdentists.com. topDentists has used its best efforts in assembling material for this list but does not warrant that the information contained herein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause. Copyright 2008-2012 by topDentists, Augusta, GA. All rights reserved. This list, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission. No commercial use of the information in this list may be made without permission of topDentists.

No fees may be charged, directly or indirectly, for the use of the information in this list without permission.

Mark D. Lewis 4610 Meadows Lane #B, 878-4397

George J. McAlpine 1707 W. Charleston Blvd. #290, 671-5175

Robin D. Lobato R. Lobato & Associates 9061 W. Sahara Ave. #101, 877-0500

Matthew D. McGee 8440 W. Lake Mead Blvd. #207, 360-4200

Nicholas E. Lords 2950 S. Rainbow Blvd. #200, 227-6510 Kent A. Lysgaard 7180 Cascade Valley Court #100, 360-9061 Derek MacLean MacLean Family Dental 866 Seven Hills Drive #104, 567-5449

E. Orlando Morantes 3412 N. Buffalo Drive, 794-0820 Johnny E. Nassar Smile Design Center 10120 S. Eastern Ave. #375, 361-9611 Tam P. Nguyen 4840 Spring Mountain Road #2, 256-2111

Richard Occhialino Augusta Dental 1485 W. Warm Springs Road #101, 616-1942 Jorge Paez Nevada Dental Esthetics 4455 S. Jones Blvd. #2, 737-3553 William G. Pappas 7884 W. Sahara Ave., 367-7133 Febiana C. Paran Dental Care of Las Vegas 9187 W. Flamingo Road #100, 252-3002

How we chose the topDentists: “If you had a patient in need of a dentist, which dentist would you refer them to?”

That’s what Desert Companion and topDentists asked thousands of dentists to help us determine who the topDentists should be. We asked dentists and specialists to take into consideration years of experience, continuing education, manner with patients, use of new techniques and technologies and, of course, outcomes.

The nomination pool of dentists consists of dentists listed online with the American Dental Association, as well as all dentists listed online with their local/regional dental societies, thus allowing virtually every dentist the opportunity to participate. Dentists are also given the opportunity to nominate other dentists we have missed, dentists whose colleagues feel should be included in our list. Respondents are asked to put aside any personal bias or political motivations and to use only their knowledge of their peers’ work when evaluating the other nominees.

Voters are asked to individually evaluate the practitioners on their ballot whose work they are familiar with. Once the balloting is completed, the scores are compiled and then averaged. The numerical average required for inclusion varies depending on the average for all the nominees within the specialty and the geographic area. Borderline cases are given a careful consideration by the editors. Voting characteristics and comments are taken into consideration while making decisions. Past awards a dentist has received and status in various dental academies can play a factor in our decision.

Once the decisions have been finalized, the included dentists are checked against state dental boards for disciplinary actions to make sure they have an active license and are in good standing with the board. Then letters of congratulations are sent to all the listed dentists.

Of course, there are many fine dentists who are not included in this representative list. It is intended as a sampling of the great body of talent in the field of dentistry in Nevada. A dentist’s inclusion on our list is based on the subjective judgments of his or her fellow dentists. While it is true that the lists may at times disproportionately reward visibility or popularity, we remain confident that our polling methodology largely corrects for any biases and that these lists continue to represent the most reliable, accurate and useful list of dentists available anywhere.

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Sam Partovi Desert Smiles 10175 W. Twain Ave. #120, 202-2300

Bradley S. Roberts 3047 E. Warm Springs Road #200, 454-8773

Douglas D. Sandquist 2650 Lake Sahara Drive #160, 734-0776

James B. Polley 1875 Village Center Circle #110, 873-0324

Craig Robert Rose 8490 S. Eastern Ave. #C, 914-0000

Brian Glen Sanford 2551 N. Green Valley Parkway #C301, 451-8181

Thomas J. Puhek 3431 E. Sunset Road #301, 435-3901

Stephen Charles Rose 4230 E. Charleston Blvd. #A, 459-8998

Gerald E. Raybeck 901 Rancho Lane, 636-3060 Elizabeth A. Reiter Harmony Dental 1825 Village Center Circle #150, 562-2400

George F. Rosenbaum 899 Adams Blvd., Boulder City, 293-0373 David B. Sandquist 2650 Lake Sahara Drive #160, 734-0776

Nathan D. Schwartz Henderson Family Dentistry 537 S. Boulder Highway, 564-2526 Andrew T. Shields 653 N. Town Center #508, 228-8777

Elaine T. Shim Pebble Family Dentistry 1550 N. Green Valley Parkway #350, 567-1887 Patrick A. Simone 70 N. Pecos Road #A, 735-2755 Susan Schmutz Smith 731 Mall Ring Circle #203, 967-1700 Stephen W. Spelman Willow Springs Dental Care 3450 S. Hualapai Way 871-6044

Reasons to smiLE

Douglas Stoker 51 E. Lake Mead Parkway, 564-0871 Bradley Scott Strong 2931 N. Tenaya Way #200, 242-3800 Ronald R. Taylor 3505 E. Harmon Ave. #A, 796-9924 Arthur Anthony Tomaro Exceptional Dentistry 9501 Hillwood Drive #A, 463-8600 Michael Tomita Island Dental Center 9750 Covington Cross Drive #100, 341-7979

The dynamic duo

David P. Tong 3650 S. Decatur Blvd. #33, 367-7587

Dr. Stephen Chenin and Dr. David Chenin Chenin Orthodontics

Karen T. Tran Lakeview Dental 2291 S. Fort Apache Road #104, 869-0001

Father and son team Dr. Stephen Chenin and Dr. David Chenin can’t officially claim to be Invisalign specialists, simply because Invisalign is not an officially approved orthodontic specialty, but if it were, Dr. Steve and Dr. Dave would be the equivalent of chess grand masters. Chalk it up to having been behind the scenes during the teethstraightening tech’s exciting early days.

“We have the most experience treating Invisalign patients, bar none,” says thirdgeneration dentist Dr. Dave — and he means worldwide. As a student of the University of Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, where Invisalign was originally trialed, Dr. Dave served as liaison between the school and Align technologies. He then went on to become Align’s Senior Clinical Quality Manager before joining his father’s practice, Chenin Orthodontics, in 2000. Together, the father-son team has been treating Invisalign patients for 10 years — although they fit plenty of braces, too.

Initially, Dr. Steve (“They call me Dr. Dad,” he says) was skeptical of the new technology. The son of a longtime Las Vegas dentist and himself an orthodontist with decades of experience, Dr. Steve was committed to the methods that had served him for decades. But his son was persistent: “‘I’ve been in the future, Dad. Come on!’ he said,” says Dr. Steve.

A melding of the traditional and the cutting-edge permeates Chenin Orthodontics (10730 S. Eastern Ave. #100, 735-1010). For instance, displayed in a glass hutch in the waiting room is Dr. Steve’s impressive fossil collection (including the actual tooth of a woolly mammoth). It sits mere feet from the Guitar Hero games that Dr. Dave hooked up for younger patients (okay, and maybe a few older ones). He also installed an Internet café and a finger scan check-in system. “And my dad’s always done something like this,” he says, pointing to a classic wall of photos depicting patients newly in and newly out of braces.

On working together: “We love it,” says Dr. Dave. “We’re able to use a lot of his experience, and incorporate a lot of the newer technology, to greatly benefit our patients.”

“All the tried and true tricks, we’ve got those,” says Dr. Steve. “All the new stuff? We’ve got that, too. And there’s always a second opinion going on.” — Chantal Corcoran

Terrie X. Tran All Smiles

By Design 10545 S. Eastern Ave. #140, 492-9399 Michele S. Tratos 3057 E. Warm Springs Road #300, 369-8730 Christopher Trinh 4210 W. Craig Road #104, 436-5222 Robert James Van Dyke 8670 W. Cheyenne Ave. #205, 360-3030 Scott M. Weaver 53 E. Lake Mead Parkway, 564-3444

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Reasons to smiLE

Pamela J. West Summerlin Center for Aesthetic Dentistry 2095 Village Center Circle #110, 240-0400

The listener Elizabeth A. Reiter Harmony Dental Dr. Elizabeth Reiter is admittedly the brainy type — after all, she graduated in the top 10 percent of her class from the University of Southern California’s Occidental College. But she also enjoys people, which is why the dentist only sees eight to 10 clients per day, and one at a time, in her Harmony Dental office — but often skips lunch to do so.

Getting to know people is important to Reiter. “I like listening to them,” she says of her patients, many of whom are 60 years of age or older. Other dentists, making more money, might think Reiter was wasting her time, but she’d rather be fulfilled than rich. “And I make enough.”

At Harmony Dental (1825 Village Center Circle #150, 562-2400), restorative dentistry is her specialty: fillings, bridges, crowns, dentures — the sort of work we tend to require as we age. Reiter is also known for her conservative treatment. Where another dentist might get aggressive with a crown, she prefers to perform a smaller restoration, when possible — saving a little more of her patient’s tooth and, often, the patient’s time.

Many dentists don’t have the technology to do a crown in a single visit, but Reiter —who believes in keeping up with technological advancements in the industry — owns a CEREC (ceramic reconstruction) machine. Once she’s prepared a tooth as usual, the machine allows her to make the crown to fit it, right there in her office. It takes Reiter about five minutes to design the piece by computer, adjusting for shape, size, fit and color, then another 10 minutes for her to stain, glaze, and customize it to match her patient’s mouth.

“There’s a lot to learn, and a lot of dentists won’t bother, but it’s the wave of the future,” says Reiter, who says she appreciates the CEREC technology as much for its capabilities as for the time it buys her for chit-chatting with patients. “Every day is a new day. They have new stories to tell.” — C.C.

James Whalen Sun Dental Center 9450 Del Webb Blvd., 255-2111 James John White 1140 N. Town Center Drive #170, 562-8833 Brad A. Wilbur Green Valley Dental Center 275 N. Pecos Road, 896-8933 Joseph Armstrong Wineman 1701 N. Green Valley Parkway #4D, 270-4800 Christa Wirges 731 Mall Ring Circle #203, 967-1700 Jennifer T. Wu 7520 W. Washington Ave. #120, 363-1580 Behnam Yaghmai A Great Smile Dental 8420 W. Lake Mead Blvd. #100, 804-5154 Derrek A. Yelton 5660 W. Flamingo Road #A, 365-1743

Endodontics W. Scott Biggs Micro Endodontics of Las Vegas 4450 N. Tenaya Way #240. 463-5000 William D. Brizzee Las Vegas Endodontics 6655 W. Sahara Ave. #A106, 876-5800 80 | Desert

Vinne W. Chen Significance Dental Specialists 2430 E. Harmon Ave. #6, 733-0558 Russel K. Christensen Las Vegas Endodontics 6655 W. Sahara Ave. #A106, 876-5800 Matthew Owen Cox 8460 S. Eastern Ave. #B, 492-6688 John Quoc Duong Lakeview Dental 2291 S. Fort Apache Road #104, 869-0001

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David C. Fife 1975 Village Center Circle #110, 360-2122

Douglas R. Rakich 851 S. Rampart Blvd. #120, 869-8840

Darin K. Kajioka Endodontics of Las Vegas 9750 Covington Cross Drive #150, 878-8584

Daniel I. Shalev 2510 Wigwam Parkway #200, 263-2000 Ryan C. Shipp 2295 Renaissance Drive #C, 798-0911

Jason Todd Morris 2510 Wigwam Parkway #200, 263-2000

Michael L. Squitieri 3376 S. Eastern Ave. #130, 734-1054

Kathleen Olender Desert Dental Specialists 7520 W. Sahara Ave., 384-7200

Mark Croft Tingey Endodontics of Las Vegas 9750 Covington Cross Drive #150, 878-8584

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery George E. Bonn 1701 N. Green Valley Parkway #2-E, 892-0444 John Joseph Dudek Mountain View Oral Surgery 6970 Smoke Ranch Road #150, 259-6725 Mark L. Glyman OMS Associates of Nevada 2030 E. Flamingo Road #288, 892-0833

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R. F. John Holtzen Nevada Oral & Facial Surgery 6950 Smoke Ranch Road #200, 360-8918 Brendan G. Johnson Nevada Oral & Facial Surgery 6950 Smoke Ranch Road #200, 360-8918 Katherine Ann Keeley 2649 Wigwam Parkway #102, 263-9339 Carlos H. Letelier The Center for Oral Surgery 10115 W. Twain Ave. #100, 367-6666

Patrick A. O’Connor 630 S. Rancho Drive #B, 870-2555

A. Ted Twesme 4544 S. Pecos Road, 436-0900

Daniel L. Orr II Medical Education Building 2040 W. Charleston Blvd. #201, 383-3711

Oral Medicine

Mont M. Ringer 2625 S. Rainbow Blvd. #106B, 876-6337

Edward E. Herschaft UNLV School of Dental Medicine 1001 Shadow Lane #MS7412, 774-2400

Robert M. Svarney, Jr. 3140 S. Durango Drive #100, 362-1856 Eric D. Swanson OMS Associates of Nevada 2030 E. Flamingo Road #288, 892-0833

Orthodontics Victoria Chen Significance Dental Specialists 2430 E. Harmon Ave. #6, 733-0558

David A. Chenin Chenin Orthodontics 10730 S. Eastern Ave. #100, 735-1010 Stephen T. Chenin Chenin Orthodontics 10730 S. Eastern Ave. #100, 735-1010 Stephen N. Fleming 5320 W. Sahara Ave. #4, 871-1808 Michael Christopher Gardner Leaver & Gardner Orthodontics LLC 6460 Medical Center St. #210, 878-0764

Reasons to smiLE

James L. Gibson 70 E. Horizon Ridge #170, 223-3309 John C. Griffiths 8710 W. Charleston Blvd. #150, 924-1527 R. Cree Hamilton 401 N. Buffalo Drive #220, 243-3300 Scott Leaver Leaver & Gardner Orthodontics LLC 6460 Medical Center St. #210, 878-0764 Michael F. Nelson Nelson Orthodontics 6169 S. Rainbow Blvd. #105, 433-0070 Carey B. Noorda 1701 N. Green Valley Parkway #1, 737-5500

The team player

Douglas K. Simister 8710 W. Charleston Blvd. # 150, 924-1527

Dr. Cree Hamilton Hamilton Orthodontics

Robert H. Thalgott 1945 Village Center Circle #110, 364-5100

On T-shirt Tuesdays at the offices of Hamilton Orthodontics, Dr. Cree Hamilton’s

team wears custom shirts with this phrase on the front: “What are you grateful for?” On the reverse is each team member’s personal response. Across Dr. Hamilton’s back: “Relationships.” His practice is all about relationships — both with his staff and his clients.

Since orthodontic treatment generally lasts for a couple of years, orthodontists have the opportunity to foster relationships with their patients, and Hamilton thrives on these — although he’s the first to admit they don’t come naturally to him. “Dentists are very analytical,” he explains. “I hire people who are relationship-oriented, and over the years, they’ve taught me how to be like that also.”

He’s a willing pupil in that sense: Hamilton says he’s always worked to surround himself with people better than he is. He even shifts the spotlight when it comes to the title of Top Dentist. He points to his staff of nine, saying, “I in no way take the accolades for that.” Just pinning him down for an interview is a challenge; he doesn’t like to promote himself. But his colleagues at Hamilton Orthodontics (401 N. Buffalo Drive #220, hamiltonortho.com) have no problem with it. “I’ve never met anyone with more integrity,” says Sherry Schurr, his longtime treatment coordinator.

Hamilton earned his doctorate from West Virginia University in 1984, after which he was recruited to Nellis Air Force Base to perform general dentistry for three years as a captain. In 1987, he went back to school to specialize in orthodontics, before he opened his own practice. He’s also served as the President of the Clark County Dental Society.

An admirable résumé, but again he shifts the spotlight: Because he receives so many compliments about his team members, he says he's convinced they're largely to credit for his success.

“My patients usually say, ‘The people here are great! Oh … and you’re okay, too, doctor.’”

He adds: “I’m just glad they let me work here.” — C.C.

Alfred Thresher 9500 W. Flamingo Road #102, 254-4335 Mark Truman Truman Orthodontics 851 S. Rampart Blvd. #130, 360-9000 Zachary B. Truman 880 Seven Hills Drive #170, 221-2272 Tracy D. Wyatt Wyatt Orthodontics 7550 W. Lake Mead Blvd. #6, 242-9777

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Reasons to smiLE

Pediatric Dentistry

The zen master

Jeffrey A. Cox Anthem Pediatric Dentistry 2843 Saint Rose Parkway #100, 531-5437

Laurie S. Bloch Exceptional Dentistry Growing up in the small town of St. Helens, Ore., Dr. Laurie Bloch’s moth-

er called her the calm one of her six siblings. So it’s little wonder that the cosmetic dentist is not into volume dentistry. Bloch tried it for the first seven years of her 25-year career. “We call it roller skating dentistry,” she says. “You know, you’re just going on roller skates from room to room.” But she didn’t like it. “You go home and you want to kick the dog, and yell at your kids, and scream at your husband, because you’re just so worn out.”

Bloch almost quit dentistry then, but instead she decided to overhaul her practice. Today, Exceptional Dentistry (9501 Hillwood Drive #A, 463-8600) exudes a spa-like atmosphere: A tall vase of fresh-cut lilies sits in the center of a waiting room accommodating only four chairs; warm cookies are served in the morning; white wine is poured in the afternoons; and blankets and headphones are offered to patients in dental chairs overlooking a peaceful aviary where 70 colorful little birds flutter about. “Just little creature comforts,” says Bloch as she gives a tour of her newly remodeled office.

Bloch only tends to one patient at a time, and she stays with each patient for the entire duration of the visit. Her small staff of three means the office is usually quiet when they perform their complete dental physicals, assessing everything from jaw joints and supporting jaw muscles, to facial aesthetics, plus gums and teeth. Then Bloch develops a lifetime dental plan for her patients, which she’s found tends to prevent many dental emergencies. Smile makeovers are among her favorite projects. “We almost do facelift-like procedures … putting the jaw in a different position where we’re opening vertical dimension, making someone look a lot younger.”

Dr. Bloch is currently accepting new patients, but her practice has grown primarily by referral, which works for her. “We find that really nice patients refer really nice people.” — C.C.

Chad W. Ellsworth Anthem Pediatric Dentistry 2843 Saint Rose Parkway #100, 531-5437 Dawn L. McClellan Paradise Park Children’s Dental Clinic 4770 Harrison Drive, 432-3334 Todd S. Milne Children’s Dental Center 2085 Village Center Circle #120, 240-5437 Manny Rapp, Jr. Adaven Children's Dentistry 1701 N. Green Valley Parkway #8-E, 492-1955 Gary D. Richardson Adventure Smiles 8995 W. Flamingo Road #100, 529-2034 Joshua L. Saxe A Childrens Dentist 8710 W. Charleston Blvd. #100, 255-0133 Michael D. Saxe A Childrens Dentist 8710 W. Charleston Blvd. #100, 255-0133 William F. Waggoner Pediatric Dental Care Associates 8981 W. Sahara Ave. #110, 254-4220 84 | Desert

Periodontics David A. Arpin Desert Dental Specialists 7520 W. Sahara Ave., 384-7200 Eric Bernzweig 6835 W. Charleston Blvd., 869-8200 Edilberto De Andrade Anthem Periodontics and Dental Implants

Companion | August 2012

2610 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway #202, 270-4600

Dental Specialists 2430 E. Harmon Ave. #6, 733-0558

Ryan S. Gifford Periodontics Unlimited 3811 W. Charleston Blvd. #201, 259-1943

Curry H. Leavitt Red Rock Periodontics & Implantology 7475 W. Sahara Ave. #101, 834-8900

Gary D. Goaslind Periodontics Unlimited 3811 W. Charleston Blvd. #201, 259-1943 Allen Wei-Lun Huang Significance

David J. Trylovich Periodontics Unlimited 3811 W. Charleston Blvd. #201, 259-1943

Prosthodontics Nelson D. Lasiter 2255 Renaissance Drive #B, 798-1987 Marco T. Padilla Advanced Prosthodontics of Las Vegas 851 S. Rampart Blvd. #250, 263-4300 Steven L. Rhodes 501 S. Rancho Drive #E29, 384-4896

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UNLV SCHOOL OF DENTAL MEDICINE VISION The UNLV School of Dental Medicine provides world class oral health education while providing for the dental needs of Nevada residents.

MISSION The UNLV School of Dental Medicine is a driving educational force toward improving the health of the citizens of Nevada through innovative programs of oral healthcare services to the community, integrated biomedical and clinical curricula and research.

HISTORY The UNLV School of Dental Medicine came into existence in 2002 when key political, academic, and health leaders committed the state to addressing Nevada’s shortage of dentists — particularly in rural areas — and the lack of oral health care access for lower socioeconomic groups. The school was charged with preparing socially aware, clinically adept dentists to address oral health needs in Nevada.

WELCOME

“The Future of Dental Medicine is here, in Nevada.”

University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine 1001 Shadow Lane Las Vegas, NV 89106

The UNLV School of Dental Medicine is committed to excellence in education, research and patient care.In addition to offering an excellent curriculum, the UNLV School of Dental Medicine also provides quality, low cost dental services to Southern Nevadans.

We invite you to learn about us by exploring our site, http://dentalschool.unlv.edu/. You can find information about our academic and continuing education programs, our dental clinics, and more.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH At the center of the UNLV School of Dental Medicine is a vision to provide professional oral healthcare to all Nevadans. Many of the patients treated through the school’s outreach programs receive care in rural Nevada communities where treatment is otherwise unavailable. Through these efforts, the school is able to bring good oral health to all Nevadans throughout the life span. Each year, over $1,600,000 worth of free dental care is provided through our reduced rate clinics to those in need in Nevada which equates to $3,800,000 in services to the community.

The UNLV School of Dental Medicine has over 60,000 patient visits annually and includes the following service clinics: • Healthy Smiles • Sgt. Clint Ferrin Memorial Clinic • General Practice Residency Clinic • Crackdown on Cancer • Huntridge Homeless & Teen Clinic • Shade Tree Women’s Clinic • Seal Nevada South • Pediatric Special Needs Clinic • Shannon Clinic • Saturday Children’s Clinic

LEADERSHIP To become a patient, please call Patient Care/Clinic: 702-774-2400 School of Dental Medicine: 702-774-2500 Office of Admissions: 702-774-2520

Before moving to Las Vegas in April 2007 to become dean of the School of Dental Medicine at UNLV, Dr. Karen P. West was a faculty member and associate dean at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry. “We are proud to say that the hallmark of our school is our service. We probably have one of the largest programs in the country for service activities. Our guiding philosophy here at the school is that students receive a quality education, leadership training and most importantly, learn how to give back to the community.”

The UNLV Faculty Dental Practice is a full-service private dental practice located within the UNLV School of Dental Medicine. Our unique practice offers patients the opportunity to benefit from the combined expertise and knowledge of faculty members at the UNLV School of Dental Medicine who are training the next generation of leading dentists. The Faculty Dental Practice offers a comprehensive approach to oral healthcare where all aspects of dentistry are diagnosed and treated by the leaders in their respective fields. A collaborative approach is utilized by our team of specialists to provide the best quality care in one location.

Patients benefit from an environment where innovative education, cutting edge research and top quality community care come together.

The UNLV School of Dental Medicine Advanced Education Programs strive to develop outstanding dental specialties through the utilization of advanced technology, an integrated curriculum of biomedical and clinical sciences, research, community service and advanced clinical experiences. The School of Dental Medicine currently offers three advanced specialty education programs in General Practice, Orthodontic and Dentofacial Orthopedics and Pediatric Dentistry.

Patient care is provided in a setting designed to simulate the environment found in today’s advanced dental facilities. Dental residents work beside excellent faculty and dental professionals while participating in research and providing community service.

Dental residents are challenged to think beyond the content of their education toward its application in real-life settings.

We strive to instill in each of our graduates the critical thinking and technical

UNLV Faculty Dental Practice

fundamentals of the profession as well as

1001 Shadow Lane, MS 7413

the qualities that are essential for working

Las Vegas, NV 89106 Telephone: 702-774-8000

with people and partnering with other healthcare professionals in treating a patient’s overall health.

Email: unlvfacultydentalpractice@sdm.unlv.edu

UNLV School of Dental Medicine Advanced Education Programs 1001 Shadow Lane Las Vegas, NV 89106 Orthodontic and Dentofacial Orthopedics: 702-774-2423 Pediatric Dentistry: 702-774-2535 1707 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 290 Las Vegas, NV 89102.

General Practice: 702-671-5130

“It’s very comprehensive... they take care of everything. I felt like part of the family.”

Rupesh J. Parikh, MD

Ruth Kalenze

Medical Oncologist

Diagnosis: Lung Cancer

It was the scariest moment of Ruth’s life when she was diagnosed with stage III-IV lung cancer, a terminal diagnosis. Under the care of Dr. Parikh, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada applied every known standard of care. After Ruth’s team had exhausted every traditional option, she was doing well, but her cancer was still present. That is when Dr. Parikh suggested a clinical research study offered exclusively through an affiliation with UCLA. This study had the potential to vaccinate Ruth’s cells and help her own body fight off the cancer. Ruth qualified for the study, and with UCLA staff residing in the local offices of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, she was able to participate without ever traveling out of state. This brought new hope, and today, Ruth’s cancer is in remission. A word she never expected to hear when first diagnosed.

As an affiliate of both the world-renowned Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA and of The US Oncology Network, which is one of the largest oncology networks in America, we provide our patients with the most current, healing edge lung cancer treatments. And Ruth’s specific treatment is just one of more than 170 clinical research studies that we are conducting to treat many different types of cancer.

There are thirteen Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada treatment facilities in Southern Nevada. Visit our website for details. cccnevada.com

S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

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S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

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Dr. Hollingshead is a native Nevadan. He graduated from Las Vegas High School, Rice University, and then earned his doctorate in dental surgery from Marquette University School of Dentistry. He attended the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, concentrating on cosmetic dentistry, and is also a charter member of The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He continues to pursue higher knowledge through continuing education seminars, study clubs and networking with peers. For over 35 years, Dr. Hollingshead has served his patients with personalized service and clinical integrity.

From 2001 to 2012, Dr. Hollingshead has been voted as a Top Dentist by his peers.

Dr. Hollingshead is extremely proud of his professional staff. He feels they are a major reason for his successful dental practice. They are very talented and caring people who want only the best for their patients. You will not find a more competent and compassionate team. Everything they do starts and ends with the patients’ well-being at heart.

Dr. Hollingshead excels in creating beautiful smiles, restoring implants and all phases of general dentistry. This includes comprehensive dental exams, tooth-colored fillings, porcelain veneers, crowns, bridges and dentures.

Michael G. Hollingshead DDS His practice also specializes in preventative General / Cosmetic & dentistry through an excellent hygiene dePreventive Dentistry partment that has many years of experience.

6392 W. Spring Mountain Road As a trusted member of the Southern Las Vegas NV. 89146 (702) 871-0304 Nevada Dental community, we welcome LasVegasNevadaSmiles.com you to join our continually growing family of satisfied patients. m2 M e d i c a l P R O F ILES

Chenin Orthodontics, established in 1978, is a father and son practice. It is a fun, interactive office where patients are family. With over three decades of clinical orthodontic excellence, Dr. Stephen Chenin and his son, Dr. David Chenin, provide personable care to patients of all ages.

Education: Dr. Stephen Chenin: UCLA School of Dentistry & USC Orthodontic Residency Program. Dr. David Chenin: University of the Pacific School of Dentistry & University of the Pacific Orthodontic Residency Program.

Affiliations: Diplomates of the American Board of Orthodontics, American Association of Orthodontics, Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists, and the Southern Nevada Dental Society.

Technologies: The latest technological advances such as clear ceramic braces, Invisalign, Invisalign Teen, and the latest in computer technology (advanced 3D imaging) ensure that patients receive the best smile and care possible.

Most recently, Invisalign patients receive the benefit of the iTero light scanning wand to capture imaging of their teeth for aligner treatment instead of traditional putty impressions!

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Michael G. Hollingshead DDS General / Cosmetic & Preventive Dentistry

DR. STEPHEN CHENIN & DR. DAVID CHENIN

Chenin Orthodontics 10730 South Eastern Ave., Suite 100. Henderson, NV 89052 (702) 735-1010 info@cheninortho.com www.CheninOrtho.com

S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

DR. PAMELA WEST Summerlin Center for Aesthetic Dentistry

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Dr. West has been selected as one of Las Vegas’ Top Dentists by her peers as well as the residents of Summerlin. It is easy to understand why when you take a look at the “Five Star” quality dentistry and customer service that our guests receive at the Summerlin Center for Aesthetic Dentistry. She takes a great deal of pride in her dentistry and her patients are exceptionally pleased with the results. Her professionally trained team is prepared to offer the same high quality customer service. After visiting with Dr. West and her team, you will feel that your visit was a pleasant experience. You will feel comfortable with putting your dental needs in Dr. West’s hands.

A native of Southern California, Dr. West received her dental degree in 1987 from the University Of Southern California School Of Dentistry. Since then she has continued to be actively involved in many different dental organizations and received continued education on a regular basis. She believes in keeping on top of the latest dentistry has to offer.

If you are looking for “Five Star Dentistry”, this is it! Dr. West and her team offer a variety of cosmetic options for those interested.

At the Summerlin Center for Aesthetic Dentistry, they offer in-office whitening, veneers and laser dentistry. They are specially trained to use computerized jaw tracking for those suffering from neuromuscular TMJ. For an initial consultation, Dr. West and her team invite you to call 240-0400 and visit her website at www.topsummerlindentist.com.

Summerlin Center for Aesthetic Dentistry 2095 Village Center Circle, Suite 110 Las Vegas, NV 89134 (702) 240-0400 www.topsummerlindentist.com

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S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

Orthodontics is the perfect blend of the art and science of dentistry to change people’s lives by creating a more functional and aesthetic smile. Good oral health, including straight teeth, increases self-esteem and leads to better overall health. It is this idea that inspires Roseman University’s 30 residents to provide patients with the highest quality of care.

Enrolled in Roseman University of Health Sciences’ Advanced Education in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics/ MBA (AEODO/ MBA) residency program, the residents excel in achieving academic success while also treating thousands of children, teens and adults from m4 M e d i c a l P R O F ILES

throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

The residents, who are also fully licensed dentists, and orthodontic faculty care for each patient, with an extra emphasis on quality of care to achieve beautiful and functional smiles.

According to Dr. Pourhamidi, dean of the College of Dental Medicine, it is this high level of care, along with the passion of the college’s residents and guidance by highly knowledgeable and experienced faculty, that continues to attract patients, many of whom are referred by other patients.

Opened in 2008 near the university’s Henderson campus, the Orthodontic Clinic at Rose

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The Orthodontic Clinic at Roseman University of Health Sciences

man University features the latest in patient management and imaging technology, including a Cone Beam CT Scan that creates a 3D image of a patient’s head and neck in just 17 seconds, allowing residents and faculty to better diagnose functional issues and develop more precise, individual treatment plans.

Orthodontic treatment today is much more varied than the braces of the past and include such options as traditional and clear braces as well as Invisalign. A variety of colored bands also give kids opportunities to customize their braces, giving them an ability to express their unique personalities.

Another advantage to patients is the cost. As part of an educational program, treatment at the Orthodontic Clinic is very affordable, with a payment plan offered with payments of just $139 per month for traditional braces. More advanced and specialized treatment options are as much as half the typical cost, making orthodontic treatment accessible to many families who would otherwise be unable to afford it. Dr. Pourhamidi also emphasizes that since Roseman is a private, non-profit university, the clinic has no patient income restrictions and, because of the number of residents in the program, there are no wait lists to become a patient.

The Orthodontic Clinic at Roseman 4 Sunset Way, Bldg C Henderson, NV 89014 (702) 968-5222 www.rosemanbraces.com

S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

Dr. Tim Hunsaker

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Dr. Pamela Caggiano is making her patients smile with her gentle hands and her sense of humor in her modern, relaxing, Henderson office conveniently located at Pecos and Robindale.

Providing the pampering service to which her patients are accustomed, she creates beautiful, healthy smiles. “People have their own visions of how their smiles should look and I like to help them get there,” says Dr. Caggiano. She explains all the choices to her patients so they can make informed decisions about their care. She also works closely with other specialists so that her patients can get the best comprehensive treatment available.

Caring for adults and children, Dr. Caggiano’s primary focus is creating confident, healthy smiles. She combines preventive and restorative procedures with esthetics for beautiful and comfortable results. Her office utilizes the most sophisticated dental technologies and materials. All x-rays are digital, which significantly reduces radiation exposure. Laughter can usually be heard coming from all areas of the office throughout the day. “Dentistry is fun,” Dr. Caggiano claims, “and it’s the best Pamela G. Caggiano, D.D.S., when patients laugh, too!”

F.A.G.D. Dr. Caggiano graduated with honors Excellence in Dentistry from the State University of New York at 321 N. Pecos Road, Suite 100 Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. She Henderson, NV 89074 attained her Fellowship in the Academy (702) 732-7878 www.pamelacaggianodds.com of General Dentistry and has been repeatinfo@pamelacaggianodds.com edly voted by her peers as one of Las Vegas’ Top Dentists. She is a active member of the American Dental Association, the Southern Nevada Dental Society, and the Nevada Dental Association.

DESERT VALLEY AUDIOLOGY LOCATION(S)

Pamela G. Caggiano, D.D.S., F.A.G.D. Excellence in Dentistry

Dr. Tim Hunsaker, audiologist and hearing specialist, is a graduate of Idaho State University and has had extensive training in the care and management of patients with hearing and balance disorders.

One of Dr. Hunsaker goals is to educate patients about hearing aids and hearing loss.

From his own personal experience he knows that there is a lot of confusing information about hearing aids. “As an undergraduate student, I was assigned the task of finding hearing aids for my dad. I knew nothing about hearing aids at the time and had a difficult time finding which hearing aid would be right for him. Ultimately I had to rely on the opinion of an audiologist whom I trusted. Luckily, I knew the audiologist and knew I could trust him. Unfortunately, so many people do not have a hearing specialist to trust. That’s why I have created educational videos found on our website to guide patients on choosing hearing aids.”

501 S. Rancho Drive, Suite D24 Las Vegas, NV 89106 1701 N. Green Valley Pkwy., Builiding 8, Suite B Henderson, NV 89074 (702) 605-9133 www.lasvegashears.com

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Sean David Palacios, M.D., F.A.C.S.

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Sean David Palacios, M.D., F.A.C.S. is a neuro-otologic surgeon who treats disorders of the ear, hearing, balance, sinus and tumors of the skull base.

Dr. Palacios is fellowship-trained and board certified in Neurotology/Skull Base Surgery and Board Certified in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (Ear, Nose, and Throat). He is a diplomat of the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is well practiced in the evaluation and medical/surgical treatment of problems related to the ear, including sudden hearing loss, ear drum perforation, ossicular chain problems, otosclerosis, cholesteatoma, exostosis (“surfer’s ear”), single-sided deafness, Ménière’s disease, tinnitus, vertigo, eustachian tube dysfunction, cochlear implants, bone anchored hearing aids, pituatary tumors, acoustic neuromas and conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. Dr. Palacios also specializes in medical/surgical treatments of sinus disease and allergies, including allergy testing and immunotherapy.

Dr. Palacios is a native of Las Vegas. Upon completing his undergraduate training at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) he went on to achieve his doctorate degree in medicine from the University of Nevada School of Medicine. After graduation, Dr. Palacios ob-

Nevada ear & Sinus institute Desert Springs Medical Plaza II 4275 Burnham Ave, Suite 345 Las Vegas, NV 89119 (702) 735-7668 www.nesilv.com

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tained a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research at the University of California, San Diego in the area of cellular and molecular biology of the middle and inner ear.

He completed his general surgery internship at the University of California, San Francisco-East Bay and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Palacios stayed at UCSD to complete his four-year residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery followed by a twoyear clinical fellowship in Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery.

Dr. Palacios returned home to Las Vegas to establish the Nevada Ear & Sinus Institute, a fully comprehensive center specializing in the

medical and surgical treatment of complex disease of the ear and sinus. Additionally, the institute has a full-service hearing aid and audiology center with the latest advances in diagnostic and therapeutic technology under the direction of Beau England, Au.D. Dr. Palacios has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed medical and surgical journals. He has presented research at many national and international meetings in his area of expertise and continues to do clinical research based out of his institute. Additionally, Dr. Palacios enjoys mentoring students from the local universities as well as volunteering his clinical skills in third world countries.

S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

Dr. Jack Abrams is passionate about eye care and providing the most advanced care with the latest technology for his patients.

Recently, Dr. Abrams preformed the first bladeless laser cataract surgery in Southern Nevada. As well as being the first to perform this surgery, he is first to bring this advanced innovative technology to Las Vegas and is the most experienced Ophthalmologist in Southern Nevada who performs this surgery. Clinical studies show that this custom blade-free laser performs multiple steps of the cataract procedure with more accuracy than manual techniques and gives patients consistently precise lens positioning and more predictable visual outcomes.

Dr. Abrams is excited to provide this new

technology and says, “Laser cataract surgery is the most state-of-the-art technology available to patients and will significantly improve patient outcomes.”

“I finally needed cataract surgery … I was terrified, frankly. I couldn’t see, everything was blurry … It was a very simple procedure. It was painless, it was quick … I couldn’t be happier. I don’t need glasses for anything – I see near and far. I love Dr. Abrams – he’s a wonderful doctor.” – Angela, patient Dr. Abrams is the Chief of Ophthalmology for Sunrise Hospital and the Medical Director for Eye Trauma at Sunrise Hospital, Southern Hills Hospital and Mountain View Hospital.

Dr. Abrams received fellowship training at the

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Abrams Eye Institute

University of San Diego Shiley Eye Institute in Cornea, anterior segment, and refractive surgery. He is also Assistant Clinical Professor at the University Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine in Las Vegas. Dr. Abrams’ dedication to his community is evident, as he personally travels to Pahrump to provide surgical eye care to the local Pahrump residents. He also donates his service to Holocaust victims.

We at Abrams Eye Institute look forward to caring for your vision needs.

Bladeless Laser Cataract Surgery Premium Lens Implants Laser Vision Correction Implanted Contact Lenses (ICL) Glaucoma Treatment Macular Degeneration Dry Eye Syndrome

ABRAMS EYE INSTITUTE 6450 Medical Center Street, Suite 100 Las Vegas, Nevada 89148 (702) 304-9494 www.AbramsEyeInstitute.com

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Life Guard International, INc.

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very simple to the most critical (including those on IABP, ventilators, etc.) are performed around the clock by the Life Guard crews. A Flight Nurse and a Flight Paramedic accompany every patient.

This is a strong team combination, as the Paramedic has expertise in handling the uncontrolled scene and the unstabilized, unpackaged patient while the Critical Care Nurse has experience in caring for the unstable patient utilizing multiple advanced monitoring and treatment modalities.

Basically, this team is ready for anything.

Along with providing the most professional medical care possible, the flight itself is conducted in the safest manner possible, by utilizing pressurized, two-engine aircraft operated by well trained two-pilot crews.

While Life Guard specializes in regional transportation, they also provide worldwide medical transportation services. A large number of the company’s patients are transported for higher levels of care. However, some patients are simply seeking a ride home.

“The greatest asset of Life Guard International,” says Miller, “is our people. Within each beats the heart of a true caregiver. While medical expertise is our prime focus, compassion and empathy also take a leading role in everything we do.”

Dr. Jay Coates, board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care, Dr. Jeff Davidson, board certified in emergency medicine, and Dr. Cari Croghan, board certified in emergency medicine, assume the very complex role of company’s Medical Directors. “It is a pleasure and an honor to be associated with a group of motivated, enthusiastic, and highly trained individuals working together and providing a service that is difficult, and demanding yet invaluable to those who need them,” proudly states Dr. Davidson.

For more information visit www.flyingicu.com.

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“The Flying ICU.” It’s a nickname that the members of Life Guard International are proud to claim.

Most people are familiar with helicopters that transport patients from, say, a highway accident site to the nearest trauma center. However, not many are aware that specially outfitted airplanes manned by highly trained medical staff are used to transport patients from an Intensive Care Unit in one city to an ICU in another city so the patient can receive specialized, higher levels of care. Simply put, helicopters are flying emergency rooms, while airplanes such as those flown by Life Guard International are flying ICUs. Donna Miller, Founder, CEO and Flight Nurse for Life Guard International, says that all of the company’s patients are flown with a level of care equal to that of a hospital ICU. “Patients who are sick enough to be transported by airplane,” adds Miller, “deserve a critical carelevel team able to address unforeseen in-flight changes in their condition in the same manner an ICU would.” This is what Miller means when she says that Life Guard International “provides medicine on a higher plane.”

Emergency and non-emergency medical transports of patients of all acuities, from the

Life Guard International, INc. 145 E. Reno Avenue, SUite E7 Las Vegas, NV 89119 (702) 740-5952 (888) 359-6428 lgii@flyingicu.com

S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

Founded in 1966, Desert Radiologists began servicing hospitals in 1971. Our group’s mission is to provide the highest level of medical imaging available where quality is first and foremost. At Desert Radiologists, we define quality as report turnaround, thoroughness, and the delivery of accurate reports to referring physicians. Our greatest strength is our highly trained Board Certified Radiologists and the significant volume of studies/procedures they complete.

The practice, which will soon employ 50 radiologists, has great depth in terms of subspecialty coverage. Our radiologists are highly subspecialized and can handle the very difficult oncological, musculoskeletal or neurological cases.

In addition, all of our radiologists provide crosssectional coverage. This keeps their skills honed in all aspects of radiology so they can cover the practice at any time, 365 days a year. Rather than outsourcing preliminary reads to another practice at night or on the weekends, Desert Radiologists provides all of its interpretation

services in-house. Additionally, the practice provides teleradiology services to other healthcare facilities and physician groups around the country, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Desert Radiology Solutions, LLC. One of the reasons our radiology group continues to grow is because our radiologists deliver great satisfaction to our referring physicians.

This is due, in large part, to our unified worklist from which our radiologists read, across 54 sites of service. This unified worklist is important because it means all studies are prioritized in one system instead of multiple systems, ensuring that every exam is read in a timely manner. Stat cases are automatically escalated to the top of the worklist, and other studies are interpreted on a first-in-first-out basis.

We measure report turnaround in terms of minutes – not hours. Due to the nature of our hospital related business, many of our reports are turned around in under 15 minutes, with most available in under an hour. In 2011,

Desert Radiologists completed nearly 1.3 million studies/procedures, and studies never get lost in the system. We focus foremost on the quality of care we provide, putting patients and their referring physicians first.

Desert Radiologists was an early adopter of the American College of Radiology (ACR) accreditation. Back in the early 1990s, long before they began accrediting on a modality basis, we worked with ACR to provide data on breast imaging and hosted site visits. Desert Radiologists has always been accredited, ever since ACR began their accreditation program.

LOCATION(S)

DESERT Radiologists

DESERT RADIOLOGISTS (702) 382-XRAY (9729) www.desertrad.com 2020 Palomino Lane 3920 S. Eastern Avenue 4880 S. Wynn Road 7200 Cathedral Rock Drive 2811 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway

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Radiation Oncologist Farzaneh Farzin joined Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada (CCCN) in 2000 and practices general radiation oncology while she focuses on multidisciplinary management of breast cancer. Dr. Farzin is actively involved in the Sunrise Breast Center and has been so since its inception. She also has participated in presentations and speaking engagements about breast health and radiation therapy management of breast cancer.

Dr. Farzin received her medical degree from Hahnemann University, and completed her internship in internal medicine and her m10 M e d i c a l P R O F ILES

residency in the department of radiation oncology at Hahnemann. Following that, she joined the faculty of MCP Hahnemann University School of Medicine, now known as Drexel University School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, Pa. While there, she worked as assistant professor at the Department of Radiation Oncology and actively practiced radiation oncology while teaching medical students and residents in training.

Dr. Farzin serves as adjunct assistant professor and clinical faculty member at Touro University, College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Vegas. As part of the faculty, she actively

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Farzaneh Farzin, M.D. Radiation Oncologist Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada

participates in the education and training of medical students who are performing radiation oncology rotations.

She is currently a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology, American Medical Association, American Radiosurgery Society, CyberKnife® Society, Clark County Medical Society and Nevada Medical Society.

Dr. Farzin’s professional philosophy is care, compassion and patience. She develops a personal relationship with all her patients and this helps her to better understand unique circumstances and needs of every patient and provide individualized care. Her patients are often in the clinic daily for treatments, and she believes in providing a certain level of time and attention to accommodate their needs and help them undergo treatment and maintain a positive outlook.

Dr. Farzin practices evidence-based medicine and believes in educating her patients and family members about their diagnosis and all available treatment options so they can make a well-informed decision that works best for them and their families.

Dr. Farzin has a sign hanging outside of her exam rooms that reads, “Cancer can not cripple love, silence courage, destroy friendship and shatter hope or conquer the spirit.” She uses this as a constant reminder to her patients during their cancer journey.

Dr. Farzin is married and has one daughter, with whom she enjoys spending time and planning activities. Her hobbies include music, hiking, cooking, shopping and traveling.

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada 3730 S. Eastern Avenue Las Vegas, NV 89169 (702) 952-3400 www.cccnevada.com

S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

NATIONALLY RENOWNED surgeon Dr. Thomas Umbach is a board-certified and fellowship-trained bariatric surgeon. Newsweek magazine has identified him as one of the nation’s top bariatric surgeons. Dr. Umbach’s other notable achievements include being named “America’s Top Surgeon” in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and several “Who’s Who” listings.

“Bariatrics has always been my passion,” says Dr. Umbach. “My practice is 100% devoted to helping obese clients achieve healthier lifestyles.

It brings me great pleasure to see my clients shed their excess weight and enjoy the simple pleasures of life.”

Unlike many bariatric surgeons who focus on one or two procedures, Umbach offers his experience and expertise in gastric banding, rouxen-y gastric bypass, gastric sleeve resection and revisional surgery. Some Canadian clients, for example, choose Dr. Umbach for gastric sleeve procedures that they cannot find in Canada.

— Clients come from all over the world Many of Dr. Umbach’s out-of-state and foreign clients combine their surgical procedures with a fun-filled vacation in Las Vegas. Thanks to the advanced technology and surgical techniques used by Dr. Umbach, most procedures do not require lengthy recovery periods. As a result, his bariatric surgery clients – especially those who travel from other states or countries – often celebrate the blossoming of their new lives by enjoying the exciting thrills of Las Vegas after surgery.

“Many overseas clients suffer from obesity related health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease,” says Umbach. “They present with digestive disorders, sleep disorders, respiratory problems and reproductive health issues and many are on medications for their conditions. My goal is to help them regain their health and their selfesteem so they can enjoy life.”

— This doctor is always “in” for his clients Dr. Umbach offers his clients something they cannot get anywhere else – his own personal cell phone number and an offer to call him anytime, day or night.

“I want my clients to be able to reach me

24/7 with any questions or concerns they have for as long as they need me,” says Umbach.

“Most are amazed when I give them my cell phone number, and even more amazed when I answer their calls.”

Umbach offers every client comprehensive pre- and post-surgical programs, too. His pre-surgical program is aimed at maximizing client safety and increasing their chances for excellent surgical results. His post-surgical programs include nutrition and fitness counseling, support groups to help them adjust to life after bariatric surgery and psychological and emotional counseling to empower them for a better quality of life.

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Thomas Umbach, M.D. Blossom Bariatrics

Blossom Bariatrics 600 Whitney Ranch Dr. Suite E26 Henderson, NV 89014 (702) 463.3300 463-3300 doctortom@blossombariatrics.com

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S p e c i a l A D V E R T I S I N G S EC T I O N

Kindred HealthcareRecovery

Kindred’s Las Vegas continuum of care ines such as long-term acute care hospitals, nursing cludes three long-term acute care hospitals, and rehabilitation centers, home care and hospice. two transitional care and rehabilitation centers, After weaning off his ventilator and being disHome Care and Hospice. charged from the hospital, Mr. M continued to Kindred Healthcare, Inc. is a Fortune 500 advance his recovery process in a Kindred Nurscompany and has been ranked as one of Fortune ing and Rehabilitation Center. Mr. M was considmagazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Compaered a poor candidate for tracheal tube removal nies for four years in a row. For more informa(decannulation) at first, but with the work of Kintion, visit us online at kindredhealthcare.com or dred’s interdisciplinary team and speech therapy, call 702.784.4333. he was able to do so within four weeks. Eventually, his feeding tube (Gtube) was removed as well.

Healthcare understands that when Doctors, case managers, social workers and family Under Kindred’s skilled Kindred physical therapists, people are discharged from a traditional hospital, members don’t stop caring simply because their Mr. M began to practice taking steps toorder to recover loved one or patient has changed location. they often small need continued care in completely. That’s where we come in. walk again. He progressed to longer and longer Neither do we.

Kindred Healthcare offers services including aggressive, distances until he recovered Kindred his old level of funcTo see how we care medically complex care, intensive care and short(702) 784-4333 or to learn about a career with Kindred, please visit us term home. rehabilitation. tioning, and was able to return Mr. M was kindredhealthcare.com at www.continuethecare.com. discharged again, but still had the support of Kindred. Kindred’s Home Care services continued to care for Mr. M’s health even Dedicated in his own home. to Hope, Healing and Recovery Kindred Healthcare is there for patients every step of the way in the process of recovery.

doesn’t always happen overnight.

CONTINUE THE CARE

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Mr. M, 47, was admitted to Kindred Hospital with acute onset chronic respiratory failure, unable to breathe without the help of mechanical ventilation. He could not speak, was on a feeding tube and was also recovering from infections, heart failure and a renal transplant.

The interdisciplinary team at Kindred Hospital developed a customized plan of care for him.

Working with speech-language pathologists, Mr. M was able to improve his swallowing skills and advance to a liquid diet. He also successfully weaned from the ventilator. Mr. M then worked on walking and performing other daily living activities with the help of skilled physical and occupational rehabilitation therapists.

Every year, more than 34 million patients are discharged from inpatient hospital care. Many of these patients, like Mr. M, need specialized, postacute care after their stay in the hospital to fully recover. Kindred Healthcare is able to continue the care long after a patient is discharged, with servic-

LONG-TERM ACUTE CARE HOSPITALS • NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTERS • ASSISTED LIVING CENTERS

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CONTINUE

THE CARE

DISCHARGED ISN’T THE LAST WORD. RECOVERY IS. Kindred understands that when a patient is discharged from a traditional hospital they often need post-acute care to recover completely. Every day we help guide patients to the proper care setting in order to improve the quality and cost of patient care, and reduce re-hospitalization.

In the Las Vegas area Kindred offers services in: 3 Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals • 1 Subacute Unit 1 Outpatient Wound Center • 2 Transitional Care and Rehabilitation Centers • Homecare and Hospice Central Admissions: 702.784.4333 Dedicated to Hope, Healing and Recovery www.continuethecare.com

Nathan Adelson Hospice Opens New Inpatient Facility To Better Serve Residents in the Northwest and Summerlin Areas

Irwin Molasky, Founder, and Carole Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer, of Nathan Adelson Hospice.

built out by Burnette Haase Construction and designed by KGA Architecture.

(Las Vegas)—To better address the needs of those residing in the Northwest and Summerlin areas, Nathan Adelson Hospice, Nevada’s largest non-profit hospice organization, has opened its doors to a newly expanded space in the MountainView Medical Office Building. The new, 15,000 square-foot facility is located on the third floor of the state-of-the-art facility at 3150 N. Tenaya Way at the corner of Cheyenne Avenue, adjacent to MountainView Hospital. It was

There are 18 private rooms with scenic views, concierge room service, improved parking and security, top notch equipment, and additional room for the team that visits patients in their homes. In addition, patients and their families have access to the employee and visitor cafeteria, and the hospital chapel and meditation room. The expanded space was designed to enhance the patient and family experience.

Nathan Adelson Hospice, the trusted partner in hospice care for more than 34 years, is the largest non-profit hospice in Southern Nevada, caring for an average of 400 patients daily at four different campuses. Since inception, Nathan Adelson Hospice has cared for more than 50,000 patients and their families. Its vision is simple: no one should end the journey of life alone, afraid or in pain.

The hospice is home to The Center for Compassionate Care, a non-profit counseling agency providing individual, group and family counseling services to address grief, loss and issues related to surviving life-threatening illnesses. For more information, visit www.nah.org.

“This move is wonderful for our community members living in the Northwest, Summerlin, Sun City, Desert Shores, The Lakes and other surrounding areas,” said Carole Fisher, president and chief executive officer of Nathan Adelson Hospice. “Our hospice needs this additional space so that we can further meet the growing needs of our referral sources and the community. This location allows Nathan Adelson Hospice to be on campus with a well-established, progressive healthcare company.”

The Board of Trustees and Nathan Adelson Founders cut the ribbon during the recent grand opening event

www.nah.org

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not only the mind of a genius, but also into the fundamental scientific and artistic principles that he discovered. Da Vinci – The Genius is an inspiration for the whole family.

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08.2012

Art Music T h e at e r Da n c e FA M I LY

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take Most of us party just to party and invariably wake up the next morning to a whiskey headache, no pants and marshmallow crème covering our newly shaved head, which a goat is licking. Why not party for a cause? At this shindig, you’ll support the good work of Aid for AIDS of Nevada. AFAN’s Black & White Party is 9 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Nirvana Pool at the Hard Rock hotel-casino. Tickets $35. Info: afanlv.org

Kids have all kinds of crazy ideas about God. Some think he’s a jumbo-size version of Santa, some think he’s a snake made of lightning, others think it’s a giant lady tree covered in hugs instead of leaves. Started as an exercise in promoting tolerance and understanding, “God Lives in Glass” has since become a life-affirming, musical exercise in compassion and unity. “God Lives in Glass” is 2 p.m.

Aug. 25-26 at UNLV’s Judy Bayley Theatre. Tickets $25.

Info: unlvtickets.com

B l a c k a n d W H i t e Pa r t y : pb t h / b e c k i e pay n e

If you’ve read any Jorge Luis Borges, you’ve probably also worn sandals and smoked funny cigarettes as you pondered his brainbending tales that play with time, space, memory and perception. Based on one of his celebrated stories, “The Garden of Forking Paths” is Borges in 3D: Eerie, trippy and fun. “Garden” is on exhibit through Aug. 18 at the Contemporary Arts Center.

Info: lasvegascac.org The only thing missing at this bawdy ripsnorter of a musical is a bootful of moonshine to pour over your head between songs. We’re not saying you should bring a moonshine-filled boot to Bonnie’s Old West Musical Revue, but okay yes we are so please share. Bonnie’s Old West Musical Revue is 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Aug. 26 at Bonnie Springs Ranch next to the Red Rock National Conservation Area.

Info: oldwestmusical.com

Want your event in our guide? Submit a brief description of it to guide@desertcompanion.com.

Traditionally, the banjo has been more frequently employed as a bludgeoning tool than a musical instrument, but in the hands of renaissance funnyman Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, it’s a bluegrass monster pickin’ funtime dance machine. Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers perform 7:30 p.m. Aug. 22 at The Smith Center. Tickets $29-$108.

Info: thesmithcenter.com

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Hot Gardens, Cool Shade

ART THE PINPOINT REMAINS Through Aug. 3; First Fridays 5-10 p.m. After living in Las Vegas for seven years and working as an assistant professor of art at UNLV, Stephen Hendee relocated to Baltimore, Md. last Aug., where he is a professor at Maryland Institute College of Art. His site-specific sculpture installation references the natural desert landscape while calling attention to the lack of a sense of place in the man-made environment of Las Vegas. His boulder-like forms emit a soft, fluorescent glow that shift with perspective. Free. Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery

SCREENSAVER EXHIBITION Through Aug. 17. Local artist Philip Denker mystifies the mind with his three-dimensional pen, marker and paper sculptures.

What at first glance appear to be computergenerated images actualize themselves as meticulously drawn and beautifully handcrafted. Free. Winchester Cultural Center Gallery, philipdenker.com

THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS Through Aug. 18. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, three artists put on a trippy multi-dimensional display. Like walking through a deconstructed universe, you’re ducking under patchy, see-through barriers and staring into pictures whose proximity to reality is carefully inched off-center. Las Vegas Contemporary Arts Center, lasvegascac.org

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LOST VEGAS EXHIBITION

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e create timeless classic landscapes that are beautiful and sustainable. A beautiful landscape transforms a home, not only in how it looks, but how it feels and the pleasure it brings.

Through Aug. 26. Take a peek into the past and challenge yourself to reason why the skyline of Las Vegas is ever-changing.

The main exhibit hall of Clark Country Museum hosts “Lost Vegas: Bulldozed and Imploded Casinos of the Las Vegas Valley,” exploring the history of long-gone Las Vegas landmark casinos, including such greats as the Last Frontier and the Stardust. $1-$2. The Clark County Museum, clarkcountynv.gov

STEVE DIET GOEDDE Through Aug. 26. Steve Diet Goedde’s series of erotic photographs are titillating but subtle, revealing a little skin and a lot of emotional subtext. Free. Sin City Gallery, sincitygallery.com

IMAGES FROM CAMEROON EXHIBITION Through Sept. 1. Angu Walters’ bright paintings of life in his native Cameroon depict images of his fellow African people. The

national atoMiC tEStinG MUSEUM paintings, of an abstract and surrealist style, display the subjects in such a way that the vibrant colors and symbols of African culture are homogenous components of their very flesh. Free. Left of Center Art Gallery, leftofcenterart.org

TRASH TO TREASURE: THE SCULPTURES OF DAVE THOMPSON Through Sept. 9. Artist Dave Thompson transforms old metal into magic. His recycledobject sculptures fill the Gardens at the Springs Preserve with wonder and whimsy.

Free for members or included with general admission starting at $10. The Gardens at Springs Preserve

DA VINCI – THE GENIUS Through Oct. 15. This multi-dimensional interactive exhibit realizes the creations of Leonardo da Vinci’s imagination in their three-dimensional functionality. The collection has over 200 original da Vinci pieces, 75 to-scale machine inventions and 11 themed areas showcasing the many realms of his work. $18-$27. The Imagine Exhibitions Gallery inside the Venetian, venetian.com

Myth or reality Exhibit now opEn additional $6.00 Fee The National Atomic Testing Museum portrays the compelling story of the Nevada Test Site – the home of our nation’s nuclear testing program.

Many features not seen before, firstperson narratives, large iconic artifacts, environmental recreations, theatrical devices, and interactive elements.

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CLAUDE MONET: IMPRESSIONS OF LIGHT Through Jan. 6, 2013. In partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art showcases artworks that reflect the height of Monet’s work with painting and light. The exhibit features 20 pieces by Monet and eight paintings by his predecessors and contemporaries. $8-$15.

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, bellagio.com

LEONARDO AGUIRRE DI MATTEO Aug. 2-31. Matteo’s paintings have an architectural feel, like storybook illustrations of fantastical floor plans. His subdued color palette is reminiscent of vintage South of France swimwear, complete with lines of not-quite-symmetric geometry. Trifecta Gallery, trifectagallery.com

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FIRST FRIDAY Aug. 3, 6 p.m.-midnight. The Art District’s monthly arts and culture event continues to grow bigger and better, featuring art exhibits, open galleries, live music and DJs, food trucks, performances and much more.

Free. Arts District and Fremont East in the Get Back Alley 6 p.m.-2 a.m., firstfridaylasvegas.com

DANCE FERN ADAIR PRESENTS CONCERT FANTASY AND FANTASY PETITE 2012 Aug. 11, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. These family-orient-

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ed spectaculars include dancing, theater, gymnastics and martial arts performances by talented Vegas kids, both big and little.

Proceeds benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas. $31.50-$49.50. The Smith Center

LECTURES NOCTURNAL ANIMALS OF THE MOJAVE DESERT Aug. 6, 1-2 p.m. The National Park Service will have speakers educate audience members about the desert’s dark creatures.

Register by Aug. 5 at 263-7522. Free.

Lydia Malcolm Library in Henderson, mypubliclibrary.com

MUSIC BOULEVARD SUMMER CONCERT SERIES Thursdays through Sept. 30, doors at 7 p.m., shows at 9 p.m. Enjoy an evening of lounging and listening to great music by local and touring acts, against a backdrop of the lively Las Vegas Strip. This month, catch Yellow Ostrich with DJ M!keAttack Aug. 9, Fun. with Chiddy Bang Aug. 16, Polica with Supreme Cuts Aug. 23 and The Mad Caps with Dude City Aug. 30. Open bar from 7-8

From Steve Diet Goedde’s “New Works”

Dress me up, dress me down Steve Diet Goedde’s photos are intimate in more ways than one. Certainly, the provocative poses and sexy outfits reflect the sharing of a private world.

But they’re also intimate because the sole model in his “New Works” show is his girlfriend, Yee. No wonder the photos manage to balance titillation with a casual, even playful, romantic warmth. (You might say Goedde likes multiple positions, too: He photographed Yee with a number of different cameras — including his trusty iPhone.) Steve Diet Goedde’s “New Works” is on exhibit through Aug. 26 at Sin City Gallery inside The Arts Factory, 107 E. Charleston Blvd. Info: sincitygallery.com — Andrew Kiraly

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p.m. $25.75-$2,267.50. The BLVD Pool at The Cosmopolitan

CLINT HOLMES First Fridays and Saturdays monthly, 8:30 p.m.

The acclaimed singer returns to Las Vegas for an exclusive engagement. He never performs the same show twice, featuring a constantly evolving kaleidoscope of music ranging from contemporary to jazz to Broadway. $35-$45.

Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center

JAZZ ON THE LAKE Saturdays through Oct., 7-10 p.m. Back by popular demand, Aston MonteLago Village Resort hosts weekly evenings of Jazz on the Lake, with Rick Arroyo Aug. 4, Vernell Brown, Jr. Aug. 11, Freddie B Aug. 18 and Darrin Motemdary Aug. 25. Pack a picnic and bring a blanket, but leave the pets and coolers at home. Free. MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas, montelagovillage.com

SEAL WITH MACY GRAY Aug. 4, 8 p.m. On the heels of sold-out European and Australian tours, multiple Grammywinning singer and songwriter Seal brings his

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silky, inimitable voice to a lush collection of romantic soul classics from the ‘70s off his new album “Soul 2”. Grammy-winning singersongwriter Macy Gray opens with her R&B and soul, sung in her distinctive voice and Billie Holiday-influenced style. $59-$114. The Pearl inside the Palms casino-resort

ROCK ‘N’ BLUES FEST Aug. 5, 7 p.m. Johnny Winter Band, Edgar Winter Group, Rick Derringer, Mountain’s Leslie West and Savoy Brown’s Kim Simmonds bring their musical prowess to Vegas.

Considering these legendary rocking blues musicians’ close involvement with each other throughout their careers, it’s likely that various artists will unite on stage to perform some unexpected classics together. $40-$85. The Pearl inside the Palms casino-resort

NEVADA OLD TIME FIDDLERS Aug. 8 and 22, 6-8 p.m. Boot-stomping and four-stepping live music by The Nevada Old Time Fiddlers Association fills the air at this family-friendly event. Free. Program Room at James I. Gibson Library in Henderson, 565-8402

THE COMPOSERS SHOWCASE OF LAS VEGAS Aug. 8, 10:30 p.m. A celebration of the best and highest quality local talent, as composers and songwriters present original music in an informal cabaret setting. Founded and hosted by Keith Thompson of “Jersey Boys” and Michael Brennan of “Le Rêve”, each presentation is a carefully planned showcase for artistic expression, accompanied by lots of laughs. $20.

Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center

BECK Aug. 8, 7:30 p.m. ¿Qué onda, güero? To see one of Beck’s famed performances, hopefully. The alternative musician’s been busy these last few years with various projects, such as producing albums for Thurston Moore and Charlotte Gainsbourg, not to mention the Record Club, challenging renowned artists to record an entire album in a single day. $55-$85. The Pearl inside the Palms casino-resort

DIANA KRALL Aug. 13, 7:30 p.m. This multi-platinum, Grammy-winning musician has garnered an unprecedented nine No. 1 Billboard Jazz

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chart debuts, performed on four different continents and Paul McCartney’s new album, produced Barbra Streisand and released 10 studio albums, among other impressive accomplishments. $42-$162. The Smith Center

YES AND PROCOL HARUM Aug. 19, 8 p.m. Featuring a line-up of guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes and new lead singer Jon Davison, Grammy award-winning, progressive rock band Yes will perform unforgettable music from the band’s hugely successful catalogue. British rockers Procol Harum, best known for their hit single “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, open the show. $50-$95. The Pearl inside the Palms casino-resort

STEVE MARTIN AND THE STEEP CANYON RANGERS Aug. 22, 7:30 p.m. Steve Martin plays the banjo? Steve Martin and the Steel Canyon Rangers have been delighting audiences for the past three years, to the tune of excellent entertainment with the sounds of bluegrass and knee-slapping comedy. $29-$108. The Smith Center

JAZZIN’ JEANNE BREI & THE SPEAKEASY SWINGERS IN CONCERT Aug. 26, 2-3 p.m. Jump and jive to big band hits from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. Jazzin’ Jeanne Brei & The Speakeasy Swingers are winners of the 2011 Excellence in Entertainment award for Jazz Ensemble of the Year.

Free. Jewel Box Theatre at the Clark County Library, 507-3400

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THEATER BONNIE’S OLD WEST MUSICAL REVIEW Through Aug. 26; doors at 6:15 p.m., show at 6:45 p.m. Go back to the good old days of the American heartland! Enjoy skits and songs from as early as the 1890s, hilariously updated alongside television and film parodies, rounded out by jawdropping feats of music and dance. Bring your appetite! A chuck wagon dinner and full bar are also available. $16-$36. Check the website for a limited-time 2-for-1 offer.

In the saloon at Bonnie Springs Ranch, oldwestmusical.com

THE ME NOBODY KNOWS Aug. 2, 1 p.m. Presented by Clark County Library District’s Performing and Visual Arts Summer Camp, this is a modern musical that explores the complexities and spirit of the urban world. Free. Clark County Library Main Theatre, 507-3400

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LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Aug. 14-19. Winner of three 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival, this hilarious new production was the biggest hit of the 2010 Broadway season. With a glorious score of hummable melodies and a dynamite cast featuring the notorious and dangerous Cagelles, it is an indisputable musical comedy classic. $24-$129. The Smith Center

THE COLOR PURPLE — THE MUSICAL ABOUT LOVE Aug. 26, 1:30-4:30 p.m. An inspiring family saga, telling the unforgettable story of a woman who finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world. Set to a joyous score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel and blues, it is a story of hope, a testament to the healing power of love and a celebration of life. Over 13 only, due to mature themes. Admission is free, but tickets required. West Las Vegas Library, 507-3980

FUNDRAISERS PURSES & PEARLS — TIES & TREASURES Aug. 8, 6-9 p.m. The American Cancer Society hosts its 2nd Annual fundraiser with musical guests the Knights of Las Vegas and Rat Pack members. Attendees can bid for designer handbags, jewelry and accessories for men and women for a good cause. $65. Cili Restaurant at the Bali Hai Golf Club, acscan.org/pursesandpearls

GOD LIVES IN GLASS Aug. 25 and 26, 2 p.m. Las Vegas entertainers present an afternoon of original music to benefit local homeless families. The concert features a 50-voice choir and a 14-piece orchestra, complemented by a dozen-dancer ensemble. $20-$25. Judy Bayley Theatre on the UNLV campus, unlvtickets.com

BLACK & WHITE PARTY Aug. 26, 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Aid for AIDS of Nevada throws its 26th annual Black & White Party.

Help fight HIV/AIDS in Nevada while enjoying gourmet food, cocktails and live entertainment. $35-100. Nirvana Pool at the Hard Rock hotel-casino. afanlv.org

FAMILY & FESTIVALS

non-members per week. Extended care available for an additional $25 per week.

Springs Preserve

Sunday. Free. The Resort at Mount Charleston, mtcharlestonartsandcraftsfair.webs.com

mythbusters: behind the myths BUGS! Through Aug. 31, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. They crawl.

They sting. They hiss. And we run! Desert tarantulas, bark scorpions and centipedes aren’t exactly the most charming creatures, but our desert can’t do without them. Get up close (if you dare), as the mysteries of the Mojave’s most amazing insects, arachnids and other invertebrates are revealed daily. Free for members or with paid general admission. Big Springs Theater inside Origen Museum at Springs Preserve

ENVENOMATORS: THE VENOMOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA Through Sept 16, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. Wonderworks Exhibit Company’s “Envenomators” tells the story of four venomous snakes indigenous to North America: Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Coral and Rattlesnake.

Explore the surprising secret lives of these venomous beauties, while dispelling misconceptions of these very beneficial animals whose reputations are based more on fear than fact. Free for members or included with paid general admission. Origen Museum at Springs Preserve

SUMMER ACTIVITIES AT THE MUSEUM Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. August features Activity Alliteration with popular puzzles the week of the 6th, extraordinary x-rays the week of the 13th and macaroni motifs the week of the 20th. An educational escape from the hot outdoors and the summertime blues! $5-$10 and free for children 2 and under. In the Classroom at Las Vegas Natural History Museum, lvnhm.org

TODDLER TIME Thursdays, 11-11:30 a.m. Come bring your little ones for kid-friendly activities and stories, with new themes each week. It’s a perfect time for family fun before or after shopping at the Farmers’ Market. Free for members or with paid general admission. Ages 5-under recommended. Activity Center at Springs Preserve

SUMMER ADVENTURE CAMPS

MOUNT CHARLESTON ARTS AND CRAFTS SHOW

Through Aug. 24, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. MondayFriday. Explore 180 acres of summer adventure, with new activities weekly.

Nature, archaeology, animals, plants, history, drama, crafts, even swimming at the nearby Y. Ages 6-12. $180 members, $200

Aug. 11 and 12, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. This third annual event is home to locally handmade arts and crafts, with 35 vendors offering pet toys to baby clothes and much more. Enjoy an outdoor barbecue both days in the cool, mountain air and musical entertainment on

Aug. 17-19 and Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 7 p.m.. This live stage show version of the popular show “Mythbusters” features on-stage experiments, audience participation and behind-the-scenes stories about classic segments — hosted by the Mythbusters themselves, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. $66-$225.50. Palazzo Theatre inside the Palazzo

MOVIES FREE FAMILY FILM FESTIVAL Through Aug. 22; Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m., doors at 9:30 a.m. Rave Motion Pictures shows rated G and PG films through the summer. Visit the website for an Icee upgrade coupon. Free. Rave Cinemas at Town Square. ravecinemas.com

CINEMONDAYS Mondays, 8 p.m. The Sci-Fi Center airs cult favorites and American classics. Past films include Ghost World, Rosemary’s Baby, Brazil and Clockwork Orange. Commune with local cinefiles. Free. The Sci-Fi Center, thescificenter.com

DIVE-IN MOVIES Mondays through Sept., doors at 7 p.m., films at 8 p.m. Take a dip or lounge poolside while enjoying handcrafted cocktails and traditional movie snacks under the stars. Aug. 6: “My Best Friend’s Wedding”, Aug. 13: “Rudy,” Aug. 20: “Wizard of Oz” and Aug. 27: “Sixteen Candles.”

Free. The BLVD Pool at The Cosmopolitan

OUTDOOR PICTURE SHOW Friday and Saturday nights through Oct. 27, starting at dusk. The large grassy rotunda adjacent to Whole Foods Market is home to free family-friendly films under the stars, with free popcorn, too! Guests are encouraged to bring blankets and picnic baskets. Check the website for scheduled movies. The Green at The District, shopthedistrictgvr.com

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: A BUG’S LIFE Aug. 11, 5-9 p.m. Local parents may have a few hours to themselves during this kidsonly event. Parents can drop their children off for a safe night of entertainment that includes a screening of the G-rated animated film “A Bug’s Life”, as well as various kidfriendly group activities and tours, snacks and a pizza dinner. $25 per child ages 5 to 12, with a $5 discount for members. Reservations required by Aug. 8. Origen Museum at Springs Preserve

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Paint the town

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LeRoy Neiman was an Olympic painter — in more ways than one. Sure, he was known for his bold, rapid-fire brushwork that captured the brawn and verve of our most celebrated athlete-gods on the world sports stage. But he was kind of an Olympian, too: His own, artistic athleticism — reflected by the range of his subjects and the fervor with which he embraced them — might be worthy of a gold medal. (He would have probably rocked it like bling.)

In this Sept. 15, 1981 photo, Neiman paints Cher at Caesars Palace during a public vamp session to promote her upcoming concert. His association with hyperbolic entertainment icons such as Cher is just the tip of the head-

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dress — the guy had neon and glitter and limelight firing up his blood. Many know him solely as a painter of athletes and entertainers, but Neiman, who died June 20 in New York, had a deep fondness for Las Vegas casinos; they channeled the restless energy he sought to put into every painting.

And it wasn’t always a good and wholesome energy, either. In his recently published autobiography, “All Told: My Art and Life Among Athletes, Playboys, Bunnies and Provocateurs,” he characterized casino culture as “an entire world of freaks, fanatics, operators, suckers, sex, money and frothy make-believe.” He meant that in a good way. Hey, you have to take inspiration where you can find it. — Andrew Kiraly

N e i m a n p h oto : C o u r t e s y L a s V e g a s C o nv e n t i o n a n d V i s i to r s A u t h o r i t y

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