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Moon Community Access Television
1700 Beaver Grade Road, Suite 140
Moon Township, PA 15108-3183
www.mca-tv.com Contact: Sarah Vaccarelli
Communications Director
Office: 412-269-1191
Cell: 724-777-4731
svaccarelli@moontwp.com

For Immediate Release Distribution Date: March 19, 2008

MCA-TV’s “The Doctor is In” Wins Telly Award

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Moon Community Access Television’s community-produced medical show, “The Doctor is In,” received a Bronze Telly in the 29th Annual Telly Awards competition. The show that received the recognition was entitled “When Medicine Fails” and focused on the topic of medical and surgical therapies for the same illnesses; it was the first of a three-part series that aired on MCA-TV last fall. “The Doctor is In” is produced and hosted by Coraopolis-based physician Dr. Marc Schneiderman and features ethicist and Robert Morris University professor Dr. Robert Skovira.

“It is an honor to be recognized with this national award, which further highlights the importance of community access television and the ability of individuals to produce shows that are important to them and their viewers,” said Dr. Marc Schneiderman. “Over the course of the eight years that I have been a community producer at MCA-TV, I have produced more than 30 medical shows that have been highly informative and featured some of Pittsburgh’s top physicians, surgeons and medical specialists. It has been a pleasure to take the knowledge of these doctors and share it with others.”

The Telly Awards is a prestigious national and international competition that receives more than 14,000 entries annually from all 50 states and several foreign countries. Founded in 1978, the Telly Awards is recognized as the premier award honoring outstanding local, region, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions. Submissions are divided into categories and are judged by a panel of talented and creative individuals, all of whom have been honored with Silver Telly Awards – the organization’s highest honor. Submissions are judged on their own merit through a point-based performance scale and do not compete with entrants in the same category.

“Over our 23 years of existence in Moon Township, a number of MCA-TV’s community producers have created high-quality television shows for our viewing audience. This is the first time, however, that one of our programs has been recognized nationally for its excellence in both content and format,” said MCA-TV Executive Director James Koepfinger. “I would like to thank Dr. Marc Schneiderman for recognizing the benefits of community television and for dedicating a great deal of time and effort into ensuring his shows are of award-winning quality.”

“When Medicine Fails” is a three-part medical series currently being produced by Dr. Marc Schneiderman. The first episode, which won the Bronze Telly, focused on strokes, carotid endarterectomy and osteoporosis. Dr. Schneiderman spoke with Dr. John Brillman, a urologist at Allegheny General Hospital, who discussed how strokes are treated with medicine; Dr. Paul Collier, a thoracic surgeon at Heritage Valley Sewickley, who described carotid endarterectomy, the procedure used to remove fatty plague from neck arteries in stroke patients; and Dr. Ghassam Alayii, a rheumatologist at UPMC, who discussed how medicine is used to treat osteoporosis. Dr. Schneiderman also interviewed Dr. Duke Thomas, an orthopedic surgeon, who visually explained how a balloon kyphoplasty is performed and helps relieve chronic pain associated with osteoporosis.

The ethical portion of the award-winning show, featuring Dr. Robert Skovira, addressed the positives and negatives concerning the use of electronic medical records. While Dr. Skovira admitted that medical records are more legible and may help nurses and physicians in different offices access records kept on the same system, he also argued that the use of electronic medical records leaves patients open to exploitation and, because there isn’t a standard system used across the industry, systems will be designed to cater to different physicians’ needs.

The second episode, which continues of the topic “When Medicine Fails,” will focus on liver and kidney disease and transplants, as well as the ethics of selling organs. The newest episode of “The Doctor is In” will air later this spring on MCA-TV.

Additionally, to recognize Dr. Schneiderman’s hard work, MCA-TV will rebroadcast several episodes of “The Doctor is In” throughout the spring and summer. Be sure to check the programming schedule at http://www.mca-tv.com/schedule to see when certain medical episodes will air.

MCA-TV, shown locally on channel 14 of the Comcast cable system, is owned and operated by the Township of Moon. The public-, educational- and governmental- access station is funded mainly by a franchise fee paid to the Township by Comcast. The MCA-TV studio is located in the lower level of the Moon Community Service Center, 1700 Beaver Grade Road, in Cherrington Corporate Center.