Atherton California Sinus Centers 5th Anniversary Celebrated

April 1st, 2014 marked the 5 year Anniversary of California Sinus Centers’ opening its doors in Atherton. We marked the occasion with a celebration that included Jamaican food, a steel drummer, and a relaxed attitude. Bay Area referring doctors, their staff and friends were invited to attend. While (much needed) rain moved the group indoors, everyone still had a great time visiting and catching up. We missed those who could not attend, but are very grateful for your support. We look forward to hosting you at our 10th Anniversary!

California Sinus Centers welcomes Dr. Michael Purkey

California Sinus Centers will be welcoming our 2014-2015 fellow this July. Dr. Michael Purkey joins us from the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been in residency for the past five years. Dr Purkey was inspired to pursue Rhinology during medical school after sitting in on a surgery with Penn professor and surgeon Dr. Alex Chiu. Dr. Chiu, who trained at California Sinus Centers, showed that a combination of surgical skill and applied technology can yield advanced levels of care to patients suffering from sinus disease. Dr. Purkey states that “it was from that moment that I chose Rhinology as a sub-specialty.”

While in his residency Dr. Purkey has collaborated with other doctors in research into the genetic causes of sinusitis. Dr. Purkey will be seeing patients in the Atherton and Walnut Creek offices and will operate out of the surgery centers associated with those locations.

Congratulations Dr. Darshni Vira

The doctors and staff of California Sinus Centers would like to congratulate our 2013-2014 fellow Dr. Darshni Vira! Her time spent planning the 2014 Palm Springs Advanced Techniques in Endoscopic Sinus Surgery course was rewarded with a successful event (see details here). She also successfully completed both her written and verbal medical board exams. Dr. Vira traveled to Chicago in early April for her oral exam. After the exam she felt great about how she did, and said it was a fun opportunity to reconnect with fellow physicians she hadn’t seen since residency.

Dr Vira has accepted a position with Kaiser Hospital in their South San Francisco office and will begin her practice there in July. We will miss Darshni, but are happy that she is starting her career with Kaiser hospital in the ENT department of their South San Francisco location.

Nosey News: Polyp Vac approved for use in the US

It is with great excitement that we can announce the FDA’s approval of the newest tool in the fight against sinus disease here in the US: the PolypVac.

The PolypVac was developed by doctors from Cal Sinus and other institutions in conjunction with Redwood City based Laurimed, LLC. The purpose of its development was to address the need for a tool that can remove certain types of sinus polyps in an office environment. The tool may allow a skilled Rhinologist to address a patient’s polyps in a properly equipped office exam room instead of an ambulatory surgery center. Having the polypvac in their toolbag may allow a surgeon to bring treatment to the patient. Not only may this potentially save patients the time they might have spent traveling to an ambulatory surgery center, it also saves them the associated medical costs and general anesthesia.

The PolypVac has been in use in Canada for over a year but recently gained FDA approval in the US. Laurimed is in the process of distributing the device to doctors for its use. California Sinus Centers has been (successfully) using the tool since February of this year (2014) to treat patients affected with certain types of polyps. Patients report that their symptoms have diminished greatly and they can return to going about their daily lives. The first surgeon in the US to use the device was Dr. David W. Clark, a Cal Sinus trained surgeon now practicing in Temple, Tx.

Schedule a Polypvac Polyp Removal consult/appointment at a convenient Bay Area California Sinus Center location.

PolypVac Manufacturer website: www.polypvac.com

Subscribe to Nosy News - Many of our patients remember the regular newsletters we used to publish a few years back. After many inquiries and requests, we've begun putting them together again, with the title "Nosey News". The newsletters cover a variety of subjects, from general sinus-related education to specific information from our offices. If you are in any way curious about what we've been doing here, or if you're just "casually interested", poke this link and find our archive of newsletters.

2014 Advanced Techniques Course A Resounding Success!

Dr. Vira and members of the staff of Loma Linda University and the Sinus Care Foundation organized the annual Advanced Techniques in Endoscopic Sinus Surgery February 13-17 in Palm Springs, CA. As with past “ATESS” events, this year’s course was an assembly of leading Rhinologists, ENTs and legal experts that gave talks over the President’s day weekend in February.

Almost all of the ratings from anonymous evaluations were in the “excellent” category, with individual comments such as:

“Excellent, very experienced speakers on pertinent clinical topics on advanced rhinology level”
“Timely abundance of knowledgeable experienced sinus surgeons”

“great flow of topics, highly informational, live surgeries very helpful”,
“optimal student:faculty ratio”

The 2015 course will again be held in Palm Springs over President’s Day weekend, February 12th-16th 2015. We will be partnering with Dr. Chris Church at Loma Linda University and the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells.

Keep up with the next course on our sinus course page.

Cal Sinus Sonoma Office

The Sonoma office of California Sinus Centers has been hosting patients since mid-2013. Are you one of our North Bay or San Francisco based patients? Or are you looking for a reason to visit Sonoma, Napa, and the surrounding area on a Saturday (who isn’t)? Our Sonoma office is located just a few blocks from Sonoma plaza. The office is equipped to accommodate visits from new patients and return patients alike. Call our office today to speak to someone about getting on the monthly Saturday clinic schedule.

California Sinus Centers Sonoma
371 Perkins Street
Sonoma, CA 95476
More location details

Please feel free to call our main office at (650) 399-4630 to schedule an appointment. If you are lost or need to tell us you are running late the day of your appointment, please call (707) 938-7923.

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