SLT or Selective Laser Trabuleculoplasty is a new laser treatment for
glaucoma, as opposed to ALT the older laser treatment.  I am looking
for a couple of SLT installations that treat public patients within 30 miles of
downtown San Diego (92101).  I am already aware of the Dr. Tory Prestera
installation in San Marcos, CA.

---

Request for Question Clarification by vitalmed-ga on 18 Nov 2002 09:20 PST

I have determined that no other SLT sites exist in all of San Diego
County, besides that of Dr. Prestera. Is the negative answer
acceptable to you, albeit not what you hoped we would find? Or, would
you like me to look for installations elswehere or provide any further
information that might be helpful?

---

Clarification of Question by tours-ga on 18 Nov 2002 11:47 PST

vitalmed-ga asked: "I have determined that no other SLT sites exist in
all of San Diego County, besides that of Dr. Prestera. Is the negative
answer
acceptable to you?"

tours-ga answer:  Yes, if you will document the statement with names,
titles AND
phone-numbers/e-mails of the people you have contacted.  My e-mail is 
jfcon@cox.net for any material you consider too private to post.

---

Request for Question Clarification by vitalmed-ga on 18 Nov 2002 14:45 PST

As a matter of courtesy, I asked permission of the person at Lumenis
who responded to my inquiry to refer his name and contact information,
and he agreed only to my noting that "Lumenis confirms" or "According
to Lumenis..."
Nevertheless, I can say that I reached him, by calling Lumenis at the
numbers below. I was referred to him by the office in NY when I
specified that the inquiry pertained to selective laser
trabeculoplasty installations.

His verbatim answer was,

"There are no public SLT sites in the San Diego area. In fact,
according to our database, there is only one private SLT site in all
of San Diego County. Dr. Tory Prestera is located in Escondido CA."

I have not heard back yet from the Hamilton Glaucoma Center at
University of California San Diego, where I imagine the lead
specialists will also know. Their web site is:
http://glaucoma.ucsd.edu.

Lumenis contact information in the U.S. is as follows:

Lumenis Inc. - New York
375 Park Ave., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10152
USA
1-212-515-4180
1-212-515-4111

Lumenis Inc. – US Operations
2400 Condensa St.
Santa Clara, CA 95051
USA
Tel: (408) 764-3000 
Fax: (408) 764-3999

I hope this is helpful, and you can let me know if you feel it is a
worthy answer, or partial answer.

---

Clarification of Question by tours-ga on 18 Nov 2002 16:31 PST

vitalmed,

Tell Google to give you the fee.  You've earned it. :-)  

There seems to be some confusion on the word "public."  I consider Dr.
Prestera's site public because it is serving the public, as opposed to
a research site.  Evidently your laser company man associates "public"
with government, a Leninist outlook. :-)

Let me know if you can get anything from UCSD.

Thanks,
tours

Thank you too for your courtesy, and of course for your question.

I understand your definition of public and find it useful too. I
assumed all sites where where patient care is rendered, in attempt to
be inclusive.

I shall certainly post you with any further information I may obtain.
Now that you made me aware of the treatment, I shall pay attention
towards it in some of the medical, and medical technology, circles in
which I travel, which are both research and public. :-)

Coherent, Inc, which is now Lumenis, owns an exclusive license to
commercialize SLT and to market the relevant laser technology. The
company's product is called the "Selecta 7000 glaucoma laser system".
I hope to have some locations for you soon. Health care facilities
associated with the University of California, San Diego are among
those that I shall check for you during working hours.