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Feb 1, 2006 10:49 pm US/Eastern
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Local Surgeon Trying To Lift McKeesport's Economy
by Brenda Waters
McKeesport (KDKA) ―
A local transplant surgeon is trying to boost the declining economy in McKeesport.
The once-thriving steel-producing community may soon be known for surgical devices.
Dr. Jerome Canady is trying to change the face of McKeesport with the invention of a device that bears his name - the Canady Catheter.
The surgical tool is used in electro surgery. It uses a beam of light to cauterize blood vessels or to dissolve polyps and tumors.
"If you have a colon tumor, in the past people would have to go to surgery and the patient goes home the same day," Dr. Canady said.
Dr. Canady says he started the plasma technology while he was a resident at UPMC McKeesport back in 1991 and it is now used around the world, but he says the true home of the device is McKeesport.
Canady technology has opened a facility in the industrial center of McKeesport.
"Right now we mainly distribute - late next year - to customer service," Dr. Canady said.
"McKeesport has the highest unemployment rate in the state," Dr. Canady said. "Half of the folks who once lived here have moved away - more than 20,000 people."
"This is the beginning of our future with the potential of several hundred new jobs as I have said this maybe the only place in the world where it is produced," said Mayor James Brewster, of McKeesport.
Within the next three years, Canady Technology will employ more than 200 people.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)