Care facility to open in Newport Beach

Spinal surgery need no longer inhibit Orange County residents' active lifestyles with the arrival of minimally invasive surgery options, say the directors of a multiple-service care facility opening next month in Newport Beach.

"People used to think of spine surgery as a final death blow to their activity level," said Dr. Burak Ozgur, a neurosurgeon trained in minimally invasive spine surgery. "People used to fear that they would always have low mobility or never play sports again, but that is totally untrue now."

The Marina del Rey-based D.I.S.C. Sports and Spine Center, a "one-stop shop" for spinal and sports injury patients, will open its first Orange County location at 3501 Jamboree Road on Aug 15.

The 38,000-square-foot facility will include an outpatient surgical center, a soft tissue and rehabilitation center and a diagnostic imaging center. There will also be a spinal care, orthopedics and pain management clinic.

The facility will have specialists in nutrition, acupuncture and traditional Eastern medicine.

"It's that vertical integration of all specialties that's so important here," said founding director and chief executive Dr. Robert Bray. "That vertical integration is required because it's not a one-specialty thing. There are many ways to deal with a back or neck problem. We put everybody in the same room to work together and provide that to the benefit of the patients."

Vertical integration is a business term generally used to describe a variety of services controlled by one company or manager.

D.I.S.C., which was founded in 2006 by Bray under the name of Diagnostic and Interventional Surgical Center, has expanded to include offices in Beverly Hills, a full facility in Marina del Mar and employ 29 doctors and about 160 employees.