By LISA FERGUSON

It may surprise some to learn that great strides in health care and medicine are made every day in Las Vegas. Lives are greatly improved -- and in some cases, even saved -- as a result of innovative technology, equipment and businesses that in recent years have found footing in Southern Nevada.

Speaking of feet, they are likely the most neglected part of the body, according to Laura Horvath, associate spa manager of Canyon Ranch SpaClub at The Venetian and The Palazzo. In April, the spa rolled out its new Healthy Feet program focused sole-ly on tending to tired tootsies. The unique program utilizes biomechanics, which studies the action of external and internal forces on the body.

Horvath calls Canyon Ranch's approach to biomechanics "a first of its kind" in the spa world. "We're really and truly looking at how the foot and the lower body, the function of that, affects the rest of the body," she says. "Your foot is the first thing to hit the ground, so it has an impact on everything else that happens."

In instituting the Healthy Feet program, Canyon Ranch SpaClub added specially trained biomechanic specialists to its staff and also partnered with a doctor to help guide guests through biomechanic services. Along with massage therapists and nail technicians, the spa has about 30 employees involved with the new program and is currently hiring additional staff members.

One of the Healthy Feet services is a 25-minute gait analysis, for which a treadmill has been rigged with four cameras that staffers use to analyze the function of guests' feet, ankles, knees and hips and learn "how it all relates to each other," Horvath says. "Sometimes you may not have foot pain, but your knee pain or your lower back pain is related to how you're walking and the function of your foot not being … in the right position that it should be, so it's creating some torque on other parts of your body." The gait analysis is being offered free of charge to spa guests.

A computerized floor mat utilizes "force-plate technology" to determine "how your feet are planting" on the ground, Horvath explains. "Some people put more pressure on their heels; other people put more pressure on their big toe. So that helps us (determine) if there's a need for orthotics," which are inserts worn inside the shoes, or if other corrective measures should be taken. As an added convenience, a line of orthotics are available for purchase at the spa (prices range from $175 to $595), including a set that can be custom made for guests to meet their individual foot needs as determined during biomechanic services.

Another treatment, called Healthy in Heels, is ideal for women who simply can't do without stilettos. "If you're in heels a lot, it tends to shorten your calf muscles; your Achilles' tendon tends to get sore," Horvath explains. A fix for that "is just stretching those muscles back out and realigning some of those muscles."

The Healthy Feet program "can really and truly benefit anyone." she says. "One thing we've found is that a lot of people … think, 'My feet don't hurt, I don't have any issues,' until we actually start looking at them and you have one of the treatments. We just get so accustomed to pounding on our feet that we don't realize our feet hurt."

Although there is still plenty of pampering to be had at the spa, Horvath said, "The mission of Canyon Ranch is always to educate everyone. We want to make sure that we leave you with a little more knowledge than you had before."

Spreading knowledge is also a priority for Matt Schissler, chief executive officer of Cord Blood America, a company he founded eight years ago.

In 2009, he moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, where he employs 30 people at a laboratory near McCarran International Airport. It's there that Cord Blood America processes and stores adult human stem cells that are extracted from umbilical cord blood and placentas.

Cord blood is typically collected by doctors and nurses at hospitals shortly after birth. At the lab, the cells are retrieved and processed before being cryogenically frozen, allowing them to be stored for decades and transplanted as needed to battle diseases including leukemia, severe anemia, metabolic blood disorders and immune deficiencies, among others.

"What you're seeing is the beginning, in my opinion, of a medical revolution," Schissler says. "By being able to use our own biologic product, which are stem cells, to re-create the cells and potentially fight and defeat disease, that's completely different than treating the symptoms of disease, and that's why this is very cutting edge."

He is quick to explain that Cord Blood America only handles adult stems cells and is not involved in the controversy swirling around the use of embryonic stem cells, which are collected from human embryos.

Schissler estimates that 95 percent of Cord Blood America's customers are expectant parents, who pay an initial fee of $2,075, and then about $125 annually to privately bank cells retrieved from their newborn's cord blood.

"We show parents that the stem cells are a perfect match for the child, and that if the child were to happen to contract a disease that the stem cells could potentially be used for, they'd have access to them," he explains. For example, if a child were to develop leukemia, "They wouldn't have to go to a bone-marrow registry and hope to find a transplant that matches. They would have their own stem cells. The parents see it more as a protection for their children."

So far, the company has participated in eight transplants. "As children age, there will be more and more transplants," Schissler says, "because as you age you have more proclivity to contract diseases that stem cells can be used for."

The other 5 percent of Cord Blood America's clients are corporations that require stem cells for research purposes. To keep up with demand, the company has expanded by opening facilities in Argentina and Germany, and is building a laboratory in China.

"You need to have a global footprint because cells shipped in have a very short shelf life," Schissler explains. "You have to have labs on every continent."

"We believe we'll continue to expand year over year," he says of the company's growth, "and because of that, we'll continue to hire" additional employees, including blood technicians and sales and marketing staffers, he says. The company is currently filling administrative and accounting positions.

Meanwhile, Schissler is working to increase public awareness about the benefits of cord blood banking. Already, he says, 21 states have legislated that obstetricians must inform patients of their options: to bank it privately with a company such as Cord Blood America; to publicly donate it; or to discard it. Nevada has no such legislation.

"Discard is the option that most people end up doing, which is unfortunate because there's good, curative product in that cord blood," he says, explaining that one of Cord Blood America's goals is to eventually make a public cord blood bank available to service those who may find themselves in need of stem cells.

It wasn't stem cells, but cutting-edge technology that Maura Bivens needed.

In December 2007, the Las Vegas mother of three young children was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following months of aggressive chemotherapy treatments, a double mastectomy and surgery to remove her lymph nodes, "We thought we had it beat," she recalls.

Two years later, cancer again reared its head when it metastasized to her lungs. Despite additional chemotherapy treatments, "They only gave me a year to live," Bivens says.

"The chemotherapy held it pretty well" during that time, she says, but "it was a delicate balance of how much my body can take. It worked, but the quality of my life was … really bad."

When doctors spotted another tumor in her lungs in August 2010, Bivens was urged to undergo a course of treatment brand-new to Southern Nevada. Two months earlier, the CyberKnife had been introduced at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada's facility at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center.

The robotic radiosurgery system treats cancerous and noncancerous tumors noninvasively. Despite the "knife" in its name, there is no cutting involved during CyberKnife treatments. The multimillion-dollar machine essentially paints tumors with high doses of radiation, while its extreme accuracy leaves the body's other healthy tissue unscathed.

There are upwards of 200 CyberKnife systems operating around the globe (including a unit in Reno) that have treated more than 100,000 patients. In advance of its local debut, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada hired a physicist and radiation therapists, as well as medical assistants, nursing personnel and clerical support for its office.

Bivens says she was at first hesitant to undergo the treatment. "I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, but my husband … said, 'Give it a try.' "

So did her radiation oncologist, Dr. Raul Meoz of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada. "There are some very unique situations where this is an ideal type of equipment to have for treatment," he says.

The CyberKnife can potentially treat cancer patients who also suffer from emphysema, advanced-stage diabetes, cardiac disease and other conditions that render them inoperable. Besides the lungs, it is also being used to treat tumors in the brain, prostate, spine, liver, pancreas and kidneys.

"With this type of technology, you can treat (cancer) much more effectively and in a shorter period of time" than with conventional radiation, Meoz explains, calling it "a real innovation in cancer care." With CyberKnife, "It may take us up to five days to treat a patient, when conventional radiation may take seven weeks."

Treatments typically occur in succession over a few days. Patients can usually resume their regular daily activities shortly thereafter, and often do not suffer debilitating side effects that can accompany other cancer treatments.

"It gives people the opportunity to stay home and be treated as opposed to having to travel for treatment," Meoz says, explaining that marketing positions may be needed in the future to promote the CyberKnife and "let our referring physicians and our patients know it is here."

CyberKnife treatments may not be ideal for everyone, however, and Meoz advises patients to discuss treatment options with their doctors. In Bivens' case, chemotherapy "was becoming very difficult to go through." While it remains a treatment option for her, he says the CyberKnife "at least delayed that option, maybe for a very long time."

Following her CyberKnife treatment, 42-year-old Bivens says she experienced some fatigue, but "I could still go about my normal routine for two weeks, and after that I was right as rain.

"I just could not believe the difference between being on the couch (taking) tons of painkillers" as she had following chemotherapy treatments, versus her post-CyberKnife experience when she was "able to take care of my kids, clean my house, do everything I needed to do." She calls it "amazing that I'm not even supposed to be alive, and here I am with Stage 4 cancer (with) no tumors presenting."

That was until March 2011, when doctors found another tumor in her lungs. Bivens underwent her second, three-day CyberKnife treatment that month. "This time, I was a little bit more tired" following the procedure, but she has since regained her stamina.

Early in her battle with cancer, Bivens recalls, "Everybody kept telling me, 'Hang in there. You never know when something new is coming down the pike that could save your life,' and I didn't believe it. … The CyberKnife isn't new, but it's new to Vegas. So, something new did come and totally change my life."