Canadian Website prevails over American Competition: PBS, Newsweek, LA Times, Associated Press and more among previous winners of media awards handed out by American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) for top-notch journalism

September 1, 2001 (Montreal) - Talksurgery.com, the leading online resource for information on women's beauty wellness and cosmetic surgery issues, is honored to be the recipient of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Circle of Excellence award in the category of News Website.

The ASPS is the world's largest organization of plastic surgeons whose primary mission is the attainment of the highest standards of patient care. Previous winners of the award have included PBS, Newsweek, LA Times, and The Associated Press.

Says the ASPS website: "Judges look for top-quality analytical and reporting skills - that is, journalism that sorts through and deciphers medical research and interprets complex issues…while still retaining the interest of viewers or readers. Judges looked for originality and based their selection on four criteria: "creativity and substance of the story; quality of writing and presentation; clarity of message; and educational benefit to the public."

"The award winner, journalist Robin Merrill Lorenzo, did a terrific job in her article on breast reduction surgery. She effectively cut through medical jargon and captured our editorial mission by addressing psychological, emotional and wellness issues in the piece," said Afsun Qureshi, co-founder and editor of Talksurgery.com. "We are thrilled for Robin, who represents just one of the many qualified writers on the site."

Eimile Robertson and Afsun Qureshi launched Talksurgery.com in February, 2001 with the goal of helping alleviate the anxieties and counter myths that both men and women have about body image, aging and surgery issues. In February of this year, Talksurgery.com partnered with CANOE to become part of the Canadian network, and is housed on c-health. Along with top-level news reporting, Talksurgery.com's core content revolves around its community of users who provide their personal cosmetic surgery stories to help others make informed decisions.

Talksurgery.com has a medical advisory board comprised of professionals from esteemed organizations such as Harvard Medical and Dental Schools, University of Toronto, and more. Talksurgery.com has also joined hands with the world's largest beauty retailer, Sephora, and with Operation Smile, a charitable organization dedicated to helping children born with cleft palate and other facial deformities in underprivileged countries.

CANOE is Canada's premier network of content sites. The home of C-HEALTH, SLAM! Sports, Jam! Showbiz, CNEWS, Money, Travel, Lifewise, ClassifiedExtra.ca and AUTONET.CA, CANOE attracts more than five million unique users a month. The site also features Sun Media newspapers including Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa Suns and the London Free Press and services including national movie and TV listings, online travel bookings, weather, horoscopes and more. The CANOE Network, wholly owned by Netgraphe, also includes Canoe.qc.ca, InfiniT.com, La Toile du Quebec, Webfin.com, Multimedium.com, Megagiciel.com, Jobboom.com, and Matchcontact.com. Netgraphe Inc. is an integrated company that includes communication consulting, e-commerce and IT consulting services.

Talksurgery.com empowers consumers by providing complete, accurate and up-to-date information about beauty, health and cosmetic procedures, thereby helping people make informed choices. Talksurgery.com is a community where people share their first hand experiences, effectively making it the only place on the Web where people can find out about a cosmetic procedure from a real person who has "been there, done that". Finally, Talksurgery.com brings users in touch with board-certified physicians in an effort to enable the best possible communication between the two. Talksurgery.com. Enough chat. Let's talk.

Read the award winning article

Contacts:
Paul Benedetti
C-Health, CANOE
416-350-6106