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Greenville Business Magazine

#YeahTHATAgenda: Greenlink's Proterra Buses Ready for Service, Edmund Woo's Paleo Meals, Millennials Love Alcopops, Mosquito Guillotines

Apr 04, 2019 09:18AM ● By Chris Haire

Greenlink set to put Proterra electric buses into service: Clemson and Seneca have been using Greenville-built Proterra buses for some time now, but the electric vehicles have not be used by the transit system serving the EV manufacturer's home county, Greenlink. That's about to change.

On Friday, Greenlink will host a ribbon-cutting "a ceremony to celebrate the addition of four new Proterra Catalyst E2 electric vehicles to the Greenlink fleet."

The 29,000-pound Proterra Catalyst E2 seats 40 and has an operating range of 151 to 390 miles. It's plug-in charge time: Under 4.5 hours.

The University of Georgia recently announced the purchase of 20 Proterra buses.

While Proterra is based in California, it also manufactures buses at a facility off I-85 near Brewery 85. --Chris Haire

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Doctor slashes opioid prescriptions: An orthopedic surgeon in Spartanburg has come up with a new way to minimize opioid exposure for his patients. Dr. Greg Colbath had concerns about the nationwide opioid epidemic, and was disturbed by a recent report showing that S.C. doctors prescribed enough opioids to give every person in the state 56 pills each.

Colbath himself was prescribing close to 120 pills to patients recovering from hip and knee replacements. Now, he’s using a multimodal pain management approach along with EXPAREL, a non-opioid option.

“Having witnessed so many examples of opioid abuse in our society, whether intentional or not, I found that it is of paramount importance for all physicians to have these discussions with their patients and highlight alternatives to opioids whenever available,” he says.

Studies show that 99 percent of patients receive an opioid to manage post-surgical pain, and one out of 15 go on to long-term opioid use. Nine percent of surgical patients who had not been taking opioids became persistent users in 2017, and an estimated 3 million Americans will become persistent users following initial exposure in a hospital.

Colbath uses EXPAREL, a non-opioid, and a multimodal approach to create pain management strategies. He highlights potential misuse of narcotics before surgery, and then post-op, incorporates medications such as Tylenol and Advil along with regional nerve blocks and long-acting anesthetics.

Since adopting the approach, he says he has not only seen a reduction in narcotics required for patients, and thus less chance of addiction, but has also found that patients recover faster and have better overall outcomes.

“Initially, I felt this approach was going to be tough to outline for patients,” Colbath says, “but there has been nothing but positive reception from patients, families and friends.” --Leigh Savage

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Local Restaurateur Edmund Woo Talks About His Paleo Diet Program And How It Came To Be: You may know Edmund Woo as the owner of Saskatoon Lodge, among several other restaurant businesses over the years. But in addition to running the recently relocated and rebranded Saskatoon, Woo maintains a thriving Paleo diet service through Saskatoon that serves thousands of locals. (Greenville Business Magazine)

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Classic Crab to bring Lowcountry, crab-cracking favorites to Upstate (Herald-Journal)

First Drive: Spartanburg-made 2019 BMW X7 Rushes into Large SUV Frenzy (Trucks.com)

Boeing is still churning out 737 Max planes, but if the model can't return to the skies soon, they could be stuck with hundreds of unsellable aircraft (Bloomberg)

A Manufacturer’s Secret to High Productivity, Low Turnover (Industry Week)

Lonza JV to produce live biotherapeutic products for gut bacteria field (Fierce Pharma)

A payday lender in disguise? New York investigates the Earnin app (American Banker)



This tiny guillotine decapitates mosquitoes to fight malaria (Wired)

The Wire

Clemson, Arthrex Inc. Launch Pilot Program To Support Students, Growing Surgical Device Industry

FRONTIER Building Completes New Prototype For Panera Bread

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Best & Brightest 35 and Under
Rob Corney
Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A. | Associate
Age 33

I am an associate at Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A. in Greenville, where I focus my practice on civil litigation. Before entering private practice, I was an assistant attorney general with the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, where I defended the state in thousands of cases challenging criminal convictions. I was raised in Charleston and am a proud graduate of the University of South Carolina and Charleston School of Law. 

I have the privilege of serving on the board of PlaySafe, a nonprofit that employs/provides full-time athletic trainers to more than 45 schools in three states to promote safety in high school athletics. I’ve completed the Greenville Chamber’s Opportunity Greenville and year-long Pulse Pacesetters mentorship program.

I reside in the North Main area with my wife and three young daughters. We are members of First Presbyterian Church, where we volunteer with charitable organizations like Feed My Starving Children. I am grateful to live, work, and raise my children in the Greenville community, where generosity, hospitality, and doing the right thing are staples of everyday life. I’m honored to be on Greenville Business Magazine’s Best & Brightest 35 and Under list and intend to continue to invest my time and talents in ways that will help better Greenville.