HEALTH CARE

Breathing Easier: A pair of former Orange County hospital executives have decided to go it alone to market a new laser surgery procedure that can ease problems associated with lung disease in smokers.

John Kramer and Linda Simons, both of whom recently worked at Chapman General Hospital in Orange, started U.S. Lung Centers of Yorba Linda. The firm will be promoting a surgical technique called thoracoscopic laser bullectomy. The procedure, performed after a tiny incision is made in the chest, is used to treat bullous emphysema, a disease in which air cysts are formed in the lungs, impeding breathing. The condition is acute in smokers.

The firm has already garnered a contract with doctors at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. U.S. Lung Centers will manage the hospital’s lung center and market the procedure to the community. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.