| 6/1/2010

Medical

Brian K. Hutchison, RTI Biologics

Twelve years ago, RTI Biologics (Public No. 89) spun off from the University of Florida Tissue Bank and quickly became a global leader in producing sterile biological implants for surgery. The company takes donated human and bovine tissue and preps it for transplantation into humans to help repair and heal bone and tissue. BioFlorida, the state’s trade association for the bioscience industry, named the company, led by CEO Brian K. Hutchison, its company of the year in 2009. This year, the Alachua company donated bone-graft tissue to Haiti to help save damaged arms and legs from amputation. Last year, it donated tissue for spinal implants to treat 500 Kenyan children with congenital spinal deformities and limb defects.

» CEO Gary D. Newsome of Health Management Associates (Public No. 17) operates 54 hospitals in 15 states, primarily in small towns in the Southeast and Southwest. Based in Naples, the company’s medical staff includes 8,000 physicians.

OUT-OF-STATE FIRMS: Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic Florida, a division of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and Weston’s Cleveland Clinic Florida, a division of the Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic, are demonstrating that hospitals can hold down costs and still maintain high quality.

» Delaware-based Nemours operates clinics in seven Florida cities and is building the $400-million Nemours Children’s Hospital in Lake Nona’s medical city.

» The Rippe Lifestyle Institute, a research and health promotion organization headed by cardiologist Dr. James Rippe, conducts a number of clinics and an executive health evaluation program in the Orlando area. — Art Levy