News
National Honor Hints at More Biotech Buzz
By Andy Meek | The Daily News | Tuesday, January 23, 2007
In the push to land more national recognition for Memphis' emerging biotech industry, here's another development to mark down in the win column.
At next month's annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) in San Diego, a Memphis surgeon will take the reins as president of the 29,000-member group - one of the highest honors that can be given to an orthopedic surgeon.
Dr. James H. Beaty, the 54-year-old chief of staff at the Memphis-based Campbell Clinic, will be tapped to lead the professional organization, which celebrates its 75th anniversary next year. Beaty's selection also is a fitting bookend because it was the founder of the Campbell Clinic - Willis Campbell - who helped establish the AAOS in 1933 and who served as one of its first presidents.
One for humility
Beaty's primary duties with the Chicago-based group - whose members include surgeons, researchers and nurses, as well as international surgeons and related professionals - will involve overseeing the activities of its board of directors.
"The function of the academy is really to provide education - it's an educational arm for orthopedic surgeons, not only in the U.S. but in the world," said Beaty, who became Campbell's chief of staff in 2001. "It also has a research activity and an advocacy effort for public health policy, both at the state and national levels."
But that description doesn't do justice to the prestigious academy nor to the Memphis physician who, among those who know him both on personal and professional levels, is regarded as one of the foremost pediatric surgeons in the country.
"One point I would make is he is incredibly humble and rarely talks about his achievements - but you have to be a great surgeon to even be considered for that high an honor, the highest in orthopedics," said Bob Compton, former president and chief operating officer of the Memphis spinal device company now known as Medtronic Spinal and Biologics Business. The company was called Sofamor Danek during Compton's tenure.
As to the man himself, Compton also can attest to Beaty's skill on a personal level. He has operated on both of Compton's daughters, one of whom needed corrective surgery for two club feet.
"He's an outstanding pediatric surgeon, and obviously someone I trust implicitly," Compton said.
'Uncommon leadership and drive'
Among the many professional hats he wears, Beaty serves on the board of directors at InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute, the nonprofit laboratory on the cutting edge of medical research in Memphis. That institute's president and executive director, Richard Tarr, is a colleague of Beaty's and also effusive in his praise.
"Since I have known him, he has demonstrated uncommon leadership and drive to make Memphis a center for orthopedic research," Tarr said.
Beaty's long career, and his soon-to-be-announced role as head of the AAOS, certainly isn't the only recent development that's positioning Memphis on the national and world stage for the city's medical-related activity.
Last week, for example, InMotion announced that Medtronic has bought naming rights for one of the group's two temporary labs that opened this month. Medtronic is pumping $300,000 over two years into InMotion's venture, which will carry over to the permanent space that is being built for InMotion at the UT-Baptist Research Park, the first phase of which is scheduled to be completed in 2009.
InMotion also will sell naming rights to the other planned laboratories it will build at its current location at 20 South Dudley St., in addition to securing naming rights for a conference room.
Beyond that, plenty of other plums are in Memphis' biotech pie. That was pretty much the sentiment espoused by a study commissioned several years ago by the group Memphis Tomorrow, made up of high-level executives - a study that recommended creating an organization such as InMotion to build on the city's existing strengths in orthopedics and the medical device industry.
Gaining on it
Warsaw, Ind., controls about half of the orthopedics industry's $15 billion in revenue. But though that city long has reigned supreme, the No. 2 city - Memphis - has been making a valiant attempt to close the gap.
And having a Memphis surgeon at the forefront of the AAOS certainly helps, Compton said.
"He's also been very involved as one of the leaders of the strategic plan for InMotion, and a lot of where that organization is going is a function of his quiet leadership behind the scenes," Compton said. "It's also a result of his vision for what Memphis can become in terms of a leader in musculoskeletal research."
Beaty, who completed his medical studies at UT Memphis, started his career in 1977 as a young physician-in-training at Campbell, joining the staff there in 1982. Today he splits his working hours between Campbell and Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, given his special interest in pediatric orthopedics.
"The thing I'm really excited about for Memphis is that we're working very hard to position the city as a site in this country that's known for musculoskeletal research," Beaty said. "One of my real efforts locally is to try to ensure that that happens over the next five to seven years. That's a personal mission of mine, and over the last part of my career, I'd like to see that happen."