Science
“I remember early in my career,” says Gary Miller, “attending orthopedic conferences just listening to the surgeons talking to each other. You build a vocabulary of what they’re talking about.” Miller is the co-founder of Exactech, a Florida company which develops and manufactures orthopedic implants, and the holder of 14 US patents. He talks with James Di Virgilio about his first invention, the innovative process, and the need for inventors and end-users to speak a common language. *This episode is a re-release.* TRANSCRIPT: Intro (00:01): Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace. James Di Virgilio (00:39): Innovation. Does it follow a specific path? Is it spontaneous? Is it something that we can plan for ahead of time? My guest today is Gary Miller, the co founder, and executive VP of research and development at Exactech. Gary, you've done so many things in your career. Your first let's call official, right? Patented innovation was called the cemented hip. Yes? Gary Miller (01:05): No. James Di Virgilio (01:06): Not your first? Gary Miller (01:07): No, no. That was years later, but it did involve cement. My first invention, I was actually, by that time on the faculty, in the college of medicine, I was a researcher there as an engineer working in orthopedics and at the time, and still today, they have a very active bone tumor group. It's really one of the foundational elements of that department. And we treated a lot of folks with metastatic disease. And when you have tumors in your bone, it's very, very painful. And one of the things that we were trying to figure out is how to reduce the pain. And it turns out if you could reinforce that bone, it didn't hurt as much. And my first invention was taking a metal rod, which was used for trauma or fractures and perforating the sides of that rod and using it as a long cannula to inject cement through. And that's cement. So very liquidy viscous kind of material that hardens inside the body and leave the rod with the cement there, take the nozzle off and remove it. And that was the first foray for me into seeking an invention. I hadn't even thought about patenting it and somebody suggested that's a good idea. Why don't you think about patenting it? And that led to that first patent for me. James Di Virgilio (