GET BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS

Welcome to Medicom, the elite medical community created by the exceptional health care offered in Lake and Sumter counties. Like Silicon Valley, the technology hub of the nation, this area has received nationwide recognition as a health care hub. The Lake County motto is “Real Florida, Real Close.” The same could be said of health care services—Real health care, real close.

The complexity of urban development often begins with a simple yet brilliant idea from a single person and then grows through collaboration. In Lake County, the idea was to re-establish itself as a community committed to health and wellness. According to Dr. James Ray, an orthopedic surgeon currently with Nu Works who has worked in the South Lake area since 1992, South Lake began its transition with the vision of two men—CEO of Orlando Health John Hillenmeyer and Vice President of Orlando Health Shannon Elswick.

Both men shared the vision of establishing a wellness program in Central Florida. Together, they came up with a concept for a sports training facility.

Meanwhile, South Lake Hospital, a community hospital established in 1947, prepared to build a new, larger facility in Clermont. Hillenmeyer and Elswick saw this as a great opportunity and invited South Lake Hospital to partner with Orlando Regional Healthcare System, now called Orlando Health, in 1995. Together, they collaborated with South Lake Hospital administration, physicians, and USA Triathlon to establish the National Training Center, a world-class sports complex capable of training elite athletes—primarily triathletes, runners, cyclists, and swimmers. The National Training Center opened in 2001 on the South Lake Hospital campus in Clermont.

Almost simultaneously to the north, developer Harold Schwartz bought large tracts of land in the northeast portion of Sumter County and southeast corner of Marion County to continue expansion of his holdings in the northwestern corner of Lake County. Together with his son, H. Gary Morse, they envisioned a super-community for active seniors, having seen the success of other communities like Del Webb’s Sun City and offering even grander amenities and services to the residents of their previous development in the same location, Orange Blossom

DID YOU KNOW?

“Silicon Valley” became the nickname for Santa Clara Valley after writer Don Hoefler used it within the title of a series of articles for a weekly trade newspaper, Electronic News, published as “Silicon Valley in the USA” in 1971. Hoefler interviewed his friend, Ralph Vaerst, a local entrepreneur and the originator the phrase. Vaerst substituted the word “silicon,” the silicon chip being the major manufactured product in the area at the time.

and Sumter counties were in prime position to develop as a health care hub. We have seen this phenomenon happen before, and it dramatically altered the identity and financial significance of the area where it occurred.

Silicon Valley, in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area, is home to the majority of the world’s major high-tech corporations and to thousands of tech startup companies. Several factors came together so that Silicon Valley could become the tech hub it is today. Local universities, like Stanford and Berkeley, provided the educated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) talent pool. Local industrial innovation attracted tech companies like Hewlett-Packard, Bell Telephone Laboratories, and Xerox PARC from 1955–1985. The semi-conductor and silicon transistor technology that followed attracted military interest and lucrative U.S. Department of Defense contracts. In the early 1970s, venture capitalists were attracted by the prospect of making millions in commercial use. Several venture capitalists beginning with Kleiner Parkins set up on Sand Hill Road. The availability of venture capital exploded in 1980, with the successful IPO of Apple Computer for $1.3 billion.

Gardens. Morse officially changed the name of the enhanced development in 1992 to The Villages.

Incredibly, The Villages’ population skyrocketed from 8,333 in 2000 to 51,442 in 2010. Since then, the community has more than doubled in size. According to the U.S. Census, approximately 114,350 people now call The Villages home. A wave of medical businesses, both traditional and alternative, followed. The impact is evident. The Villages adopted the slogan “America’s Healthiest Hometown.”

With heath care establishments developing in the north and south, Lake

The Silicon Valley tech hub was born from the perfect blend of available educated workforce, local tech business industry, and an influx of available capital from government and private interests. A similar combination is blending in Lake and Sumter counties to create a world-class health care hub.

Ours is a medical community. Welcome to Medicom.

Highway To Health

Lake and Sumter counties are at the center of four major cities that are significant health care providers: Gainesville and Ocala to the north, Orlando to the southeast, and Tampa to the west. The proximity contributes to the fundamental reasons why the Lake-Sumter area is ideally positioned as a health care hub. They are close enough to provide information on the latest medical and health care advancements as well as talent, but still far enough that residents prefer closer services.

Lake-Sumter residents are essentially living on a corridor of health care opportunity and access.

U.S. Highway 441 passes directly and indirectly through all four hospitals in Lake County. From the north, it passes The Villages Regional Medical Center, plus rows of medical businesses that mushroomed off the highway around The Villages. As it passes through Leesburg, it connects with Dixie Avenue, which bypasses to Leesburg Regional Medical Center. Return to Highway 441, past Leesburg Animal Center and Lake Regional Urgent Care toward Tavares. Highway 441 passes right by Florida Hospital Waterman on 1000 Waterman Way. To reach South Florida Hospital in Clermont, turn off Highway 441 in Leesburg onto U.S. Highway 27 to State Road 50. The hospital is a mile and a half away.

With The Villages—America’s Healthiest Hometown—to the north and South Lake Hospital with the National Training Center and LiveWell Fitness Center in Clermont—recently rebranded “The Choice of Cham- pions”—to the south, it is fair to say geography had a big impact on the development of our medical community. So does the environment. There are more than 1,000 lakes in Lake County, which means the population is attracted to activities on the water. Swimming, water-skiing, and paddleboarding are common. The Florida landscape lends itself to an active lifestyle, such as hiking, biking, run-

WHY I CHOSE TO PRACTICE IN LAKE/SUMTER:

ning, and golf.

“Geographically, there is a natural tendency to want to be physical, and that translated to the need for a health care program that would allow people that lifestyle,” said Kim Couch, manager of community relations for South Lake Hospital.

Many of the hospitals and wellness centers are collaborating with local schools to build their talent base.

“I was an associate orthopedic surgeon on my way to interview at the University of Florida for a similar job. I chose to stay in Clermont because I was familiar with it as I was an orthopedic resident at Orlando Regional in the early ‘80s.”

Among them is South Lake Hospital. “We partnered with Lake-Sumter State College and local Lake County schools this fall, launching a health and wellness collegiate academy,” said Couch. Incoming high school freshman apply for the program. It is focused on the health care field—science and technology. “The goal is to mold our local talent to remain in our community when they graduate,” she added. Upon graduation, they have a high school degree and an associate’s degree in health and wellness.

According to Vicky Mansavage, a consultant for the Regenerative Medicine Institute in The Villages, Central Florida provides other incentives for advances in technology and medicine, particularly financial ones.

“We have better tax laws,” Mansavage said, adding that state tax is designed to lower health care cost. That makes Florida a less expensive place to start a company.

Looking back on the ingredients for Santa Clara Valley in San Francisco to recreate itself as Silicon Valley— foundation, demand, talent pool, and financial incentives— it is easy to see how Lake and Sumter contains the essential components needed to transition as a health care hub. You have a health conscious foundation, a population that demands it, the educated pool to execute it, and the

WHY I CHOSE TO PRACTICE IN LAKE/SUMTER:

“I selected The Villages because I heard many positive things about it, how fast it was growing. I realized these were outgoing, active people. They were into health and wellness and open to trying new things.”

— REBECCA JAMES, Owner of The Salt Room

“One of the main reasons was seeing how active and openminded they are in The Villages. We thought it would be a perfect location to offer a clinic that specializes in well-being, not just pain management.”

“We chose this area because people who move here are committed to maintaining their health and staying active. We have the ability to help them do that, in ways no one else can.”

— DR. BILL ROWLAND, Founder and CEO of E-Med (Energy Medical)

financial incentives to nurture both startups and national attractions, like the National Training Center.

EVERYTHING RIGHT, HERE

Residents can feel confident all their health care needs can be met here in Lake and Sumter. They run from the traditional to the alternative.

Each of the four hospitals offer specialties for which they are internationally revered. TVRH, for instance, offers the state-of-the-art da Vinci Surgical System, an effective robotic minimally invasive alternative to open surgery and laparoscopy. Leesburg Regional Medical Center has the Primary Stroke Center and the Urgent Care Center.

Florida Hospital Waterman has the Cancer Institute, the Joint Replacement Center, and the Women and Children Center. “Our Cancer Institute has been one of the busiest in the region for quite some time,” said Steve Jenkins, director of marketing and communications. “We offer a full range of services based around oncology; we have been on the cutting-edge of some of the newest technology, and services available for cancer treatment.”

The program of particular note

WHY I CHOSE TO PRACTICE IN LAKE/SUMTER:

By The Numbers

NUMBER OF ER VISITS PER YEAR AT FLORIDA HOSPITAL WATERMAN:

60,000

NUMBER OF SQUARE FEET THAT MAKE UP THE NATIONAL FITNESS CENTER:

37,000

NUMBER OF LAKE-SUMTER EMS SATELLITE STATIONS:

22

ACCESS TO EXERCISE OPPORTUNITIES IN LAKE COUNTY: 93%

ADULT OBESITY IN LAKE COUNTY: 31%

ACCESS TO EXERCISE OPPORTUNITIES IN SUMTER COUNTY: 78%

ADULT OBESITY IN SUMTER COUNTY: 29%

[SOURCES: 2009 LAKE AND SUMTER COUNTIES: FLORIDA’S HEARTLAND, PUBLISHED BY LAKE-SUMTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE; COUNTYHEALTHRANKING.ORG] is the MAKOplasty robotic partial knee resurfacing, offered at the Joint Replacement Center, led by Dr. John Radnothy, a board certified orthopedic surgeon. The specialized implant offers a revolutionary FDA-approved method toward total knee replacement, retaining all of the original ligaments, thus the best option for long-lasting pain relief.

In addition to its world-class National Training Center and LiveWell Fitness Center, South Lake Hospital is revered for its Wound Care Center. The center introduced a pair of hyperbaric chambers that provide deep-dive oxygen therapy—the first of its kind in South Lake.

South Lake Hospital offers its own specialized robotic microsurgery, also utilizing the da Vinci Surgical System in what they call the Personalized Urology and Robotics (PUR) Clinic. In this case, for urology.

“We have one of the best robotic microsurgery programs for male infertility and chronic groin and testicular pain,” said Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, co-director of the PUR clinic. “Half of our patients come from outside the area. Because of that, we are sort of a medical tour- their noteworthy innovative alternative medicines. The Salt Room is a wellness spa that uses salt therapy for esoteric health. Owner Rebecca James had her own reasons to believe in the treatment and open her spa.

“I had a 2 year-old son at the time who suffered from several respiratory problems,” James said. “He had severe allergies. They tried to put him on nebulizers, and other forms of medication. As a mother, I did not want them to do that because of the side effects. He was so little.” Her business partner, Ashley, opened up her spa and advised James to bring her son. “I did, and he responded,” she said.

James found a spa expert who believed in the benefits of salt therapy, which originated in the salt mines in Estonia. She learned everything she needed to know about the therapy to open her business and selected The Villages because the people she encountered desired the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and were open to new and innovative ideas. Others found similar appeal throughout the county for their latest medical innovations.

Bill Rowland is the founder and CEO of E-Med (Energy Medicine). His team treated the elite of professional sports with electric medicine for over 30 years. The primary focus is to eliminate pain if nothing else works. That is done through electrical technology.

“Our whole body runs on electricity,