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Love in the Time of Coronavirus
a leading surgical implant provider. RTI Surgical has made great strides in creating artificial bone substitutes to be used in spinal surgery.
Long said the organization is looking for companies with a promising idea that could be launched into a tangible market when deciding who gets space in The Hub.
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“Over 70 companies are under the roof of our incubator, and they’re made of people who like being around other entrepreneurs and exchanging ideas,” Long said.
Long said there are over 1,600 incubators in the United States, but the success of UF Innovate has led other institutions to model their innovation centers after the University of Florida’s.
Infotech
Infotech is located in Celebration Pointe and is made up of two businesses: Infotech Consulting and Infotech Systems. The latter develops software to assist in problem-solving for the infrastructure construction industry.
One of Infotech’s most notable innovations is the software Appia, which helps firms streamline construction management into one centralized location. The software features daily reporting on the progress of the site, a fund tracking feature and other tools to boost efficiency. In Meriden, Connecticut, Howard Weissberg, the city’s director of public works, and his team conducted a case study in 2020. Construction inspectors using Appia found that inspectors in Meriden were spending 75% more time in the field, whereas before they were spending that time filling out manual logs and reporting back at their office. Infotech Systems’ products are paving the way of the future in infrastructure construction management by moving processes to a mobile and easily accessible platform.
In 2020, Infotech was ranked No. 21 in the large company category in Florida Trend’s Best Companies to Work For list.
North Florida Regional Medical Center
One of the core values of the North Florida Regional Medical Center (NFRMC) is innovation, according to the center’s website. Research and development teams at the center are committed to discovering and developing the best technologies to treat their patients. Every year, NFRMC utilizes the highest-level research for patient care. In June 2020, the medical center was recognized by the American College ofCardiology for excellence in performing transcatheter valve replacement procedures. In the past year, NFRMC embarked on several clinical trials for structural heart disease.
NFRMC was recognized as a leader in environmental sustainability practices with a Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Award. The center was awarded for promoting conservation and making environmentally conscious resource purchases.
Exactech
Exactech, which produces orthopedic implants and other technologies to assist in joint replacement for various diseases and injuries, was founded in Gainesville in 1985. Its mission is to improve outcomes for patients who need help with mobility. The company has made its most noteworthy impacts with its knee and shoulder products.
Exactech’s knee implant has evolved over the years, beginning with the original Optetrak knee and moving forward to the Optetrak Logic. The most recent variation is the Truliant knee line. Since the first introduction of the Optetrak in 1997, more than 430,000 Exactech knee implants have been sold worldwide on five different continents.
Exactech also has over 10% of the market share for shoulder implants. Since 2005, when the company introduced the Equinoxe Shoulder System, it has supplied over 180,000 shoulder implants for patients. The shoulder implant was the first stemless shoulder implant to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for 3D printing.
Dr. Gary Miller, Exactech’s co-founder and executive vice president, started the company before Gainesville became a flourishing center for biotech and manufacturing companies. However, the company saw the community’s potential to serve as its home base.
“We felt that Gainesville could and would support us in our efforts to build a company here,” Miller said. “The tech community has grown around us and with us.”
Gainesville creations have spanned the tech, medical, retail and business sectors. As a growing city that constantly attracts people with fresh ideas and strong-willed motivation, there are sure to be more notable innovations to come.
The Origins Issue 47
You Are What You Wear
Story and Photos by Olivia deMontmorency
Audrey Hepburn’s pearls, Elton John’s sunglasses, Lady Gaga’s meat dress, The Spice Girls; all iconic fashion moments that each form an immediate image in the minds of many.
Style is an aspect that has surrounded our lives and continues to influence the public, but for some reason its influence is discounted. For many, life currently consists of living in sweats for Zoom University and business meetings, changing into workout gear to hit the gym, throwing on a nice blouse to go out to dinner and so on. But does any of that really tell us about the people we are? Can clothes really be that important?
Amber Waters, a personal stylist based in Gainesville, identifies style as a means of bringing our inner selves to the outside.
“I like to help people who feel trapped inside their bodies,” Waters said.
Waters has 30 years of experience as a stylist. She now works at her hair and sewing salon, The Tease, located in Gainesville. She provides services for many different types of people, including those going through the process of transitioning, people uncomfortable with shopping around others or clients operating on a budget. To understand each client’s personal style, Waters inquiries about their life and uses her intuition based on the kinds of conversations they are having. Companies like CHNGE use their brands specifically to advocate for social change. CHNGE is a clothing brand that uses their social media platform to advocate for movements like BLM, Feeding America, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change and women’s rights. Their clothing reflects their brand with catchy or impactful sayings, and their proceeds are donated back to these movements.
CHNGE’s clothing provides the ability for customers to share their opinions, shock someone in the grocery line, provide awareness and still maintain a fashionable look.
“The ‘aha’ moment for me is when my client looks in the mirror and genuinely feels confident in the clothing I dressed them in,” Waters said.
How you dress yourself speaks to how you feel about yourself. While clothing itself can say a thousand words about the person wearing it, companies and social justice movements often use clothes to create a statement. A message on a shirt can spread almost as quickly as a message on Instagram — think Black Lives Matter masks or the large array of “Girl Power'' merchandise.
For UF student Lizzy Odumb, it’s clear that because fashion is a reflection of the world around us, expressing personal beliefs can influence style as well.
“In high fashion, the most recent Louis Vuitton exhibit made so many points to highlight Black culture through hiring a majority of both Black models and Black trans models, paying tribute to African textiles and highlighting African American style and influence,” she said. Bold statements aren’t saved only for the runway. It is better to be true to your personal style and feel proud and powerful than to put on pieces that you expect others to enjoy. And at the end of the day, your personal style is, well, personal.
48 The Origins Issue
Florida's Minority Communities and the COVID Vaccine
Story and Photos by Bryanna Basilio
As the COVID-19 vaccine slowly rolls out in Florida, a possible problem persists throughout the state and the country: Marginalized communities may have difficulty getting vaccinated. Local governments released data that reveals the reach of COVID-19, with communities of color and immigrant communities hit hardest. Data collected by the American Medical Association (AMA) shows the effects of race and ethnicity on the lives and wellbeing of individuals, including how said individuals experience health care. This discrimination and lack of resources make minority groups most vulnerable to the virus, and Florida is no stranger to diversity.
In fact, Florida ranks as the third-most diverse state in the country behind Hawaii and California, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics make up the largest minority group, making Spanish the secondmost spoken language in the state.
Florida has large disparities across the state. The U.S. Census Bureau also broke down the stark difference between Florida and the rest of the nation. Compared to the U.S., a greater share of Florida’s population is Black (17% in Florida versus 13% nationwide) and Hispanic (26% versus 18% nationwide). It’s worth noting that Florida has higher rates of uninsured residents (16%) than the nation overall (10%). This can be due to foreign-born residents without citizenship who are unable be insured.
Florida’s marginalized communities seemed to face negligence when the vaccine became more readily avilable.
The Florida Department of Health collected testing data through Apr. 1, 2020, which showed that seven of the 10 counties with the lowest COVID-19 test rates per capita are poor with median incomes less than $40,000. Low income and remoteness are a dilemma for these marginalized communities.
On Feb. 3, 2021, a Florida COVID-19 task force proposed a plan to help these communities. The Coronavirus Vaccination Community Education and Engagement Task Force announced 86 proposed vaccine sites throughout the state. From Pensacola to Miami, these vaccine sites will target marginalized communities throughout all regions of Florida: Northwest, West Central, Northeast, Southern and the Big Bend region. Chaired by the Rev. R.B. Holmes, the group consists of community and religious leaders. The majority of the proposed vaccine sites are at community centers and churches for good reasons. Not only do communities tend to trust their local churches and centers, but they are also more widely accessible to them. Many of the sites listed are right in the heart of poor, minority communities.
Publix has helped administer the vaccine to the elderly, but Rev. Holmes says Publix shouldn’t be the only hub for vaccinations.
"Many poor folks don't go to Publix in their neighborhoods,” Rev. Holmes said in a Jacksonville news conference. “They can't find a Publix. For farmers in South Florida, the nearest Publix is 25 miles away."
Holmes expects 60%-70% of minorities to be vaccinated through these proposed sites. The group plans to ask the federal government for direct assistance with vaccine distribution.
Everyone is navigating the health crisis together; it’s hard to forget the problem marginalized communities face, let alone in such a culturally diverse state as Florida.
The Origins Issue 49
