Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1472295
15 SPINE Spine surgeon 1 of 9 physician billionaires on Forbes' 2022 list By Alan Condon N ine U.S. physicians made Forbes'' "World's Billion- aires List" in 2022, including spine surgeon Gary Michelson, MD. Three things to know about Dr. Michelson: 1. The retired spine surgeon and inventor has a net worth of $1.8 billion, according to Forbes. 2. Dr. Michelson has more than 340 U.S. patents for spine and orthopedic surgery instruments, including minimal- ly invasive spine implants, anterior cervical plating sys- tems, interbody spinal fusion systems and systems for implanting spinal motion preservation devices, such as artificial discs. 3. He became a billionaire in 2005 after he reached a settlement with Medtronic. After the medtech giant sued Dr. Michelson for allegedly trying to license his inventions to competing devicemakers, the surgeon countersued Medtronic, accusing it of failing to develop his inventions and pay him royalties. Dr. Michelson agreed to a $1.35 bil- lion settlement and sold Medtronic many of his inventions. Editor's note: The list of 2,668 billionaire entrepreneurs, heirs and inventors included 33 U.S.-based billionaires in healthcare. n Dr. Erkan Alci completes 100th robot-assisted surgery By Cameron Cortigiano Erkan Alci, MD, completed his 100th robotic-assisted surgery with the ExcelsiusGPS. Dr. Alci is a spine specialist at Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based OrthoSC. The milestone was achieved using Globus Medical's ExcelsiusGPS technology, according to a June 14 LinkedIn post. The technology combines a robotic arm with full navigational capabilities that allow surgeons to operate with a small incision. n Texas spine surgeon's $11M verdict being appealed By Carly Behm A spine surgeon in Plano, Texas, who won an $11 million verdict over sto- len medical records and false mal- practice accusations will face an appeal, e Dallas Morning News reported June 6. Seven things to know: 1. Stephen Courtney, MD, was awarded the multimillion dollar verdict in 2021 aer a trial against a former clinical partner and a medical malpractice lawyer. A state medi- cal board found Dr. Courtney didn't do any physical harm to his patients. 2. e verdict is being appealed, and hearings are scheduled for the summer. Dr. Courtney hasn't received any money from the verdict. 3. Dr. Courtney and Cameron Carmody, MD, used to be partners at an orthopedic center. Dr. Carmody secretly accessed more than 1,000 of Dr. Courtney's patient files and compiled a 181-page document with names and confidential health information. 4. Dr. Carmody hired attorney William Mc- Murrey, who was instructed to release the contents of the document to federal authori- ties. However, it was shared with Kelly Li- ebbe, a malpractice lawyer. 5. In 2015, Jonathan Rute, the boyfriend of Dr. Courtney's ex-wife, posing as fed- eral agent, allegedly used an alias to share Dr. Carmody and Mr. McMurrey's memo with false statements against Dr. Courtney with the Collin County medical examiner and district attorney. The document was shared after one of Dr. Courtney's patients died following a heart attack unrelated to his procedure. 6. Additional complaints were filed based on information from the list, and some patients didn't know they were included in the com- plaints. By March 2017, Dr. Courtney deter- mined Dr. Carmody had illegally accessed 421 patient files, according to his lawsuit. 7. Dr. Camody and Mr. McMurrey didn't re- spond to the newspaper's requests for com- ment. Ms. Liebbe and Mr. Rute declined an interview with the paper n