From tests for pink eye to cutting-edge medical therapies, the Gulf Coast produces plenty in the world of health products. The Economic Development Corporation leaders all this week hope to shine additional attention on the sector and showcase the region as a hotbed for medical invention. The second annual Health Innovation Week, sponsored by the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County and the Bradenton Area EDC, highlights more than 50 companies headquartered in Sarasota and Manatee counties. 

“Letting our own companies, CEOs and entrepreneurs do the talking is an effective approach,” says Mark Huey, president and CEO of the EDC of Sarasota County, “and the rapid momentum we are seeing for the Health Innovation Week proves it." 

Dana Gourley, chief operating officer of WIT International, says the inaugural event last year excited officials at her company. WIT will host an open house along with the Florida Integrative Medical Center today from 5:30-7:30pm. Her company produces Watt-Ahh, a polarized water that proves to be a vital base ingredient for everything from energy drinks to wound care products. The pharmaceutical-grade water is used for food production to building up the immune system thanks to its low toxin levels. It was developed by Rob Gourley, WIT’s CEO. “We are just working with great companies to bring forward this technology,” Gourley says. WIT will host its open hosue today along with Florida Integrative Medical Center, where Dr. John Mongolian has been integrating modern medicine with intravenous infusion therapies. “People fly in from all over the world to receive these therapies,” says Gourley. “I don’t know how many people here realize we have a world-renowned facility here.”

The Health Innovation Week events also include an event at RPS Diagnostics, a Sarasota-based developer of rapid point-of-care diagnostic tools like the conjunctivitis test AdenoPlus or the InflammaDry test for dry eye disease. Events have also been hosted this week at State College of Florida and at LECOM. Later this week, events will be hosted at the Roskamp Institute and Enzymedica, and the third annual BioFlorida BioTech Expo will be hosted at Ringling College of Art and Design on Thursday from 5:30pm-8pm.