Integra LifeSciences Founder Dr. Richard Caruso Passes Away

Dr. Richard Caruso, founder and former chairman and CEO of Integra LifeSciences, passed away over the past weekend.
 
“Dr. Richard Caruso made an impact on not only the medical technology industry, but more importantly, on the countless lives around the world who have benefited from the products and technologies that Integra LifeSciences has today,” said Stuart Essig, Integra’s chairman of the board told the press. “His vision, transformative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit have revolutionized the way surgeons treat their patients in the field of regenerative medicine.”
 
Dr. Caruso founded Integra in 1989 with the vision that the body could be enabled to regenerate many damaged or diseased tissues, paving the way for the new discipline then known as regenerative medicine. Integra became the first company to offer a tissue regeneration product, Integra Dermal Regeneration Template, approved by the FDA in 1996 as a skin replacement system for dermal tissue regeneration to treat life-threatening burns and repair scar contractures.
 
That tech led to development of DuraGen Dural Graft Matrix to repair the dura mater, the protective covering of the brain after cranial and spine surgery, and NeuraGen Nerve guide to make a conduit for axonal growth across a severed nerve.
 
Dr. Caruso was Integra’s chairman from 1992 to 2011 and CEO from 1992 to 1997. He served on the Board of Susquehanna University and the Baum School of Art. He received his B.S. degree from Susquehanna University, an M.S.B.A. degree from Bucknell University, and a Ph.D. degree from the London School of Economics, University of London.
 
He was also founder and director of The Uncommon Individual Foundation, a non-profit that encourages people to form and follow dreams of personal success and become the entrepreneurs of their personal lives.