With a name like Cutright and a father and a grandfather who are physicians, medicine would seem to be your destiny. For Mark Cutright, MD, orthopedic surgery was his calling. As for the jokes he gets about his name, he likes to say it’s better to be cut right than cut wrong; a sentiment his patients at Innovative Orthopedics in Paris, Tennessee agree with.
A native of Lancaster, Ohio, Cutright knew in high school he would follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and pursue medicine. It was also in high school that he met the woman who would ultimately become his partner in life and in practice while showing horses through 4-H. After graduating high school, Cutright majored in chemistry at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
While in college, he spent several summers getting some exposure to healthcare. “I worked as a nursing aid in a nursing home, then spent a summer as a surgical orderly in my hometown hospital,” said Cutright. “As a surgical orderly, I was around residents and got to watch surgery. It was what confirmed to me that I wanted to pursue orthopedics.”
Cutright attended medical school at the Ohio State University. He completed a rotating internship followed by his orthopedic surgery residency at Akron General Medical Center in Akron, Ohio. He entered private practice in his hometown of Lancaster but after three years, he realized it was not for him. “It wasn’t a traditional partnership. We really just shared expenses among the four physicians,” said Cutright. “I realized during that time I did not want to run a business or be the boss.”
Cutright moved from private practice to that of employee when he took a position in Springfield, Tenn. “It was a salary-based position with the hospital,” he said. “Over time, there were administrative changes as well in the way the practice was run, so after eleven years it was time for a change. A headhunter contacted me about a position with Henry County Medical Center. It was what we were looking for and in August 2014, we moved.”
The move to Paris also meant that he would get to work with his wife on a full-time basis. “My wife, Jill, is my nurse practitioner,” said Cutright. “While I was in college she went to nursing school. We got married when she finished. While I was in medical school she worked in a hospital, then as a home health nurse during my residency. She stayed home when our first son was born but once both our sons were in school, she went back to school and got her Nursing Practitioner degree in 2010. While we were in Springfield, she worked in family practice four days a week and with me in orthopedics one day. While we were not looking to work together when we left, they offered it to us and we jumped on it. So far it has been great.”
Another opportunity Cutright jumped on when he came to Paris was to be a part of bringing the MAKOplasty® Partial Knee Resurfacing and MAKOplasty® Total Hip Replacement procedures, performed using the RIO® Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic System marketed by MAKO Surgical Corp to Henry County Medical Center. RIO is a surgeon-controlled robotic arm system that enables accurate alignment and placement of implants. The RIO System features a patient-specific visualization system and proprietary tactile robotic arm technology that is integrated with intelligent surgical instruments. It assists surgeons in pre-planning and in treating each patient uniquely and with a consistently reproducible procedure. Henry County Medical Center is one of the first in the state and the first in the region to offer this service.
While it seems that Cutright’s two sons will follow in his footsteps and pursue a career in medicine, they do not share in their parent’s passion for horses. The family said good-bye to that hobby when they left Springfield. “Both our sons have been interested in medicine and say they want to do orthopedics,” said Cutright. “They have been around me in my practices as well as volunteered in the hospital. They have also observed several surgeries which has further peaked their interest.”
The family are tennis enthusiasts and enjoy boating on the weekends, something Cutright did growing up in Ohio. “After a medical scare with our youngest, we decided life was too short and we bought a houseboat,” he said. “We keep it on Center Hill Lake which is not far from Nashville. It is a nice getaway for us on the weekends. We really just play, mostly tubing and wake boarding.”
Since 2003, Cutright has had his pilot’s license and hopes to fly more than he has in the past few years. “We typically only fly to a destination, such as to ski or to go to the beach or the Bahamas but we have flown somewhere just to have dinner,” said Cutright. “It is definitely a hobby I plan on spending more time doing.”
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