With the grand opening earlier this month of its $5 million, 50,000-square-foot headquarters in Doral, MD International may very well lay claim to being the nation's largest independent distributor of medical devices to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Al Merritt stands in front of his new MD International headquarters in Doral.

MD International is the 13-year-old brainstorm of Al Merritt, the chief executive officer and founder of the company, who says that while traveling the area as a sales representative for another firm he saw a need for a good, ethical company to bring medical technology to Latin America
"The big international companies--Johnson & Johnson, 3M, GE, Hewlett-Packard, Phillips, companies of that caliber--can afford to have their own offices in all of those countries," said Merritt. "There was a need by the smaller medical companies to have a conduit to bring their technology down there."

Merritt, 40, started MD International in 1987 with a staff of three and 600 square feet of office space in West Kendall, a far cry from the spacious, ultra-modern facility he just built on the edge of the Everglades at 11300 NW 41st Street. He's already moved the company's operations and 80 employees into the new complex.

"We were spread out into six different areas and the idea was to bring everything under one roof," Merritt explained.

The new MD International building houses the company's design and architectural department, technical services, the Internet and communications section, warehousing for shipping and storing, and the sales and marketing department.

The focus of the building is the product showroom, where a state-of-the-art operating theater with

equipment from all over the world is the centerpiece.

Individual rooms flank a stainless steel reception area, each housing the equipment to demonstrate the latest in medical marvels for visiting physicians.

"A lot of our effort is to teach physicians and distributors in Latin America about new medical technology, new devices that cure disease, that diagnose diseases at an earlier stage," said Merritt. "We teach the physicians how to use the product and we teach their bio-medical engineers how to install it, service it and maintain it. It doesn't do any good to buy a beautiful piece of equipment like an operating theater if it's broken in three months because it needs a fuse or because someone wasn't trained how to operate it properly.

"Over the years, we've brought thousands of physicians and technicians here to do training programs," he continued. "That's why we built a training facility right into the building."

Merritt--who resides in Pinecest with his wife, Patricia, and three children--says MD International not only sells and distributes medical devices, but also consults on a client's needs. He helps them plan and design a hospital, clinic or surgery facility, then assists in arranging financing and works closely with a contractor in the construction of the project.

"MD International brings medical technology solutions to Latin America and the Caribbean," Merritt said. "Those solutions are medical devices and delivery systems, such as the design of hospitals and clinics, as well as the renovation of those facilities, to provide better health care."

And that may be only the beginning for the ambitious Merritt, who is seriously contemplating other markets.