From a Regeneron co-founder to a medical equipment firm employee, meet 29 U.S. healthcare billionaires, per Forbes' real-time net worth tracker:
Thomas Frist Jr., MD, $17 billion, founded Hospital Corp. of America in 1968.
Carl Cook, $9.7 billion, is CEO of medical device manufacturer Cook Group.
Reinhold Schmieding, $6.5 billion, started orthopedic surgical tools company Arthrex in 1981 and still owns more than 90 percent of the company.
Ge Li, $6.1 billion, co-founded WuXi AppTec.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, $5.7 billion, was a practicing physician before inventing the cancer medication Abraxane.
Ronda Stryker, $5.6 billion, is a director of medical equipment company Stryker Corp.
John Brown, $4.5 billion, ran Stryker Corp. for 32 years.
Jon Stryker, $3.5 billion, inherited a stake in Stryker Corp.
Stewart Rahr, $2.8 billion, expanded his father's pharmaceutical company Kinray.
Pat Stryker, $2.7 billion, inherited a stake in Stryker Corp.
Leonard Schleifer, $2.5 billion, co-founded and remains CEO of drugmaker Regeneron.
Osman Kibar, $2.3 billion, is the founder and CEO of San Diego-based biotech firm Samumed.
Hao Hong, $2.1 billion, is the chairman of pharmaceutical outsourcing company Asymchem Laboratories.
Alice Schwartz, $2 billion, launched lab research facilitator Bio-Rad in 1952.
Amy Wyss, $1.8 billion, worked at medical equipment firm Synthes for years before it sold to Johnson & Johnson.
Phillip Frost, $1.8 billion, runs diagnostic-maker Opko Health.
Timothy Springer, $1.8 billion, was a founding investor in Moderna and works as a professor of biochemistry at Boston-based Harvard Medical Center.
Gary Michelson, MD, $1.8 billion, is a retired orthopedic and spine surgeon who holds over 340 U.S. patents.
James Leininger, MD, $1.7 billion, founded medical device company Kinetic Concepts.
Keith Dunleavy, MD, $1.7 billion, is the founder of cloud-based data analytics company Inovalon.
Randal Kirk, $1.7 billion, is a chairman of private equity firm Third Security, and the former CEO of biotech firm Precigen.
Robert Duggan, $1.6 billion, led the 2015 sale of biotech firm Pharmacyclics to AbbVie.
George Yancopoulos, MD, $1.6 billion, is the chief scientific officer at biotech firm Regeneron.
David Paul, $1.6 billion, is the founder and executive chairman of spine manufacturer Globus Medical.
Jeff Tangney, $1.5 billion, co-founded Doximity.
August Troendle, MD, $1.5 billion, is the president and CEO of clinical research company Medpace.
Noubar Afeyan, $1.4 billion, is the founder and CEO of life sciences innovation firm Flagship Pioneering.
Robert Langer, MD, $1.4 billion, is a scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge) and a co-founder of Moderna.
Joe Kiani, $1.1 billion, runs medical technology firm Masimo Corp.