Dr. Gutman is a board-certified pathologist with a BS degree from The Ohio State University, an MD degree from Cornell University Medical College, and an MBA degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He completed residency training in anatomical pathology at Cornell and clinical pathology at the Mayo Clinic. After 10 years of experience as a clinical pathologist and chief of laboratory service at the Buffalo Veterans Administration Medical Center, he joined the Division of Clinical Laboratory Devices at FDA as a medical officer in 1992. Dr. Gutman was promoted to division director in 1993. 

In November 2002, he became director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Device Evaluation and Safety, a new office in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. From January 2009 to December 2009 he worked as founding faculty of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. In January 2010 Dr. Gutman became an associate director of the BlueCross BlueShield Association Technology Evaluation Center. In January 2013 he became strategic advisor for Myraqa, Inc., a regulatory consulting firm specializing in in vitro diagnostic devices.