CEO Blog

After spending the last few weeks reviewing our field action plans with agents around the United States, we have confirmed that we have entrenched ourselves in the market, with a solid customer base and many opportunities. We have also seen some of the chaos occurring in the market related to surgeon owned product distribution outlets, and competitors within the U.S. and from Europe that appear to be commercializing products that closely resemble our exclusive shapes and designs. The most intriguing aspect of the market place is that people feel we are in a significant paradigm shift in reimbursement for products, surgeon fees and hospital services.

Much of the uneasiness comes from the feeling that patients are hesitant to see their doctors out of fear of the unknown. The fear is stemmed from unclear insurance positions on coverage, long lead times to see doctors for illness, shifts to surgery centers for any surgical procedure that does not require an overnight stay. In addition, surgeons are spending a fair amount of time realigning their practices. This involves a shift toward surgeons being employees of hospital systems and surgeons scrambling to comply with the ever changing government position on surgeon hospital ownership. In short, with a U.S. population where there has been substantial employment shifts, there are also many changes in insurance source and coverage.

Wow, this sounds like a lot to handle, doesn’t it? What do we do to communicate the good news about OrthoHelix products? And what do we do about fear of a constricting market? 

The answers are simple and straight forward. We at OrthoHelix will continue to drive innovation in small bone fixation, and we will focus on being the most responsive orthopedic company in the business.

Several new technologies in small bone fixation have driven our business to record highs this year. The EdgeLock™ product is an example. This is a fixation device for calcaneal slide osteotomies, performed primarily for flat feet correction including pediatrics (where it is particularly applicable because it avoids growth plate interruption). EdgeLock™ is the first intraosseous device of its kind.  We have had outstanding response from surgeons around the U.S., some of which did not believe such a straight forward small innovative product could replace the old standard of two screws into the heel. To read more about EdgeLock™, Click Here. 

Since receiving FDA clearance to market our exclusive OrthoLock™ variable screw locking technology, we had very positive results from a limited roll out.  The PEEK ring comes preassembled with a disposable driver. When the 3.5mm variable locking screw is inserted into the ring, it interfaces with the PEEK ring to create a locked construct. The uniqueness of our technology and the simplicity of use, coupled with the fact a surgeon can use it on any of our MaxLock Extreme® plates, is driving acceptance.  We are looking forward to our mass roll out in a few weeks. To read more about OrthoLock™, Click Here.

EdgeLock™ and OrthoLock™ are just a few examples of technology that we have rolled out in 2010, and should give you an idea of our future plans.

OrthoHelix does not fear the unknown.  We focus on maintaining innovation and delivering the message of our products. There is a fundamental business acumen that we believe in. There is a market need for our products. Procedure volume growth in our market exceeds 5%, not to mention the pent up demand from patients waiting to have surgery due to the market chaos that we have already discussed. Surgeons need improvements, even for the most basic procedures, in an effort to reduce surgery time and get patients back on their feet faster. OrthoHelix will continue to stay the course, work hard and earn our business, earn respect from surgeons, earn respect from hospitals, buying groups, surgery centers and our colleagues. 

This is fun- there is no better feeling than when believers join the team.