Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Raj Denhoy of Thomas Weisel Partners.
Raj Denhoy - Thomas Weisel Partners
Good morning.
Dave Dvorak
Good morning.
James Crines
Good morning.
Raj Denhoy - Thomas Weisel Partners
I was wondering if I could just ask a little about the surgeon relationships you spent some time talking about. I think this is probably the first time you've actually mentioned that, you've seen some dislocation because of your compliance activities.
I'm curious, what gives you confidence that those relationships will come back? In a sense, that these surgeons will, I guess you have mentioned that you have lost some customers; that these will return at some point?
Dave Dvorak
The customer losses are a combination of the factors that I mentioned, not only the enhanced compliance program implementation, but obviously the disruption that was created by the Durom Cup matter and some of the other things we faced including OSP. So when I speak about our surgeon collaborators, I'm quite confident after having over 150 conversations with these individuals that they understand what we're trying to accomplish with this enhanced compliance program, they frankly see the proof points developing all around them that these relationships have got to be managed in a very careful way.
As we explained the vigorous nature of our program, they subscribed to that model and expressed a continued interest to work with us, so I'm quite confident we're going to have the ability to attract the talent that we need to develop great products and to train and educate in a first-rate fashion..
Raj Denhoy - Thomas Weisel Partners
But having said all that though I think, if I heard correctly you mentioned the hip and knee business were both impacted by about 3%, because of lost customers. Did I miss understand that?
Dave Dvorak
No, that's correct. I mean, on the customer side of those relationships it's also true that the disruptions that we faced this year have caused some displacement of their customer base and I can't give you an absolute assurance that that business is going to come back our way. That could be the cost of implementing the program and going through the transitions that we have this year.
What I can tell you is that we're taking the steps to make sure that we retain the existing customer base going forward, and we're quite confident that as we enter in to the second half of 2009, we're going to be able to put ourselves on a nice growth track.
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