Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Our first question is from the line of Miroslava Minkova with Leerink Swann. Go ahead please.
Miroslava Minkova - Leerink Swann
Hi guys. Congratulations on meeting your target yet again. A couple of questions here. First of all, oncology, it did seem to be slowing down a little bit this quarter. If you could please, a little bit, just highlight, what do you think happened in the quarter, especially since you had an acquisition there that should be additive as well? And my second question is on hernia. What are you seeing with Ventrio and why was Ventrio not more visible this quarter? I know you launched it in October, but should we expect for it to contribute more going forward, and how is the launch progressing?
John Weiland
Sure. No I think, first of all, to attack the question on the oncology business, we don't see that business slowing down in terms of our perspectives on conversion. We were delighted with what we saw in terms of our conversion rates on (inaudible) during the quarter, and continue to see very strong momentum within that product line over the next numbers of years.
Timothy Ring
Can I add to that John? It really has bounced around quarter-by-quarter, if you look backwards, even going a couple of years. But even this year, 15 in the first quarter, 13, 18 and then 13, that's not uncommon, I think for us, the new product flow and the intermittent launches there. It tends to kind of add to the flow.
John Weiland
The MRI isp PowerPort continues to have great opportunity for us as does, PowerPICC SOLO product line and we have a launch in the first half, a significant launch in dialysis in the first half of '09, which we expect to be very positive from a growth standpoint, and continued grow the SHPI products that we acquired last year.
On the Ventrio side, no, we are happy with where we are at. We liked the launch progress, we like what we see on a week-by-week basis and we monitor the number of accounts that are converted each week. We've seen those converted accounts grow in each and every week since introduction. But you have to understand. One says, one should convince a surgeon to try your new technology. He then asks to wait for his case load, and they are always readily apparent on day one that you sell them on to technology.
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