Company Report: ConMed Corporation
ConMed Corporation Because providing quality medical care is as much about the hardware as it is medications and procedures, ConMed wants to be the one-stop-shop for physicians...

With the aging of the Baby Boom generation and a plethora of new surgical procedures and techniques to treat everything from torn knee ligaments to rotator cuffs, there is something of a boom taking place among companies providing tools for these surgeries.

Of these companies, ConMed Corporation has managed to grow its sales while expanding the number of healthcare modalities it serves through its eight specialties and three separate business units.

According to ConMed's website, the company was founded in 1973 as a small, private manufacturer of ECG monitoring electrodes. Since then, through organic growth and acquisitions ConMed has grown into a publicly held, diversified medical device company specializing in orthopedics and general surgery.

As testament to the company's success, in its first quarter 2007 financial results ending March 31, ConMed reported sales of $171 million. This represents a 7.9 percent increase as compared to the same period last year, and a new quarterly record for the company.

"We remain focused on our strategy to improve our revenue base by providing our customers with innovative, high quality, cost-effective medical devices, while at the same time expanding the company's operating margin by more efficiently leveraging our organizational structure," says Joseph J. Corasanti, president and CEO of ConMed, in a press release announcing the first quarter results. "These results are the product of the profit improvement plans we initiated in 2006, and which we are confident will continue to improve our overall performance throughout the remainder of 2007."

The earnings report goes on to state that sales outside the U.S. were $71.4 million for the quarter, which represents 41.8 percent of the company's total sales.

ConMed Corporation is the parent company of six business segments, which includes ConMed Linvatec, ConMed Integrated Systems, ConMed EndoSurgery, ConMed Electrosurgery, ConMed Endoscopic Technologies, and ConMed Patient Care.

Each of these units, including the parent company, produces its own products in eight specialties to serve the healthcare market within the U.S. as well as internationally. These specialties are arthroscopy, powered instruments, electrosurgery, patient care, endo-surgery, integrated systems, endoscopy, and endoscopic technologies.

ConMed Linvatec operates within three of these specialties: arthroscopy, endoscopic medical video systems, and powered surgical tools, says the company's website. Linvatec was also the first American company to develop and manufacture bioabsorbable devices for soft tissue fixation.

The company is headquartered in Utica, N.Y., and has facilities in Rome, N.Y., Largo, Fla., Centennial Colo., Santa Barbara, Calif., El Paso, Texas, Beaverton, Ore., as well as a presence in Australia, France, Belgium, Korea, Spain, Canada, Germany, the U.K., and the Middle East.

In total, the company's website lists 11 manufacturing facilities, 3,100 employees, worldwide distribution, and asserts that the company maintains the number one or number two market share position in the majority of its product line areas.

When the company was founded in 1973, it specialized in disposable ECG monitoring electrodes, which at the time represented an emerging market as disposable products gained in acceptance, says the website. Since then, the company has expanded its capabilities into the eight product and service areas.

Arthroscopy (or arthroscopic surgery) refers to minimally invasive procedures where damage to a joint such as a shoulder or knee (usually ligaments and/or cartilage) is repaired via the use of an arthroscope inserted into the joint through a small incision.

ConMed provides surgeons with a number of the products they need to perform these surgeries, such as arthroscopy manual instruments

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