Growing pains
During the first half of 2006, we learned a lot. There was a lot of inter-
est among surgeons and the PI firms in the targeted geographic mar-
kets. However, it took quite a bit of time to find the right surgeon(s)
and to get them and their practices on board, as well as the facilities
where they operated. Not surprisingly, many surgeons were uncom-
fortable with PI or with the aspect of waiting longer to receive pay-
ment. In addition, the ArthroCare sales force didn't have the skill sets
or training required to effectively present and implement the business
model. On top of this, I found the DiscoCare principals to be extreme-
ly difficult to work with.
They were 100% convinced that they knew exactly how to implement
this model and they were very impatient. Other markets weren't like
Palm Beach County and they had no experience working with a medical
device sales force. So there was a tremendous amount of friction and
growing pains. To top it off, while DiscoCare was very good at getting
the SpineWand approved and paid for, they had no operations or logis-
tics experience. They had no systems for tracking cases or for stocking
and shipping product.
My stress level started to go through the roof, which wasn't helped by
the fact that the primary form of communication by certain DiscoCare
principals was yelling. Every night I retreated to our beautiful house in
the hills west of Austin, where my husband and I would go through a
few rounds of martinis so that I could decompress and do it all over
again the next day. I felt like I was constantly running and in a fog most
of the time. It really did feel like a ride that was going too fast for me to
get off of.
Then there was the stress of having to deliver on the numbers for
ArthroCare. Because of the potential of the DiscoCare model, the
forecast for 2006 was aggressive and the pressure was tremendous as
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