AAOS, Arthroscopy - Orthoworld

EXECUTIVE PROFILEReinhold SchmiedingPresident & Founder, Arthrex Inc.Reinhold Schmieding founded Arthrex in Munich, Germany in 1981 as anAmerican expatriate. In 1991, after successfully expanding Arthrex GmbH, theeastern hemisphere headquarters near Munich, Germany, Reinhold returned to theU.S. to relocate the U.S. headquarters to its current 130,000 square foot westernhemisphere headquarters location in Naples, Florida. Reinhold is originally fromMichigan with a Bachelor of Science in Physiology from Michigan State University.U.S Orthopaedic Product News (OPN): Arthrex is considered one ofthe most successful privately held companies in orthopaedics, specificallyin arthroscopic surgery. Can you summarize your uniquehistory?Reinhold Schmieding (RS): Arthrex was founded solely to helporthopaedic surgeons treat their patients better by providing innovativeproducts and medical education services to facilitate performing upperand lower extremity procedures arthroscopically, versus traditional opensurgery methods. This mission has been preserved by building thecompany privately, without outside financial investors to detract us fromdoing the right thing from a scientific and medical perspective. With anabsence of outside financial performance pressure and expectations, wecan maintain our commitment to helping surgeons and patients first andforemost. Our contribution to evidence-based medicine is our primarybenchmark of success. This is fundamentally what separates Arthrexfrom other orthopaedic device companies.OPN: Why is Arthrex considered a market leader in arthroscopicsurgery?RS: Our 25-year history has been driven by our unique ability to design,manufacture and market innovative products that helped facilitate thetransition to arthroscopic knee and shoulder repair and reconstructionsurgical procedures. As a product designer, my early years were spentprimarily in the operating room with surgeons all over Europe and theU.S. to intimately appreciate the surgical obstacles they encountered intreating joint pathology arthroscopically. We were able to design uniqueproducts to solve their surgical problems and have them manufactured tothe highest quality standards. Today, an extensive team of engineers atArthrex is actively involved in the product design and manufacturingprocess. My 25-year experience in product design and arthroscopicsurgery procedures allows me to still contribute significantly to thedesign and quality assurance process today. During the past 25 years,Arthrex has designed and developed and now markets over 3,000products in over 100 countries worldwide, with an unprecedented 443new products released last year for arthroscopic and minimally invasiveorthopaedics.OPN: Arthrex also has a reputation for their unique commitment tomedical education. Why is this important?RS: Producing safe and effectiveproducts is only part of theresponsibility in assuring safeand reproducible patientoutcomes. Arthrex assumes ahigher responsibility ofproviding orthopaedic surgeonsand surgical staff an unprecedentedhands-on cadavericlearning experience in motorskills surgical labs around thecountry. Our surgical skillsprograms (See Figure 1.) attractFigure 1. Our surgical skillsprograms attract over 3,000surgeons and staff a year to ourfacilities.over 3,000 surgeons and staff a year to our facilities in Naples, Florida;Scottsdale, Arizona; and Los Angeles, California to learn new, innovativearthroscopic surgical procedures in the knee, shoulder, hip, elbow and aprogressive new program for foot and ankle procedures. Many of ourdistributors have also built surgical skills labs to provide localeducational services.continued on page 4140 Orthopaedic Product News • January/February 2007