Tuesday 13th February
Speaker: Don Hovis
Topic: Evolution of Hip Fracture Devices
About the Speaker:
Don grew up in Pennsylvania, moved to Montreal Canada with his wife and 4 kids to sell orthopedic soft goods and implants, he had very little training and he was the first person to sell in eastern Canada for Richards Manufacturing Co., Memphis, Tennessee. He did not speak French, had no medical background, had no international business knowledge nor experience. This was a straight commission sales job with a $200 weekly draw against commissions. He went into a big deficit quickly. Fortunately he learned a lot quickly and sales grew and he earned his way out of a hole in the 13th month and never looked back.
He became friends with a couple orthopedic residents and they told him of the problems doctors had with hip pins and nails. He began to search the orthopedic journals and books and became quite knowledgeable about postoperative problems that were common. Having spent 4 years on a dairy farm he knew that a screw held better than pins or nails. For the next 2 years he worked diligently with an engineer at Richards. The result was the Richards compression hip screw. It was the first of 32 patents for medical devices that he ultimately created.
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