| An SI Board Since August 1999 |
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Novamed is one of the few recent opportunities to get into a company at the ground-floor of the growing use of laser-vision correction, particularly the laser in-situ keratomileusis, or Lasik, procedure.
Illustrating how popular Lasik has become, the company that makes the lion's share of the laser equipment, Visx Inc. (VISX), has been one of the best-performing medical-device stocks, rising close to 700% over the past year and splitting twice in the process.
About 450,000 laser procedures were performed in the U.S. in 1998, and that should more than double this year, according to several industry reports. By 2000, the number of vision-correction procedures is expected to rise to 1.4 million. And there appears to be no price pressure, analysts said. Patients have been content paying about $2,200 per eye for the procedure.
Novamed, like other eye-care centers that have focused on lasers, has profited from this growth. In the first six months of 1998, the company reported net income of $585,000 on revenue of $27.3 million. A year later, Novamed booked $44.9 million in revenue, with net income of $1.1
million.
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