So an account — though an account is much stronger at a year than it is at, say, three months, it’s — they still continue to expand. And so as the greater-than-anticipated number of new accounts roll in each quarter and to our denominator, it is dilutive to the overall number. Now you asked about the context of accounts today versus, say, two or three years ago and how productive those accounts are. We have — and I think we’ve talked about this before, materially increased the number and height of the hurdles that accounts need to clear in order to become accounts today. We’ve learned a lot over the last few years. And so I would say that these accounts that come on board are much better prepared. I mean an example of it is the number of steps that a treating physician needs to go through in order to even get to training.
They need to identify at least three patients in advance of training. They come to training, they discuss those patients, they go back and they treat the patients, and then they have a 45-day review with an expert. So I would say that one of the fundamental differences in terms of folks that are coming out of training today is that they’re much better, they’re much further along in terms of their understanding of things. Now going back to like does that translate directly into these accounts being way further along. I think it’s super important to remember that there’s a -step sort of process, and we take folks from step one through step six is what they’re developing and they’re clearing through gates along the way. That’s a process that takes time, irrespective of how well trained the doctors are who enter into it.
So I would simply say that I wouldn’t anticipate material acceleration with regard to getting an account up to speed. But we have a whole array of examples of accounts that are very material contributors after only three months and others that take longer to come up to speed. So there’s a bit of a spectrum.
Jason Bednar: Okay. Appreciate all the color and congrats again on the quarter.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question will be coming from Rick Wise of Stifel. Your line is open, Rick.
Frederick Wise: Good afternoon, Glenn, I just want to make sure I’m understanding a couple of things if you could just expand a little bit. The account productivity and implementation of best practice, you — when you started your remarks, you talked about the number of accounts, you had a lot of momentum in accounts, and I think your words were with optimized Zephyr programs. And Glenn, I ask the question, you rephrase it if you feel like I’m not coming out in a clear way, but I say to myself, you came — you ended last year with 278 total active accounts, if I am looking at it correctly. Today, what percent of those accounts have optimized Zephyr programs? You follow me? And the reason I’m asking the question is to get at are the 25% of those 278 have optimized programs and gosh, we’ve got a lot of room in a good way to keep driving greater productivity. That’s what I’m trying to get at.
Glendon French: Yes. So first of all, an active account is one that’s ordered in the last quarter, and the active number is in the low 70s as we talked about 73%, 74%. So in any given quarter, 73% or 74% of our accounts are ordering. If you were to say, in any six-month period, it will be about 85%. But in any case, the — you said a year ago, we were at 278. I’ll take your word for that. I don’t know it off the top of my head. We’re at 330 or something now. But the — those are not all active accounts. That’s the total number of accounts. So there’s a subset of that, about 70% to 75% of those would be active accounts. So let’s say, out of 200 active accounts, probably about 25% to 30% of those are what I would consider to be truly optimized.
And the reference to optimization in my earlier comments was really the geographies in which, when I was commenting on sort of our plans for 2024, it was in those geographies where we would be making broader investments and trying to get the word out to the COPD physicians and the patients themselves. So we’ve been talking about the need to have the accounts ready first, then the referring physicians or the COPD physicians and then activating the patients.
Frederick Wise: Got you. I know it’s early. It’s hard to resist asking about 2024, especially given the momentum we saw in the third quarter. And especially when I hear you talk so clearly and positively about more accounts, account productivity, the patient and physician outreach and education and training. I mean do you — I’m not so much looking for exact numerical guidance, feel free if you want to, but more, should we just assume that given all this, the outlook, the possibility, the likelihood of continuing in a kind of a 20% or better growth range, is there reasonable expectation based on everything we’re hearing tonight?
Glendon French: Well, we feel really good about where our foundation is. We do have a number of things lined up and we feel good about that. But we’re going to be providing you with specific guidance for 2024 in a few months here. And so we’re not providing 2024 guidance. I know that a question was recently asked in one of these public forums about how we felt about next year and where people’s heads were, and we continue to feel like you all are in the right place. But, so I’m not trying — I wouldn’t want to talk that down, but I also am not in a position to be talking it up. We’ve got some more information. I think the fourth quarter is going to be an important data set. And we’ll spend a lot of time between now and when we — when that all comes together to provide far greater clarity on how we see 2024.
Frederick Wise: That’s great. Thank you, and it’s great to see the excellent quarter.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question will be coming from Larry Biegelsen of Wells Fargo.
Unidentified Analyst: This is Charles on for Larry. First, congrats on the nice quarter. I had a couple of questions here. First, just on AeriSeal. It sounds like that’s on track here, fully enrolled CONVERT 1, presenting the final data next year. I guess from there, I mean, that didn’t convert to in your PMA submission, but how soon after completion, do you think we can expect OUS sales?
Glendon French: So CONVERT 1 is — we’re just following up. So it’s fully enrolled. We’re following up. We’ve got, I think, a one-year follow-up that we’re going to put into our — or I can’t remember, it might be six months. In any case, we’re planning on presenting those data at the European Respiratory Society Meeting. I think what you’re alluding to is that we have a CE Mark in place already for AeriSeal and we have spoken about limited and then expanding over time, commercialization of AeriSeal in CE Mark regulated countries. Of course, convert two is on the critical path to getting AeriSeal available in the United States. So that’s a separate matter. So we’re going to go ahead and present those data, we’ll get those published and then selectively sort of a limited launch, if you will, in various different locations.
