Take a look at the exhibit hall of this year's American Telemedicine Association conference and you'll notice something missing.
Devices.
Sure, they can be found in almost all of the 200 booths, from the HealthSpot kiosk at one end of the Baltimore Convention Center to the Intermountain Healthcare station at the opposite end, but they aren't front and center. The spotlight isn't shining on them any more. Been there, done that.
This year's conference, running through Tuesday, is shining the spotlight squarely on the next phase in the advancement of telemedicine: Delivery systems. It's seen in the collaborations between device makers and health systems, or device makers and other device makers, or broadband networks and everyone else.
In short, no longer is it just good enough to have the next cool thing in telemedicine. Now you have to show that it works.
To Edward M. Brown, MD, CEO of the massive Ontario Telemedicine Network and outgoing president of the ATA, it's a sign of maturity for the telemedicine movement, which he traced back to a doctor riding a bicycle to power a radio in the Australian Outback during the 1920s. That innovators and health systems, payers and patients, are working together to make these devices and systems work, he said, means that telemedicine is finally reaching the mainstream.
"Telemedicine is becoming normalized in our hospitals, in our community and, increasingly, in our homes," he said during Sunday evening's opening session of ATA 2014.
He pointed out that remote patient monitoring now constitutes a $1.2 billion market globally, with 50 percent growth projected each year. And he predicted – and placed a $10 bet (Canadian) on it – that half of all healthcare transactions would be virtual within five years, further blurring the lines between telehealth, telemedicine, digital health, mHealth and just simple healthcare.
Brown pointed to two trends influencing the advancement of telemedicine – the rise of consumer-centered healthcare, in which the consumer is taking more control of his or her healthcare choices and tying those choices to the availability of healthcare at any time and place and on any mobile device; and the struggles of current health systems to reduce waste and expenses and improve outcomes.
"Without change, things can only get worse, and telemedicine is a fundamental part of that solution," Brown said. "For health systems, it's actually about survival."
That's why, for instance, several of them have decided to set up camp in this year's ATA exhibit hall. For large, integrative systems like Intermountain, Mercy and Adventist Health, telemedicine forms the backbone of an effective patient engagement strategy, connecting providers with their patients in the hospital and clinic as well as once they've gone home, and ultimately allowing them to reach out to the general population to promote health and wellness services and attract new business.
ATA CEO Jon Linkous pointed out that telemedicine now must overcome the hype and face the reality. All the cool new toys that dominated the exhibit halls of past ATA conferences have to be put to use in service platforms.
That's why companies in the hall like HealthSpot, Vidyo, MedWeb, Ideal Life and Honeywell HomMed aren't just showing off what they've created, but who they're working with. That's why a conversation at one booth will most likely reference another booth, or pull in a provider who's either at the conference or can be contacted quickly. Nowadays, it's all about the connections.
"You can't do anything without the doctors," said Lisa Maughan, vice president of marketing for HealthSpot, the innovative kiosk that's now working as often with providers as it is with retail clinics and large employers. "This has to work for them just as much (as it does) for the consumers."
