Reflections on ATA 2016

Line of Sight Group participated in the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Annual Conference and Tradeshow held last month in Minneapolis.  The annual gathering focused on telemedicine, digital, connected and mobile health.  The event attracted 6,000 people, had 75 educational sessions and a trade show exhibit hall that featured 300 technology product and service providers.

There were several trends we noted as we spoke with visitors to our booth, attended sessions and roamed the exhibit hall.  First of all, Telemedicine, Telehealth, and the many iterations of “Tele” have moved to the cloud.  As cloud technologies and services have matured and become trusted via advances in security, privacy, reliability, performance, and mobility, there are many options emerging including advanced collaboration and integration offers for attaching/monitoring the vast and growing number of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).   Some things that were previously disrupted by technology (blood pressure monitors with no connectivity) are now re-enabled by newer technology (a smart phone picture of the device with readings uploaded to the cloud and integrated into the patient’s Electronic Health Record).

Next, we also heard from some attendees who’d attended the event in the past two decades that industry consolidation was very evident.  We heard from people from all across the spectrum who were interested in getting started with various tele-initiatives but were not sure where to start.  This even extended to well-funded firms very focused on one aspect of their business.

All told, we talked to technology providers, device makers, integration firms, compliance specialists, health plans, clinical professionals, members of the media, government officials and more to get a sense of what is happening and where the industry is headed.

Events like this allow Line of Sight Group to listen to the market, observe, interact, engage and make connections. One of the key aspects that our Integrated Strategic Analysis requires is the ability to connect the dots when researching a clients’ external environment to help them grow, protect and focus their business.