American Telemedicine Association Conference 2022

As one of the biggest organizations solely focused on advancing telehealth, the ATA is working to change the way the world thinks about healthcare. This year, The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) 2022 Conference and Expo was held from May 1 - 3, 2022 in Boston. 

DirectShifts is here to give you a summary of what happened in ATA 2022

The first in-person event in two years, with a slow start on Sunday, the floor busied up on Monday. The business was being done, finally and not virtually. Let’s find out what were the highlights and big announcements during the event, especially for companies of telemental health and remote patient monitoring (RPM).

The Theme:
Now What? Creating an Opportunity in a Time of Uncertainty exploring the virtual health landscape and examining what would be necessary to establish telehealth as a permanent modality in care delivery.

Key Take Away for Healthcare Leaders: An Insight by Ann Mond Johnson, CEO at ATA 

What sets ATA 2022 apart from the previous year’s annual Conferences?

The previous conferences were all virtual. So, after two years many leading healthcare companies and leaders got together for the first time  post- pandemic. As an association focused exclusively on accelerating the adoption and engagement of telehealth, ATA is now a unique community of healthcare leaders who want to bring about change/revolution.

What were the key issues which were covered during ATA 2022?

       a. First is the policy and advocacy work that ATA has done in the last 2 years and continues to advance for everyone. 

       b. The second is to focus on hybrid care. Since telehealth is not applicable to everyone or for every situation, it's really important how telehealth health advances as  a modality that’s available to a clinician and a consumer to use. 

       c. The third is the use of technology in telehealth to eliminate disparities which was a problem in the U.S. before the pandemic.

What are some of the most important challenges and opportunities in telehealth today?

        a. One is that the whole policy and advocacy work is really an important challenge and goes beyond reimbursement. There are things that have to be made permanent at the federal level. There are a lot of states that have, regulations or laws that are not necessarily supportive of telehealth. So, a lot of work needs to be done on the policy side. 

        b. The next is, how specific a service line like behavioral health looks. What can be done to ensure that people get access to those services, and know that they’re safe, appropriate, and effective. 

         c. The other is supporting all healthcare practitioners to make sure that telehealth is used not only to expand access but also to increase productivity for clinicians and the workforce and reduce burnout.

A summary of what we think people gained from attending ATA 2022?

• Awareness and challenges that are to come in the telehealth space and a plan to navigate through this.
• Healthcare leaders across the USA gathered together pushing their boundaries and brainstorming their minds to address the future of telehealth. 
• It was an opportunity for top management of various healthcare companies to gain a lot of connections to follow up afterward as there’s nothing like face-to-face networking and really engaging with folks. 

What’s next for ATA?

We have Telehealth Awareness Week, their second annual Telehealth Awareness Week which will happen in September. And this is a really important opportunity to articulate what happens if telehealth goes away. These are the patients across America who saw the benefits of telehealth. And they want to make sure that they give them a platform for getting across the message of “ Don’t take this away”. 

It sounds like there was a lot of energy at ATA2022, and people went home to their communities and their organizations to start the work again. 

 Some major announcements during the conference:

• Kristi Henderson, DNP, NP-C, FAAN, FAEN, has been named as Chair of the ATA Board for a two-year term. Announcement
• ATA, the American College of Physicians (ACP), and ORCHA, the Organization for the Review of Care and Health Applications,  announced a framework for the assessment of professional and consumer digital health technologies, including mobile apps and web-based tools. Announcement

A few company announcements were made during ATA that will interest healthcare leaders & companies

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health highlighted the publication of a major scientific study documenting telehealth outcomes in JAMA Network Open.
• BioIntelliSense, which last year scored $45 million in funding for its on-body sensors, announced two major collaborations for remote patient monitoring (RPM) with UC Davis Health and Houston Methodist.
• Connect America, which snapped up Lifeline last year, launched Connect America Home, a single health and safety platform connecting (PERS) and remote patient monitoring (RPM) with supporting services, including AI-enabled virtual health assistance and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) support, along with analytics.
• AliveCor announced the launch of KardiaComplete, a comprehensive heart health enterprise solution designed to drive improved health outcomes and reduce the cost of cardiac care.

 ATA 2022 featured the decision-makers and thought leaders, clinicians, forward-looking innovators, solution providers, and policymakers who are creating the future. The agenda was the lessons learned, identify the challenges and opportunities in these uncertain times, and convene the individuals, organizations, and decision-makers to cement the gains made to establish telehealth as a care modality in a modernized healthcare system.

Attendees were engaged in the discussion, debate, and decision-making as ATA 2022 tackled the toughest challenges and revealed the latest strategies to design the right technologies, implement the best practices and improve patient and provider experiences and clinical outcomes.