2014 Telemedicine and Telehealth
Service Provider Showcase ‘Very
Valuable’ and ‘Really Well Done’
B y J an e E r i k s o n o n
November 4, 2014
As CEO of GlobalMed, a world leader in
telemedicine innovation operating in
more than 35 countries, Joel Barthelemy
goes to a lot of conferences. As in a lot.
He thinks the Telemedicine and
Telehealth Service Provider Showcase,
held Oct. 6 and 7 in Phoenix, may be
the first one he’s ever attended in its
entirety.
“The information shared was some
of the best I’ve ever encountered,”
Mr. Barthelemy said, after attending
the conference. “There was little
commercialism, and the information
imparted to us was very valuable. The
feedback I received from clinicians who
were there was astounding. They truly
felt this was a valuable use of their
time.”
The Telemedicine and Telehealth
Service Provider Showcase (SPS) was
hosted by the Arizona Telemedicine
Program (ATP), the Southwest
Telehealth Resource Center and the Four
Corners Telehealth Consortium.
Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, the
founding director of the Arizona
Telemedicine Program, and the father
of telepathology, said the idea for
SPS resulted from “our interest in
encouraging the service provider
industry to proliferate.
psychology and public health.
“For a first time meeting I think it was a
resounding success – the speakers were
insightful, they were touching, they
were full of good advice,” Dr. Krupinski
said.
“There are now a number of
organizations that are forming
independently within the telemedicine
arena to address very specific domains,”
Dr. Weinstein said. “We decided to do
this because we see the need for service
providers all the time here in Arizona.”
“Companies are forming now that are
not technology companies. They are
not selling the infrastructure to do
telemedicine. What they are doing is
bringing together those people who
can actually provide the services, which
is what drove telemedicine in the first
place.”
SPS, as the showcase is called, is
thought to have been the first of its
kind.
Deb LaMarche, associate director, Utah
Telehealth Network, moderated two
sessions on the first day of SPS.
“We have not attended or heard about
another meeting dedicated to the
service provider community,” said
Elizabeth Krupinski, PhD, ATP associate
director, director of the Southwest
Telehealth Resource Center and cochair of SPS. She also is a University of
Arizona professor of medical imaging,
“I thought it was a really exciting
event,” she said. “Most of us who were
there have been in telehealth for a
very long time, and it was fun to be at
something so energizing, looking at new
models of care.
One of more than 20 presentations given during the 2014 Telemedicine and Telehealth Service Provider Showcase
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