MELBOURNE, Fla.--Telehealth continues to move forward as an avenue to improve patient care--and for HME providers to improve sales, according to a long-time industry consultant.

"It's a tremendous opportunity," said Shelly Prial of Prial Consulting, Melbourne, Fla., and director of government relations for Graham-Field Health Products, Atlanta. "I think it's very important that providers, if they do nothing else, be cognizant of the fact that a change is taking place," said Prial, who anticipates the market for telehealth equipment will increase considerably in coming years.

Telehealth, which encompasses the delivery of health-related services enabled by technology, includes a broad range of both non-clinical and clinical services, such as medical diagnosis and remote monitoring, health advice by telephone or Internet, or exchange of information via videoconferencing.

Growth in the home telehealth equipment market is evidenced by an increasing number of vendors for the technology and attendees at ATA meetings, said Jonathan D. Linkous, executive director of the American Telemedicine Association, Washington D.C., which was founded in 1993.

"Even though we don't have funding for home telehealth equipment as an explicit line item for Medicare, there is still a lot of growth in this area, as witnessed by the fact that people who are interested in home care--home care providers and related industry--are the fastest-growing part of our membership right now," Linkous said. ATA's eleventh annual meeting is scheduled for May 7-10 in San Diego.

Prial said he believes HME providers could take advantage of anticipated growth in the sector by positioning themselves as liasons among manufacturers of telemedicine technology, health care providers and patients. Providers should "find out from the physicians, home health agencies and the visiting nurse associations that they work with that the interest is there and let them know they are interested, too," so that when the time comes, "they very well may come to you" for business, he said.

Establishing distributorships with manufacturers would provide profits not only on sales of the technology, but could also lead to additional sales of supplies patients need, Prial said.

For more of Prial's take on this developing discipline, check the upcoming February issue of HomeCare magazine.

For more on the ATA, visit www.atmeda.org.