Building Success In Home Healthcare

MedTrade 2006 To Offer New Products, Exceptional Education

August 17, 2006

Over 20,000 home healthcare professionals are expected to attend the Medtrade 2006 Exposition and Conference, which will take place September 18 - 21, 2006 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Produced by VNU Expositions, Medtrade 2006 will present over 175 educational events and will showcase over 290,000 square feet of exhibit space.

The Medtrade 2006 conference program will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 19 and will target all the current topics in home healthcare. "Education for HME providers has never been more important. The many challenges all of us will face in the coming year will require us to stay on top of this ever-changing healthcare industry," says Velma Goertzen, general manager of Health-e-Quip in Hutchinson, Kan.

For providers with a focus on sleep disorders, the sleep-disordered breathing educational track will feature 11 sessions over the three-day conference program, including:

• Sleeping With Your Doctor: Sleep Ventures and Other Physician Arrangements by Neil Caesar, Esq.
• First Impressions and Achieving Effective Therapy by Sharon Baer, MBA, RRT
• Quality of Life in Bed Partners of Patients Treated with CPAP by Billy M Lamb, RRT, CPFT, BS
• Clinical Evidence to Help Grow Your Business by Sharon Baer, MBA, RRT
• Using Technology to Monitor and Evaluate CPAP Compliance and Supply Replenishment by Nancy Nunley and Kimberly S. Wiles, BS, RRT
• Acceptance, Comfort, Results: Improving First Impressions by Dave Myers
• Sleep Is Big Business! Innovative Ways, within Legal Parameters, to Succeed in the Sleep Market by Clay Stribling, Esq.
• The Obesity Epidemic: Consequences in Sleep by Gary Hamilton, BS, RRT
• How to Start A Sleep Center by Ramon D. Paquette
• The Business of Sleep: Reaching out to PCPs by Ann Tisthammer, BS, RRT
• Sleep Apnea Is a Quality of Life Issue by Alan Cross, BS, MHA, RRT

Fortunately, the educational environment will also be apparent in the exhibit hall. Exhibitors are prepared to showcase not only new products but also programs that focus on streamlining business operations. Highlights will include programs that reduce providers' operating expenses, software systems that enable providers to increase efficiencies, and marketing ideas that encourage diversification among product lines and payor sources.

At Medtrade 2006, attendees can see over 250,000 products and visit with more than 850 manufacturers and distributors during the exposition. The exhibit hall will be open Tuesday, Sept. 19 and Wednesday, Sept. 20 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, Sept. 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Plan now to attend Medtrade 2006 and take advantage of what you can gain from your peers, the industry's leading experts and your current, and potential, vendors. The fight for the HME industry is not over - not by a long shot - but it is going to take the efforts of all involved.

For more information about the event, please visit www.medtrade.com or call (800) 933-8735.