The American Telemedicine Association used its ATA 2012 conference in San Jose, Calif., to help gather financial support for a planned push to build consumer awareness of telemedicine. At a May 1 keynote session, ATA President-elect Stewart Ferguson challenged conferees to stand up and commit to donating money towards a prize for the best 60-second consumer education video on the topic. Officials from several telemedicine technology companies, including MicroTech and GlobalMed, each pledged $5,000-$10,000.
Ferguson practices telemedicine in Alaska, where demand for the technology is high. “One of the biggest challenges is once you build it and do all of the effort, suddenly sometimes...