Press Release

Telemedicine & Distributed Medical Intelligence Conference
Lake Tahoe, CA  March 8-10, 1998
Contact:        Lori Maiolo  919.816.2695


 Just which direction is the global telemedicine
environment heading? What standards should be adopted? How should
new
technology impact the health care delivery system?   What should
the ideal Telemedicine system look like?  What functions must
be included?  Good questions.   With the Universal Service
Fund in the wings and Medicare Reimbursement due in 1999,
now is the time to answer these questions and begin to
forge a gold standard.
Delivering Healthcare to the Next Generation is the focus of the
Telemedicine and Distributed Medical Intelligence Conference that
will be held March 8-10, 1998 in Lake Tahoe, CA.  The conference is
sponsored by Telemedicine Technologies Company in cooperation with
East Carolina University Telemedicine Program.  It will be a consortium
of physicians, educators, researchers, risk managers, telemedicine
directors, biomedical directors, managed care administrators, and
others interested in exploring the use of collaborative medical
systems to improve the access and quality of remote healthcare
delivery.  The conference is designed to collect the most creative
and talented individuals in Telemedicine, share ideas, and build
interaction in the conference, which lead to on-going collaboration
between attendees.

The ATA Technology Taskforce will use the conference to develop
a white paper for the ATA to include: web technologies for patient
care; global technology standards; business cases for sustaining
telemedicine programs; integration of medical information systems;
and international telemedicine. Input from DMI Conference
discussions will become recommendations to the ATA annual
meeting in April 1998 and may become a basis for discussion
between the telemedicine provider and vendor communities.
American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and Association of
Telemedicine Service Providers (ATSP) members will receive a
$50.00 discount on early registration.  More information about
the conference can be found at the ECU Telemedicine web page
(www.telemed.med.ecu.edu) or by calling 919.816.2695.