Planning to attend HLTH or ATA Nexus? Dr. Leo Damasco shares practical strategies for navigating health tech conferences, networking with industry leaders, discovering telehealth opportunities, and building a stronger professional presence beyond clinical medicine.
Health tech conferences offer physicians valuable opportunities beyond traditional medical education.
In this solo episode, Dr. Leo Damasco explores HLTH and ATA Nexus, explaining their differences, networking opportunities, and relevance to telehealth physicians seeking medical director positions, PC ownership, consulting opportunities, and broader understanding of the digital health business landscape.
Drawing from personal experience, Leo shares practical strategies for maximizing conferences, including setting specific goals, researching agendas, understanding telemedicine business structures, preparing professional introductions, networking with startups and executives, and attending social events. He emphasizes physician value, meaningful connections, and consistent follow-up to turn conference conversations into lasting professional relationships and career opportunities.
Three Actionable Takeaways:
About the Show:
Telemedicine Talks explores the evolving world of digital health, helping physicians navigate new opportunities, regulatory challenges, and career transitions in telemedicine.
About the Hosts:
Dr. Leo Damasco – Pediatrician and emergency medicine doctor turned telemedicine advocate, helping physicians transition to digital health.
Connect with the Host
Email: leo@telemedicinetalks.com
Website: telemedicinetalks.com
[00:00:00] Hey, welcome back everybody to Telemedicine Talks, where we have conversations that hopefully shape the future of virtual care. This is your host, Leo Damasco. I'm stoked to have you back. So today, I wanted to talk about health tech conferences. Right now, this subject's kind of been on my mind for quite a while now, and I've been wanting to do this subject for a while.
But I think it's timely now because the HLTH Conference is coming up in a couple weeks. It's in November fifteen to eighteen, in Vegas. and, yeah,I just kinda wanna address it, especially for those people that are thinking about attending this HLTH Conference and haven't been to a health tech conference before.
Now, speaking of the docs out there, I know a bunch of us have probably been to conferences before, and most of it's been, strictly the medicine conferences, right? Probably your respective specialty or your respective academy. You've maybe even presented things like papers. You've been a presenter, or have had a poster and stood in front of there.
Now, the health [00:01:00] conferences, that are related to now telehealth is a different beast altogether, right? And I think, it's important to be aware of these conferences, especially if you're, a new telehealth provider, strictly brick and mortar transitioning to telehealth.
You've gotten all your licenses, you're building up your repertoire, and you're looking into, trying to get hired, trying to get more jobs, and really trying to get a deeper kind of understanding of the business, the environment, really what you're getting into. And I think it's a great idea to attend these, health tech conferences.
there's quite a few of them, right? And I think the two major ones that are the most pertinent, especially to the new telehealth doctors, are the ones called HLTH or H-L-T-H Conference, and this is the one that's coming up in a couple weeks in Vegas. And then there's another one called the ATA Conference or the ATA Nexus, the American Telemedicine Association Nexus Conference, and that's usually held, in the middle of the year.
I think the next one's coming up, what, June fourteen to [00:02:00] sixteen in twenty twenty-seven in Orlando. Now, there's also, kinda smaller minor conferences. I don't think it's small or minor, but, I think still associated or is still probably pertinent to a subset of certain telehealth providers, especially on the physician side, but not necessarily, to the general population, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.
So the two major ones that I mentioned already was the HLTH and the ATA. And, I'll talk about the HLTH first 'cause that's what's coming up soon. Now, the HLTH Conference is not specifically, a telemedicine conference. Actually- The health conference is touted as an entire healthcare innovation.
They tout it as kind of the premier health tech conference, not just telemedicine, but you have different techs, AI, things like that. So its expanse or its focus is expansive, right? it's more the entire health tech industry. Right now, for [00:03:00] strictly the telehealth doctor, I think, this is a good place to meet the founders of the companies you're working for or looking into.
talk to investors, healthcare execs. this is a good forum if you're trying to explore medical directorships, PC ownerships, advisory consulting jobs. this is also a good forum to look for startups. startups are a good source of these administrative jobs or these consulting jobs that people want.
this is also a good forum to further understand and actually interact within the PCO MSO arrangements, 'cause again, a lot of the founders are there, a lot of the investors are there. and the health is also a good forum to, learn about the more expansive kind of multiverse that telehealth lives in, right?
AI, digital health, consumer health, and, really a good place to build relationships outside of traditional clinical medicine Now, the other, health tech conference that I think is really pertinent to [00:04:00] telehealth providers, the physicians, is the ATA or the ATA Nexus. It's, the health conference, put on by the American Telemedicine Association.
Again, this happens every year, probably around the midyear, and this is more coned down to telehealth, right? So Health, HLTH, is the bigger expanse, health tech in general, while the ATA cones it down to telemedicine, right? This is a better focus for telehealth operations and clinical workflows.
This is where they talk more about telehealth regulations, reimbursements, interstate practices. Again, also talking about AI remote tech, but specifically to telehealth, unlike health, which is really just the total expanse, right? ATA, you still have some investors, you still have the startups, so it's a good place to look for telehealth-specific medical director jobs, PC owner jobs, clinical leadership opportunities, and also, I think, a better place to meet other telehealth [00:05:00] clinicians.
I think the ATA, draws more, the practitioners there and health system operators, whereas HLTH or Health is more of the C-suite, the investors, so forth and so on. both of these telehealth conferences could offer, something to add to not just the new telehealth providers, but, telehealth providers in general.
So now, there are also other, health tech conferences out there. another one's the HIMSS, H-I-M-S-S, and that's more for,healthcare information and management systems, so especially if you're in IT, or more on the tech side. And then there's the ViVE, Conference, and that's associated with HLTH.
But, this is a combination of like health and HIMSS, and the ViiV Conference focuses more on the healthcare executives, digital health companies, health system buyers, so more on kind of the C-suite investor kind [00:06:00] of, lane. But again, if you're, new to the telehealth business, you're a new telehealth provider, the two that I would look into to attend is ATA, Nexus, and Health Conference.
Now, for the past four years, I've actually been a regular attendance for both the ATA and the Health. and to be fully transparent, I'm actually not going to this year's Health. one, super busy with other stuff, but two, I think last year, I think the usefulness for me specifically for health was winding down, and I just wanted to take a break.
But, I tell everybody,especially for those new doctors coming into telehealth space, building their practice, building kind of their base, I think it's a great idea. I think it's almost a necessity to go to both of these conferences at least once to really get a lay of the land.
when I was starting my telehealth, journey, I did even before I knew what I was doing, I heard about this health thing. Health was the first, [00:07:00] conference I joined, and I really didn't know what I was getting into, but,I was very glad I did,because, after attending the health conference, it gave me a broader perspective of what I was getting into.
It also helped shaped how I approach things. because now as a telehealth provider, especially now with the market, you're not only a clinician or, if you're trying to be more than just a clinician, trying to get those admin jobs, trying to establish yourself as just, as a builder instead of just a doer.
it's a different approach. It's a different way you approach things. It's a different way you conversate with people. you use different language, and being in the thick of things in health and talking to different people, different, up and down
I was barely into the telehealth business, maybe two or three months into it, but, I forced myself to talk to startups, to CEOs, investors, to lawyers, to insurances, to insurance providers, so forth and so on. and just took that [00:08:00] opportunity to talk.
Most of the times I didn't know what the heck I was saying, but I was just talking just to get practice, just to get a better insight And then, ATA Nexus was the second, health tech conference I joined, and the same thing. Most of the times I didn't know what I was doing, but it was just talking.
It was just talking, meeting people, getting to know the lay of the land, keeping track in my head what was important, but, what conversations people wanted to have, what was important, the terminology they were using, how they're approaching things,
and, I was able to take that not just build it into my everyday practice, but as I wanted to establish myself as an authority in telemedicine, use those skills, use the language that I learned, you know, the approach that I learned in these conferences and just talking to different people, and use it day to day.
I think that's a big important role in this. and, I get a lot of questions from doctors, especially new doctors that come in, and they sign up for the [00:09:00] conferences, and they're like, hey, what am I doing? How do I approach it?" And, it definitely took me a couple of conferences to actually feel more comfortable in what I was doing and really trying to figure out what the heck I was doing.
Again, this is a different monster. This was a different beast from the regular academy conferences, the AAP conference or the ABIM conferences or the medical conferences I was attending, right? it was a way different approach. And,today hopefully, I could just, offer some words of advice to help if this is gonna be your first conference or your approach a little bit better, right?
I think The first piece of advice I could give is, hey, the conference, actually starts before the conference. there's some pre-conference work that you have to do, right? And I really wasn't aware of this in the first two conferences that I attended.
I basically just signed up for the conference, and the day of that's when I took a look at the agenda and, took a [00:10:00] look at who was there, and I was just kinda flying by the seat of my pants, And, the first day, I was just trying to get-- really just trying to understand the lay of the land and trying to figure out what I was doing really.
I was running around with like a chicken with its head cut off, right? Just kinda just running around, just flapping around, talking to people without really any real direction. And I think, it's important that, once you sign up for this conference, you actually do some pre-conference work, right?
Ask yourself, "Hey, this conference will be worth my time if I blank," right? and, it took me-- The first conference I went to, the second day I actually asked myself this question. It's like, "Hey, what did I want to get out of this conference?" Make yourself some goals. I gave myself three goals, three priorities, right?
and I recommend specific priorities, not just "Hey, I'm gonna learn about AI," or, "I'm gonna, go to the AI, lectures," whatnot. I think, set yourself specific goals. my goal was like, "Hey, I am going [00:11:00] to talk to five CEOs and, sell myself as a PC owner or a med director," or, "Hey, I am going to, listen to three lectures about, the legal landscape of telemedicine and telehealth."
And, I think the third goal was, "Hey, I am going to collect, 10 business cards of jobs that I probably wanna work with or I'm gonna apply to as this new telehealth doctor." So definitely set yourself some goals. What do you want to get out of this conference that you're spending a lot of money on, right?
You're spending thousands of dollars on just to get there, to attend, so forth and so on. it behooves you to even before going there to know what the heck you're doing. I remember the last conference I went to, I was talking to, the new telehealth doctors, and this was day three of the conference.
And I sat down, they were like, "Hey I don't know what I'm doing still, what should I be doing? And [00:12:00] this was day three of the conference, and still they had no direction, And a lot of them were like, I don't know if I just wasted my money on this." And again, I was like, "Hey, you're not wasting your money.
You just have no direction." So pre-conference work, step one, define what your goals are. Define your direction, specific goals. I think another important thing to do before you go to the conference is really understand telemedicine, right? try to teach yourself, hey, you're going into this universe that is about the business of telemedicine, so you should learn about the business of telemedicine, right?
You're not just going in as a strict clinician, right? You're going in to sell yourself as a business. You are your business, right? And you want to sell your business to other businesses, to the CEOs, this and that, and learn what that means. learn the business structure of telemedicine. Learn what the PC-MSO relationship is.
Learn where [00:13:00] you can fit into that PC-MSO relationship. are you looking to be PC owner? Are you looking to be a med director? Are you looking to work on the MSO side and be an advisor? Things like that. learn how the money moves between the PC and MSO relationship so you could talk money, so
you could talk, how you get paid and how you could help people establish that. understand why different entities exist, how they interact, and understand who controls this decision. understand also your worth as a doctor. it's funny. I mention this to a lot of people.
As you walk into the conference, this is a telehealth conference. This is a health tech conference. And I'm speaking with doctors here. These conferences really can't exist without you as a doctor, right? Health doesn't exist without you as a doctor because as doctors, we're the end of the line.
We are the people with the boots on ground that are [00:14:00] actually providing care, and without us, the doctors, none of this could exist. And it's funny. you walk into the expansive, conference center, and, you're looking at the signs and you're looking at the ads, and
They're all targeted to investors. Or, there was, like, a nursing section or a vet section, but a lot of times in the past two, three years, what was missing was the physician involvement. And yes, there was doctors running around, physicians running around, but it was just an afterthought, right?
But really, speaking of doctors out there Know your worth. this conference can't happen without your involvement. So get involved. Be leaders. But you have to understand what that means. And to do that, you have to understand how things work, right? Learn about, corporate practice medicine restrictions, CPOM rules.
Understand, yeah, there's state-by-state variations, know about compliance, and, also, arming yourself with this [00:15:00] knowledge. when you start talking to startup, investors, owners, you can't assume that they know what they're talking about either. there's a lot of times that I've talked to startups, to owners, to investors, and really, they have no idea of what CPOM is or what adequate compliance is.
Andif you don't understand how things work, you may actually find yourself, agreeing to something that's not compliant or even illegal. definitely arm yourself with the knowledge before talking with people. also, I think number three, pre-conference work is review the agenda, right?
go to the website. see what the agenda is. See who's talking. if you're looking for specific goals, I remember another one of my goals in my first conference was, trying to leverage my pediatric,background. And, I went to the agenda, and I just, typed in pediatrician, so forth and so on, and looked up all the talks and all the booths that pertained to pediatrics [00:16:00] and made a note of it.
And I went to every single one of those talks and talked to every single one of those booths to say hello, right? I know the health conference and the ATA conference actually gives you access to an app beforehand, so you could actually start making connections beforehand, and I highly recommend that.
Make your connections beforehand. and, number four, to, find your one-liner. perfect your one-liner. Start practicing it. when you approach a new person or approach a booth, what are you trying to sell? You're trying to sell yourself, but how are you trying to do it?
"Hey, I'm Dr. Damasco. I'm a pediatrician ER doctor looking for, PC ownership, opportunities, you know, and I have this experience." 'cause yeah, that's your first impression, right? So yeah, a lot of work has to be done pre-conference. I don't recommend just going in there a-and not having a plan.
now once you're at the conference,I like to break it down into, hey, okay, there's lectures you could attend, how to work the exhibit floor, and [00:17:00] how to make connections. And lastly, but I think probably sometimes even more importantly is, there's things that happen after the conference time, the social sessions.
and I think, I'll go into it a little bit more later, but, I think most of the work actually happens in those social sessions, right? So let's first talk about lectures, right? picking lectures to attend. Again, that's where you go in pre-conference and look at the agenda.
choose sessions that specifically answers your goals, right? Answers your questions. what is your question, right? how do I learn more about, specific telehealth, compliance considerations? Look for compliance lectures, so forth and so on. But read beyond the title, right?
Look into it. Look who the speakers are, and open up and look into the specific, details of this because sometimes the title is just the hook, right? Now, look at the speakers' experience perspectives. And, one thing I like doing is before I went in, I asked myself three questions that I was hoping to answer [00:18:00] in that lecture, right?
And, sometimes the lecture just took a different turn from what I was expecting, and I just kinda walked out on it because it wasn't asking the question that I was looking for, right? And, you don't have to fill every hour slot, right? There's lectures happening all the time, and there's lectures happening, simultaneously.
choose priorities, pick which one's the most important for you and plan it out, right? you don't have to attend every hour. You don't have to attend every lecture. Just find one that's important for you. and I think the next thing is the exhibit floor. for me specifically, I think this was the most useful part, right?
the lectures were, I think, just extra sauce for me, right? if there was something I was really interested in, I'd join a lecture, Or if there was, like, a physician-specific lecture that, focused on networking, definitely join that, But the main plus for me was the exhibit floor and just working for that.
Really,look for demos that you're interested in. But, really, I just spent my time [00:19:00] walking up and down the aisle and talking to people, always have your specific, priorities in mind, your top three questions, but talk to people. even if you don't think that this booth is clinical or, pertinent to what you're looking for, strike up a conversation, right?
and sometimes it'll surprise you. things that will pop up, Hey, introduce yourself. Practice your hook. Practice talking to people. There's definitely been a couple times where I'm like, "Oh, this booth, I don't know. This is just a tech booth, and I'm not really sure, I don't know if I really need to, learn about this tech." But, the booth operator, we kinda locked eyes, and I was like, "Oh, man, now I have to talk to him," right? And I'm like, "Oh, crap, I just have to talk, Let me be friendly." But then it really struck up an interesting conversation.
It actually opened up an opportunity. it led to a conversation where it's "Hey, we were looking for a PC owner. We're looking for, a consultant, you know. Are you willing to do it, or do you know anybody that's willing to do [00:20:00] it?" So it's surprising, that sometimes, these opportunities pop out of places that you're not really expecting.
So just talk. Practice, practice your pitch, things like that. also look for, specific startup booths. I like the startup section too, and I thought that was a lot of gold too, 'cause, a lot of them don't have good relationship with doctors, and they're looking for those relationships.
Strike a conversation. See how you could help them. one good question I liked asking is, "Hey, I'm Dr. Is there any way I could help you in your business? are you looking for a doctor? Are you looking for a PC owner? Are you looking for help?" talk to the owners.
go to the telehealth platforms. all the big telehealth platforms are usually there. Go to the telehealth platforms. Are you working for those telehealth platforms? Go meet the people you're actually working for. this is your one chance that you could meet the C-suite, that you could meet the leaders.
I've actually made good friends doing that way, and it's helped me, on the day-to-day. I'm not just another, face or another name, on their roster. I'm actually [00:21:00] a face, and I've talked to them. They ended up inviting me to, drinks after or,a dinner after, and we're gonna talk more about that too.
But, make yourself known to, the big companies or especially for those that you work with. And also, as you go along, establish your worth, right? And talking to the docs, establish your worth, and sometimes you may have to educate your worth to the exhibitors out there.
"Hey, I could help you with this. I see what you're doing here. I like your idea. This is how I could help." and be proactive And, yeah. So make those connections. Talk to different people. introduce yourself clearly and, use the app.
especially with Health and ATA, like I mentioned before, look up people in the app. You could actually set meetings with them during the conference. most of the meetings are actually set pr-pre-conference, like what I talked about. And,also, I mentioned this before, but investigate uncon-unconventional avenues.
Talk to the [00:22:00] lawyers. Talk to the marketers. Your lawyers are good sources of PC ownership, deals sometimes. Marketers as well, These marketers, they help a lot of different companies market, and sometimes they know startups that are looking for people to help as well. Laboratories, clinical support businesses, sometimes they need clinicians to, help with oversight and help with, grabbing patient charts.
Again, don't just discount booths or companies because you don't think they're strictly clinical or, they're strictly physician-oriented. Make conversations, connect with different people, so forth and so on, And talking about connections, I always l-like looking out for different telehealth providers.
people are wearing their badges, when anybody, with a badge that said Dr. sometimes I just stop and say, "Hey, how's it going? It's nice seeing another doc out here. I don't usually see that. What do you do? What are you looking for?" make friends.
get out there. And, it's funny I say that. It's more of do what I say, not do what I [00:23:00] do. I'm you know, an introvert underlyingly, surprisingly. and, gosh, starting that out was very hard for me. these days were very tiring for me because it took a lot of physical and sometimes emotional toll to do this, right?
'Cause this is not usually my wheelhouse. it took a lot of me to do it. But, force yourself to do it. Force yourself to be in that uncomfortable position because, yeah, this is the skills that you're gonna need when you talk to different businesses out there, when you're trying to sell yourself,for admin jobs or for jobs other than just strict clinical jobs, right?
You can grab the stuff from the booth. You get some cool stuff from the booths, Sometimes they give some really good swag. they were giving what? Yeti cups prior or good stuff. I brought home cool things for my kids. But, it just gave me an excuse to talk to people.
and, we talked about pre-conference, we talked about conference, but I think just as important, maybe even more importantly, there's a whole world post-conference [00:24:00] hours, right? And I think this is where a lot of the connections happen and, you meet people and you kinda start the conversation during the conference hours.
But the after conference hours is where I would argue that a lot of the work gets done and things get solidified. there's a bunch of social hours or after hours parties, mixers. things are actually happening that are not on the conference schedule, and usually these events are hosted by, different entities, law firms, marketing firms, you know, different,venture capital firms, different bigger companies.
as you talk to, the different people on the floor, try to figure out who's holding these social events. Try to get on the list, 'cause this is where people kinda let their hair down a little bit. But really, this is where a lot of productive conversations happen.
So yeah, there's a bunch of different things happening post-conference. [00:25:00] Just be aware of that and try to get on those lists so you can talk to people and mingle. and then, yeah.
And I think one thing to remember though, during these social hours, and these social hours are usually happening, in bars. you get free drinks, you get free appetizers. and I probably don't have to remind people, but hey, this is still business, right? Even though it's in a more casual, environment, just remember, hey, conduct yourself in a professional manner 'cause it's a small world out there.
Everybody's watching, right? you don't wanna get all sloshy and, that's how you're known, right? So yeah,it's always business out there, even during the social events. that's really my main, recommendations for these conferences.
now, once a conference is over, don't forget to follow up. hopefully you do make connections during the conferences. People start messaging you, either through the native app that the conferences gives out or, you give out your information. Oh, another aside is, [00:26:00] hey, before you do this, make sure you make contact cards, whether it be a physical card.
You have people still use physical cards or even a virtual card. most of these conferences now you have a badge and a QR code, and different people could scan your QR code and get your contact information. That's one way. But another way I like doing too is I created a virtual business card on my phone, and all you need to do is tap, and the card just gets exchanged instantaneously, right?
I still had, physical business cards because people still like that, I like carrying around both, right? And so yeah, Follow up with these people, right? Don't lose those connections because it's funny, Some of the people that I've talked to and I thought that were just like passing connections actually reached back a few months later and said, "Hey, remember me from the conference?
I may have an opportunity for you." So yeah, things are always moving. Things are always working. Make a good impression. [00:27:00] so yeah. hopefully this helps. if you have further questions, comments, concerns, reach out. I'd love to talk to see what your thoughts are and what further questions you have.
and yeah, thank you all for listening and,you can contact me at leo@telemedicinetalks.com if you have further comments, questions, concerns. And, yeah, looking forward to talking telemedicine more. I'll see y'all later.