PHOENIX – Exhibitors and attendees absorbed a dizzying array of knowledge, products, and cautious optimism last week during an eventful Medtrade. The quotes below represent a sampling of the wisdom (and warnings) that experts shared, with much more Medtrade Monday coverage to follow in the coming weeks.
“You hear the term ‘AI’ and most people immediately think ChatGPT, but that’s only a small portion of AI. In the DME environment, that is just not enough. You have to understand all of the tools in the box, otherwise you end up risking wasted capital on solutions that just don’t fit. LLMs [Large Language Models] are designed to be helpful, but not necessarily accurate. They will competently invent a clinical requirement that does not exist just to fill the gap. In our world, a hallucination in an appeal letter is not just potentially a typo, it could result in fraud or a guaranteed denial. Having a partner or coach can help build the necessary guard rails around that brain.” — Brian Nannie, president, Notable Systems, during his hour-long AI-Ready Operations educational session on day one of Medtrade
“There’s not a lot of profit in many of these competitive bidding categories, so how can you continue to provide the service needed to patients? Or the quality of products? We are here for educational sessions that can show us how to do that. On the trade show floor, we are interested in newer vendors like we discovered last year, such as Niko. We’ll also pay a visit to Drive.” — Patricia Mastandrea and Chelsea Althoff, Medicare Equipment Company, Greensburg, Pa.
“We had a $650 million dollar client come by interested in doing business with us. Medtrade 2026 could end up tripling our pipeline of business. Medtrade has been terrific—busy as ever with different cross sections of the country. Way more attendees were ready this year to make AI purchasing decisions. Bigger enterprise companies are ready and this industry seems ready for hyper growth.” — Geoff Seyon, CEO, Celeritas AI, Mountain View, Calif.
“We’re in the tech space and we were right by Tech Talks. Volume of foot traffic was just right, and we did a lot of prep work. We had warm referrals coming over, so we saw the Medtrade network effect. The window shoppers were a bit less this year for us, but overall it was a successful show.” — Andrew White, Neru Health
“The recent moratorium [six-month moratorium on new Medicare enrollment] was a gut punch and another challenge to the industry…Dr. Oz [current CMS Administrator] is really pushing this, and he’s the one who actually approved the moratorium. But if you look at his videos and his speeches, he is not talking about you…He doesn’t think you are overpaid or over utilized. He is talking about foreign criminal entities…I think his intent matches up with ours. We want the criminals out. These criminals come in, they cash in, they leave, and who pays the bill? You are always the one paying the bill.” — Jay Witter, senior vice president, Public Policy, American Association for Homecare
“This is my second time at Medtrade and I love Phoenix. I am here mostly to learn about new ways to use artificial intelligence in the business. That’s why I’m attending the Brian Nannie [Notable Systems] educational session. I am also here to network with exhibitors and providers, as well as see vendors I already work with—specifically Brightree, Drive, Inogen, Tennr, CAIRE, and Pride.” — John Begley, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Hazard, Ky.
“This is my fourth time at Medtrade and I’m interested in Miriam Lieber’s session on staffing, as well as the high-level topics such as AI, preparing for the future, and the new annual accreditation requirements. I’m curious; Will those requirements be extensive?” — Kylie Hogfeldt, Tender Care Medical Supply, Inc., Loveland, Colorado
“This is our first time back in eight years. It’s been good so far. Coming here to Phoenix is so nice. I see customers from the west—particularly people from the Mobility City franchise. They saw our beds and hopefully we will get our beds with them. In fact, they already bought some beds right here on the show floor. We’ve had great conversations and I enjoy Medtrade.” — Johneen Nix, Transfer Master by Graham-Field, Atlanta
“Medtrade has been great. We’ve had really good quality leads that we don’t normally see at other Medtrade shows. We’ve had 25 to 30 new leads which we are very happy about. We’ve had people place orders right here in our booth this year.” — Mickala Emery, Liviliti Health Products, makers of CPAP Soap
“Medtrade has been really good and busy. Attendees were engaged and serious. We’ve had several mini conferences and our meeting rooms [at the booth] were full most of the day. Old Medtrade was back with networking opportunities that were great for seeing everyone.” — Lisa Ziehl and Angela Hartman, Brightree, Peachtree Corners, Ga.
