No dog days of summer at HME News

The great thing about publishing news is that it's very dynamic. And the HME industry is at the forefront of news today. We're constantly on the lookout for things we can do that will keep you current on industry news and provide a more timely and easier way for you to stay up-to-date with industry information. hmenews.com gets a makover Let me tell you about a couple of our new initiatives on the Web. Beginning in a month or two, our editors will begin blogging on our Web site, hmenews.com. You'll get their views on breaking news stories, updates on what they're writing about for upcoming issues and a variety of opinions. You'll be able to respond to these blog posts and share comments with other users. We also expect to add video interviews to the site. Again, they'll cover news and opinions, as well as interviews from the show floors of Medtrade and other events. Your comments and input will be welcome. This all necessitates an overhaul of our Web site, so look for a new Web site in a month or two. While hmenews.com is very popular in its current form (we had well over one million page views in the first half of the year) we need to make space for these additional features. Read all about it--online We're also going to begin producing a digital edition of HME News. You can see the entire issue of HME News on your Web browser, in the same form as the print version. It'll be available to all HME NewsWire subscribers shortly after the print edition is mailed. If you're not receiving the NewsWire, go to hmenews.com and sign up for your free subscription and you'll be notified when the digital edition becomes available. Get right to business On another front, in Jim Sullivan's column last month, he mentioned several of the sessions planned for this year's HME Business Summit, but he neglected my favorite, our lead-off presentation on benchmarking data. We made a decision this year to skip the marquee name, the politician or government official who's supposed to be a draw for attendees, and instead get right to business. So we're going to have Tim Pontius from Steven Richards & Associates present the results of a proprietary survey. It's been several years since a benchmarking survey has been conducted. The data Tim will present comes from a survey of providers we conducted in late May and early June. The survey was available on the Web and we received over 550 responses, a statistically significant number. Our heartfelt thanks to all who participated. We'll be sending you a link to the final report once it's compiled. Because of Tim's experience as a provider himself, we expect his Summit session to be particularly useful. By the way, there's still time to register for the Summit to hear Tim's presentation, get the results of the survey, hear about competitive bidding from those who have done it and network with some of the smartest of your peers. We already have 70% repeat registrations, with many past attendees bringing others from their company. Go to hmesummit.com for complete details. I look forward to meeting and speaking with many of you in Boston next month. Enjoy the rest of your summer.