Member services organization for women’s healthcare products Essentially Women recently hosted its 14th annual Focus on the Future event, which combined an expo floor with educational speakers.
Held from March 16 o 18 at Reno, Nev., the event’s educational courses aimed to help attendees become politically active; implementing successful sales, merchandizing and marketing techniques; tackle Medicare billing issues, such as audits. All of the courses were approved for American Board for Certification and Board of Certification/Accreditation continuing education credits.
Members capitalized on Focus on the Future’s tradeshow specials, and exhibits covered many different product categories, including post-breast surgery, compression, lingerie, orthopedics, wigs and other hair loss solutions, lymphedema, accreditation, billing outsourcing, breast cancer awareness products and other medical equipment and supplies.
The Essentially Women reception at the Grand Sierra Resort provided a setting for members to enjoy local entertainment while networking, relaxing, and dancing the night away. In addition, Essentially Women’s Participating Vendors hosted receptions, and offered additional training classes for CEU credit further maximizing the time for networking and education.
Highlighted speakers included:
Dr. Souzan El-Eid, MD, FACS presented “Up to the Minute Breast Care Trends,” which covered screening and detection, including imaging diagnostics and clinical signs. Attendees learned how doctors are identifying high-risk patients including the latest in genetic testing. New developments offering those with high risk conservative management versus prophylactic mastectomies were also included. El-Eid also discussed surgical techniques that incorporate how the tumor behaves, tailoring individual systemic treatments, and how plastic surgical techniques are improving cosmetic outcomes.
Jennifer Baker presented “Engagement Marketing,” which explored how to build lasting relationships with existing customers and members drives business success. The session examined how to create an “Engagement Marketing” strategy in order to generae passionate customers to promote your business. The workshop also covered best practices for email marketing, plus how to turn social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter into powerful business tools.
Donna Hartley presented: “Fire Up Your Life!” which the former Miss Hawaii and University of Hawaii graduate drew on three life-threatening events she experienced to show how attendees can develop personal leadership through proven strategies to master change in their lives. Donna is a graduate of the University of Hawaii and former Miss Hawaii. Hartley has been featured on PBS, NBC, ABC and in The New York Times.
Colleen Harryman from Noridian Healthcare Solutions, and Zita Upchurch from CGS Administrators, LLC presented “Everything You Wanted to Know about Billing Medicare for External Breast Prostheses,” which discussed documentation case studies for review, and provided in-depth policy review, as well as the responsibility of training others in their organization.