DTA 2010 review - Palm Springs 2010

DTA meeting 2010 Indian Well, CA

The DTA meeting was held in Indian Wells , CA at the Hyatt Grand Champions. Just outside of Palm Springs, Indian Wells is home to some of the nicest golf course I have ever seen. Topics included technology, politics, dental charities, and healthcare reform. Let’s dive into the different topics…..

Technology - One interesting piece of technology headed our way in the next generation of smart phones is called NFC. NFC or Near Field Technology is a contactless communication system. This technology enables your smartphone to communicate with other devices. Your smartphone will be able to communicate (share information) with other near field technology devices. You will be able to pay for items with a tap of your phone, share contact information (iphone 4 Bump app for example), use your phone to unlock your house or car doors. Give some thought of ways that this new technology can be used in our industry. Terry Jones of Travelocity and Kayak.com spoke about innovation and how Travelocity and other online booking systems changed the way people booked travel. This innovation was at the expense of thousands of travel agents jobs. Could this happen in dental? Is it already starting to happen with the advent of web only dental distributors?

Politics – The start of the DTA meeting coincided with the mid-term elections. With speakers like Steve Forbes and Stuart Varney there was little doubt that politics would be a hot topic of conversation. Regardless of which side of the political fence you stand both Forbes and Varney were excellent speakers and gave some tremendous insight. Varney sees the US returning slowly to decent economic growth in the spring. Forbes spoke about the elections and his flat tax proposal. The biggest concern seems to be this quantitative easing which basically means that the Federal Reserve is printing insane amounts of money to stimulate the economy. This could lead to runaway inflation.

Dental charities - The DTA is the driving force behind many charitable dental organizations. The Oral Healthcare can't wait program, the DTA foundation as well as others. The "LIVE" auction was a lot of fun, watching people bid up a golf outing with Scott Anderson of Patterson, Suntory Scotch circa 1989, as well as many other great donations and it all the money goes to charity! One important note, more money was raised this year than in any previous year. That says a lot about the members of the DTA.

Healthcare Reform - Whether you want it or not it's coming. One of the most alarming things from the dental industry’s point of view is the medical device tax. One vehicle to generate revenue to fund healthcare reform is the 2.3% excise tax on the sale of all class 1, 2 and 3 medical devices. While this may make some sense from the medical side of the equation, the dental industry will benefit very little from healthcare reform. In other words, our industry will fund healthcare reform the same way the medical industry will fund it, but with a disproportionate benefit. See the analysis HERE -- DTA discussion paper.

Overall the meeting had some great speakers and great discussions all in a wonderful setting. Next up the Greater New York meeting.

Bill

DSP