As we worked on this issue, we kept coming back to a Bob Dylan song Steve Lutzker used in the lead of his electro-medical device story, “Charging Ahead,” on page 42. “The times they are a-changin’,” Lutzker quotes Dylan, and if we had to pick a theme for this issue, that would be it.

Changes in technology, in legislation, and in service-delivery models may soon touch our everyday businesses. To get a handle on the situation, we asked Liz Finch to interview leading industry experts about the future of home health care technology. Her story, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” chronicles the rise of telemedicine, electronic offices, and fast-growing niches, such as bariatrics. (See page 24.)

One trend arising out of technological advances, such as telemedicine, and legislative changes, such as the bundling of supplies and service under the Prospective Payment System (PPS), is the increased presence of nursing companies in HME. If you are an HME or respiratory company troubled by this trend, you will also not want to miss this month’s lead story in “Respiratory Today” on page 18. Rich Smith profiles the up-and-coming Med Diversified Inc, a large-scale provider of nursing, respiratory care, and HME that, through savvy mergers and acquisitions, has quickly become a major player in the market. Med Diversified’s CEO, Frank P. Magliochetti, Jr, AMP, MBA, says one of their strengths is that they can coordinate all care through a single person, the nurse. “Over time, the model that will emerge as the most successful is the one that is simplest from the physician and patient perspectives,” he told Smith. “That model is single-point-of-access.”

Is Magliochetti right? Will forces such as telemedicine, PPS, and consumer demand push us toward a future where the leading companies handle both nursing and HME?

I don’t know. But with new niches opening up, such as the bariatrics niche Roberta Domos, RRT, reports on in “The Overlooked Epidemic” starting on page 32, and dedicated hard-working providers willing to change with the times, I believe the HME industry will be a strong player in whatever health care model the future may bring. As Mario LaCute, our guest editor, puts it, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” And there are plenty of providers out there creating change.

Inspired by all this change, we decided to make some changes around here as well. Besides adding “Respiratory Today”—a new section where you will find the latest in this dynamic field—this month we are pleased to welcome three new editorial advisory board members who will help guide the magazine through the coming year.

Larry Rice is general manager of The Wheelchair Shop Inc in Houston and one smart cookie when it comes to the latest in rehabilitation. His 10-year-old company, which he runs with his brother Paul and sister-in-law Nancy, focuses exclusively on high-end rehabilitation equipment.

Michael W. Hamilton has been in the oxygen industry since 1955. His company, Hamilton Oxygen Service Inc in Birmingham, Ala, is now run by two of his employees and he devotes his time to serving as executive director of the Alabama DME Association and the Georgia Association of Medical Equipment Services.

Finally, Don White is president of Associated Healthcare Systems, Amhurst, NY, and the first president of the American Association for Homecare.

If you will be in Las Vegas for Medtrade Spring this month, please come by booth No. 1518, to say hello and join me in welcoming Rice, Hamilton, and White to our board.

Lena Lindahl, llindahl@medpubs.com