Who will be the early adopters of telemedicine? "My immediate reaction: The geeks will be the first to grab it because they grab everything but that's not a market," Michael Ackerman, assistant director of high performance computing and communications at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health said during the ATA event as moderator Dena Puskin from the HHS Office for the Advancement of Telemedicine chuckled.

"Let's be realistic, in the next few years the first ripe market is the young family at home," Ackerman continued. "This under 30 crowd is used to technology and expect to have this kind of technology. Maybe they're parenting and need an "assist" and it's not always going to come from parents and grandparents. The next market of early adopters might sound like a bit of a stretch: It's the aging market. An [uptake of telemedicine products in this market will not be] driven by the old timers. It will be driven by their grandchildren, who can recognize that certain problems can be solved with smart home technology that keeps seniors independent. Finally, there's the sports enthusiasts and healthy living people. If you promise them an extra 2.5 minutes on this earth -- they will buy anything. A lot of these telemedicine services are good for the health nuts."