As I was flying back from the Medical Device Supply Chain Council (MDSCC) meeting this week, a book excerpt in an airline magazine caught my attention. The lead was: "Information is king, hyperconnectedness puts that information in the hands of the many, and transparency reveals all." That's certainly the reality we are moving toward in healthcare. In the book, "How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything," author Dov Seidman underscores what hospitals had to say to suppliers this week.

Seidman effectively makes the case that success no longer depends so much on "WHAT you do, but HOW you do it." In a world of reverse engineering, he argues it is much harder to innovate in WHAT, at least not in a lasting way. Even process improvement for many industries, he says, has become a commodity. Everyone's doing it. While many in healthcare...

Many of the discussions at the UDI conference have been about calls from major group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and healthcare systems for suppliers to use GLNs in business transactions.  The onus would appear to be on the suppliers, but in reality, the responsibility is on hospitals and healthcare systems.

Welcome to The Healthcare Hub, a new blog focused on the opportunities that can be created through greater collaboration and visibility in the healthcare supply chain. When I started working at GHX in 2000, the healthcare supply chain, for the most part, was viewed as a highly manual, error-ridden process and credited with doing little more than processing orders and moving boxes. Today, more and more hospital executives appreciate the role the supply chain can play in improving both business and clinical performance. Suppliers, meanwhile, see supply chain optimization as a way to create competitive advantage, improve customer satisfaction, meet regulatory requirements and control costs...