Five Years of Healthcare Supply Chain Trends and How We Plan to Bring Them to Life in Las Vegas!

The Health Sector Supply Chain Research Consortium (HSRC-ASU), based at Arizona State University, recently released its healthcare supply chain top trends for 2013. Based on analyzing trends from the past five years, it placed the topics into four categories:

• Supply chain initiatives as organizational strategy
• Collaborative relationships and trust building in the healthcare supply chain
• Impact of health reform and regulation on healthcare supply chain initiatives
• Information technology and data

With the 2013 Healthcare Supply Chain Summit two months away, we started thinking about how these categories, and their accompanying trends, are also reflected in some of the topics we plan to discuss at the event, including:

• Supply chain initiatives as organizational strategy: HSRC-ASU includes the trend of supply chain design and redesign in this category. At the Summit, we will discuss supply chain design by following USCF Medical Center’s road to automation, including how it integrated e-commerce and business practices along the way.
• Collaborative relationships and trust building in the healthcare supply chain: Building trust between trading partners is another growing trend, according to HSRC-ASU. We agree that without trust, trading relationships will never reach their potential. McLeod Health, together with several other organizations, will join us at the Summit to discuss the importance of trading partner alignment to understand a Cost-to-Serve approach so all parties come out on top.
• Impact of health reform and regulation on healthcare supply chain initiatives: With the Unique Device Identification (UDI) rule expected this year, HSRC-ASU highlighted how this mandate will have an impact on the industry. Several UDI experts will be on hand to discuss the impact of the rule and what changes providers and suppliers can expect to see, and prepare for, in the coming months.
• Information technology and data: The amount of data and technology available to providers and suppliers is greater than ever before. HSRC-ASU advises that leadership is critically needed for an IT plan. To help providers and suppliers get their own IT in order, the Summit will include individualized sessions for both parties to show them how they can take the lead in own IT activities, incorporate best practices from leading organizations and optimize into a solid plan for the entire institution.