The coronavirus pandemic demonstrated the vulnerability of U.S. supply chains. One of the painful discoveries of the COVID-19 pandemic was how vulnerable U.S. supply chains are, demonstrated most vividly by the shortage of critical medical supplies and equipment. Supply chain experts agree that measures must be taken to ensure the supply chain of the future becomes more resilient and can withstand another national crisis. "Our healthcare supply chain has been overly reliant on outsourcing, to such an extent that we found ourselves in a dire shortage of PPE that are essential for protecting our frontline physicians and nurses," says Tinglong Dai, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. "To some extent, our healthcare supply chain has totally failed our clinicians and patients. It pains me to say this, but our healthcare supply chain has proven criminally inadequate."'

Grand View Research estimates the global AI market will grow at a compound annual rate of 57% between 2017 and 2025, reaching $36 billion. Forrester predicts that 2020 is the year executives will focus on how to drive and measure the value of their investments in AI. A recent survey of healthcare executives conducted by Optum found that not only is use of AI on the rise, but also that most executives expect a faster return on their investments than first anticipated. What's missing from these lofty projections are more substantive discussions about what's required to ensure that AI can deliver on its promise, such as the importance of data governance and management. There are also fewer conversations about the role AI and machine learning can play in the healthcare supply chain, compared with other areas, such as improved disease diagnosis and drug development. But when you stop and think about how AI is being applied elsewhere in healthcare, you begin to see implications and opportunities for the supply chain.

Artifical Intelligence (AI), in the form of IBM Watson, is being used to aid decision making in public health supply chains in developing countries and improve patients' access to life-saving medicines. Photo: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation"Today's AI technology offers the solution, allowing us to leverage cognitive capabilities to create a transparent, intelligent and predictive supply chain. We asked ourselves what could be achieved if we could get IBM Watson to place chatbots on the platforms available to health workers in African supply chains, so that people can improve their learning." An AI powered chatbot can deliver personalised learning on mobile devices to enhance the supply chain skills of the health workers that staff most African healthcare supply chains," says Deborah Dull, representing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. "What if, through the AI, health workers could know where specific products are in the country?

Speaking at the recent SAPICS Conference in Cape Town, Dull revealed how AI in the form of IBM Watson is being used to aid decision making in public health supply chains in developing countries and improve patients' access to life-saving medicines. She contends that the big challenges in these markets are using data to make better decisions and influencing skills. "Today's AI technology offers the solution, allowing us to leverage cognitive capabilities to create a transparent, intelligent and predictive supply chain. We asked ourselves what could be achieved if we could get IBM Watson to place chatbots on the platforms available to health workers in African supply chains, so that people can improve their learning." An AI powered chatbot can deliver personalised learning on mobile devices to enhance the supply chain skills of the health workers that staff most African healthcare supply chains.

Speaking at the recent SAPICS Conference in Cape Town, Dull revealed how AI in the form of IBM Watson is being used to aid decision making in public health supply chains in developing countries and improve patients' access to life-saving medicines. She contends that the big challenges in these markets are using data to make better decisions and influencing skills. "Today's AI technology offers the solution, allowing us to leverage cognitive capabilities to create a transparent, intelligent and predictive supply chain. We asked ourselves what could be achieved if we could get IBM Watson to place chatbots on the platforms available to health workers in African supply chains, so that people can improve their learning." An AI powered chatbot can deliver personalised learning on mobile devices to enhance the supply chain skills of the health workers that staff most African healthcare supply chains.

With an eye toward taking the healthcare supply chain to new levels, UPMC on July 8 introduced Pensiamo, a new company whose goal is to help hospitals improve supply chain performance, where costs are high and getting higher, second only to labor costs. Pensiamo is an Italian word. We can provide insights that others cannot," UPMC's James Szilagy told Healthcare IT News. Pensiamo starts up with 150 employees, spinning out certain functions of UPMC's supply chain into the new company. For now, UPMC itself is the sole customer, but Szilagy said there has been strong interest from others. "So now that we have the organization stood up, we can take them to the next level," he said. "Many healthcare entities across the country have not invested in their supply chain organizations over the years, so they are not as far down the maturity curve as UPMC is.