By the time COVID-19 arrived in the United States, global supply chains were already buckling under a historic level of demand. For most individuals, the pandemic has been the first broadly sustained supply chain disruption of their lifetime. As consumers rushed to hoard hand sanitizer, toilet paper and even baking yeast, healthcare providers scrambled to secure personal protection equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other supplies critical to treating patients.

The hoarding and stockpiling of goods coupled with the increase in true demand meant traditional healthcare suppliers found themselves in unanticipated backorder situations rationing inventory. This, in turn, pushed providers to vet and source critical supplies from new vendors. There has been tremendous innovation from the healthcare industry during the past year. Many manufacturers responded to the crisis by re-tooling or expanding production lines, including Honeywell, General Motors, 3M, and GE Healthcare, among others. Within months, in-vitro diagnostic manufacturers developed COVID-19 test kits with elapsed times for results reduced from days. The market has also seen new entrants, from decontamination systems and ventilator parts and accessories to remote patient monitoring solutions. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received hundreds of emergency use authorization applications from manufacturers across the globe in response to the pandemic, many of which the agency has approved.

What’s encouraging is that COVID-19 has accelerated greater levels of collaboration among manufacturers, distributors, and providers in a short period of time. As the world continues to battle the pandemic, and the U.S. healthcare market continues its transformation to a value-based model, there’s opportunity for both traditional and new manufacturers to play a leading role based on lessons learned during this trying period.

Automated Business Processes Strengthen Partnerships
COVID-19 is here to stay for the foreseeable future. To take advantage of new opportunities, drive innovation, and extend new relationships, automating business processes will be key to winning over providers. The rapid pace at which COVID-19 spread required an agile, nimble response. Now, more than ever, there’s a premium placed on suppliers with whom it’s easy to do business. New entrants to the supplier ecosystem must invest in end-to-end, order-to-cash automation, reducing touches and errors. Moving forward, manufacturers that make it easy to transact business will become preferred vendors.

Shifts in Demand Is Part of the ‘New Normal’
Demand for certain supplies, particularly PPE, will remain high for some time. As society learns to live with COVID-19, however, demand will evolve. Remaining competitive in this “new normal” will require organizations to think about the near and long-term factors that drive demand, including the number of patients that need care and the healthcare workers who provide that care. By understanding the broader picture, suppliers can more nimbly anticipate and respond to demand shifts based on the progression of the virus. For example, some manufacturers have already stepped up production for imaging equipment that can help diagnose long-term conditions associated with COVID-19, such as blood clots. Others, including tubing, patient monitoring, and pain management vendors, are looking beyond immediate needs to understand long-term demand and how they can support providers and patients in the hospital and at home.

Another example relates to vaccines. FDA-approved vaccines must be manufactured, and then distributed and administered. There are ancillary supplies used when vaccines are administered, and these supplies will be needed in huge numbers within a compressed time frame—syringes, labels, gloves, sterile wipes, and band aids, for instance.

Further, the long-term impact of COVID-19 on human health is not fully understood yet. For some, COVID-19 appears to be a chronic illness with patients who may be affected longer term by cardiac, pulmonary, and neurological issues. Given the number of people who have survived the disease, we can expect demand for supplies to shift to meet the ongoing needs of those patients. And, given that many patients convalesce at home, and telemedicine has finally taken hold during the pandemic, manufacturers should also think about solutions that extend to home care. How can their products make it easier for people to care for themselves especially when caregivers may be restricted to monitoring their progress virtually?

The bottom line is that constant change in the demand for certain supplies will be the new normal for quite some time.

Data to Drive Innovative Approaches
Prior to COVID-19, manufacturers and providers were beginning to partner, sharing data as part of an overall effort to improve health and economic outcomes for patients and the industry. COVID-19 underscored the importance of this effort—and the need to scale. The intent behind value-based care is to shine a light on the most effective treatments for given patient populations at the lowest possible cost.

The opportunity ahead for medical device manufacturers is to use data to create greater transparency about real-world evidence. That information can then be shared broadly—across the industry—to advance and standardize treatment. Surgical suturing is a great example. Manufacturers have data on which types of sutures are best for specific cases and this information can be used to define protocols and best practices. And for those with chronic illness acquired either before or because of COVID-19, manufacturers can use data to help with those diagnoses and identify products and protocols moving forward.

Data will also help manufacturers improve forecasting. The healthcare industry is always collecting data, whether it’s around COVID-19, natural disasters, or routine care. But the industry must do a better job of anticipating events and preparing. Manufacturers have data that shows which products have been used, where and what outcomes were achieved. This data must be shared in aggregate to help inform decisions on sourcing and stocking, as well as to define protocols for specific products.

Clinical Use Data Will Increase Competitiveness
Providers have been moving away from a decades-old approach of prioritizing cost and contract compliance when making sourcing decisions. The industry’s shift to balancing the cost-quality-outcomes equation signals a shift to performance-based contracts. To succeed in this environment, manufacturers will need to begin showing the efficacy of products based on clinical use data. While manufacturers have this data today, few have put it into the hands of their sales and clinical specialist teams. Moreover, physicians would like access to clinical data to inform their decision-making regarding care pathways.

Manufacturers that put another box on the shelf without differentiating the product through clinical outcomes data will end up with a product that remains on the shelf. In turn, sharing evidence-based data will help foster innovation as manufacturers strive to capture a larger share of the market by delivering the highest quality products. Interestingly, new regulations in Europe require manufacturers to monitor and report on product performance in order to continue marketing their products in the region.

Technology and Data Will Define Strategies and Models
In thinking about the future of the healthcare supply chain, the industry must look beyond transactions. To create a more resilient supply chain, a comprehensive digital supply network must be built that affords medtech professionals visibility and access to data. The technology exists, but action is needed in order to advance the model. Consider how major retailers respond to a crisis. They use data and technology to react immediately and move supplies. Healthcare does this to some extent, but too often it takes a herculean effort. Improving the way in which providers share information will enable healthcare to become more resilient as an industry.

Data access will also help medical professionals deploy strategies that have worked well in other industries. In healthcare, there are high-turn products such as nitrile gloves, gowns, and shoe covers. How should providers source those types of products compared to slower moving goods such as pediatric sutures and surgical instruments? There must be an understanding as to the kinds of products that are best suited for a Just-in Time (JIT) model.

There’s also a significant opportunity for manufacturers to use outcomes data to drive product category segmentation similar to the consumer packaged goods industry, where teams own certain categories (e.g., oral health). These teams can become the de facto experts within categories (e.g., age group, pre-existing conditions) in order to better match products and protocol to patient populations.

The healthcare supply chain was in the midst of a transformation before the pandemic, one that involved using technology to achieve greater levels of automation and efficiency. However, that transformation is far from complete. COVID-19 highlighted the limitations of an over-reliance on a JIT model, and the need to build a more resilient supply chain, one that can meet the needs of everyday business, and weather the demands of a natural disaster or global pandemic. Manufacturers have a significant role to play in driving the industry further into the digital age and changing the way business is conducted. 

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Denise Odenkirk is vice president, Supplier Sales, at GHX where she works with manufacturers, distributors and hospitals to improve their business processes by leveraging GHX solutions. Denise brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare from a manufacturing, distribution and third-party logistics perspective. Her career began in IT leadership roles at Warner-Lambert and Aventis, and expanded to include Operations while at Bracco Diagnostics, Owens & Minor, and Symmetry Surgical. Her passion is to improve healthcare supply chain business processes and she is committed to helping companies improve their overall healthcare supply chain efficiency. Denise earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and MIS minor from the University of Delaware.