Next-gen supply chains tie together payments, outcomes and analytics

Greater sophistication in data analytics and a move toward value-based payments are driving new innovations in supply chain management.

2017 Trends: Materials management

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Additionally, those twin forces are fundamentally altering the supply chain's role within health care to be more prominent in terms of decision-making and providing insights on everything from improving efficiencies to integrating patient care across the continuum, according to experts.

In fact, Eugene Schneller, professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University predicts that “the supply chain manager will be increasingly involved in analysis and figuring out how to link data regarding materials’ performance with outcomes.”

Schneller is also the director of the Health Sector Supply Chain Research Consortium at CAPS Research. He and others in the field are working toward a smarter health care supply chain that is more deeply integrated throughout the entire health care system so that it can move where patients move, and improve and even predict care outcomes.