Current health system data is often orchestrated from the shadows and requires significant human intervention to manipulate, rendering it difficult to leverage and scale. Data management principles and foundations are keystones of future success and the adoption of what are already baseline tools used in supply chain outside of healthcare.

Future: Look for industry to invest more significantly in data, define industry standards, clean and buy data content. The success of predictive analytics, agentic AI and automation of the work/workforce all predicated on the usability and accuracy of core data.

A secret army of workers performing functional supply chain tasks outside of the accountability of supply chain teams represents rogue work, poorly managed spend and creates duplicitous processes, tools and resources. Inefficiency and waste grow in strength and magnitude below the surface when left unaddressed.

Future: Look for a migration of supply chain functional tasks to supply chain teams. As we understand the value of single accountabilities for work, top of license work, efficiency, clear visibility, supply chain teams will broaden span of control, drive centralization of work (in preparation to maximize the value of automation), serve as a trusted organizational partner accountable for broader resource management.

The "dark side" industry challenges act in concert as though they merged in a long-term covert set of synchronized challenges. The complexity of battling on all fronts against multifaceted industry challenges like administrative uncertainty, atypical tariff approaches, global supply chain disruptions that creating resiliency and assurance concerns, and price/margin pressures is immense. Collectively these challenges represent broader risk.

Future: Look for continuation of significant industry complexity and healthcare supply chain leaders banding together with our peer organizations and partners to organize and collaborate for impact. Watch for supply chain management to become more synonymous with risk management.

Procedural areas have the greatest supply risk factors for product availability, widest product variation, highest cost items, expansive clinical preferences and the shortest product shelf lives. While supply chain teams often manage inventory assets, the responsibilities often stop there or are managed the same as commoditized areas by leveraging the same-skilled teams and with the same processes and technologies.

Future: Look for new hope as leading health systems redefine procedural areas supply chains by contemplating that procedural area business needs are different than the traditional field logistics areas. Watch as more supply chain teams own procedure card management, case cart picking/return and create closed cycle processes for accountability and utilization management. This will drive utilization insights invaluable partnerships with clinical teams.

Purchased services have long been a gray accountability area overlooked for supply chain team accountability and opportunity. Representing a huge and growing portion of health system spend, opportunity for management of service, term optimization, benchmarking and facilitation technology are key to an appropriate refocus and reprioritization in the space.

Future: Look for increased focus on purchased service management as a counterattack to skyrocketing organizational expenses, addressing historically poorly managed spend that lacked visibility, and management approaches borrowed from outside of healthcare.

Value Analysis Teams (VATs) are leveraged in some fashion at most health systems though their structures, effectiveness, governance models, etc. all vary wildly. Many supply chain teams have committed missteps in projecting themselves as the decision maker, have inadequately resourced, or have lacked executive leadership support. The name VAT has many different interpretations to our clinical and senior leaders. Now more than ever without restating the significant industry challenges, expense management and utilization management are critical.

Future: Look for the restoration of the good guy forces of VAT teams to be re-designed in collaboration with health systems (not as a supply chain designed process). Successful supply chain teams will earn elevated organizational status as critical cross-functional facilitators of VAT 2.0 processes.

Equipment management is highly complex and lacks the rigor we traditionally see in the management of supplies and services regarding formulary, tracking, utilization, and spend (crossing both capital and operational purchases). Versions of equipment, robotics, reusable items, supplies specific to a piece of equipment and the fleet of items often managed through facilities (not enterprise) creates a significant burden of management often crossing health tech management, IT, supply chain, capital financial processes at clinical VAT decision rights.

Future: Look for the last remaining, largely untouched area of pervasive opportunity for supply chain leaders to drive value through total equipment fleet management.

To rise to the occasion of summiting the next peak, we must challenge our vernacular. Sustainability has historically been about ESG and green initiatives though I think it is actually much larger. Sustainability, financial sustainability more specifically, is the key for long term organizational viability and as such, we need to really lean into utilization and waste as mechanisms of sustainability.

Future: Look for more organizations to rebrand sustainability as a necessity for expense management as the rise of supply chain's role as a facilitator or effective utilization and resource management.