Repertoire Sept 2024

Preparing for the Next Pandemic

What distributors and manufacturers are doing to help safeguard the U.S. healthcare supply chain.

Smooch

Preparing for the Next Pandemic

Answer the Bell

As the school year begins, so does respiratory season – a time when COVID, flu, RSV, and strep throat start spreading more easily. For many families, the excitement of returning to classrooms is tempered by the worry of illnesses that can affect both children and adults. As medical distribution sales representatives, your role in helping physicians prepare for this season is more important than ever.

Physicians rely on accurate and timely diagnostic testing to identify these illnesses quickly. With the right tools at their disposal, they can make informed decisions about treatment, helping patients recover faster and preventing the spread of these contagious diseases. This is where you, the sales rep, play a crucial role. The manufacturers featured in the respiratory supplement accompanying this issue have all the tools your practices need to diagnose their patients. More importantly if they have taken the time and money to message you, it means you have their full support.

It’s not just about providing tests; it’s about ensuring that every physician has exactly what they need, when they need it. Flu, COVID, RSV, and strep can often present with similar symptoms, making it challenging to distinguish between them without proper diagnostic tests. By making sure that clinics and offices are stocked with the latest testing kits, you are empowering physicians to offer the best care possible.

Back-to-school season is a busy time for everyone, especially for healthcare providers. Many clinics will see an increase in patient visits as families seek care for respiratory symptoms. This makes your work even more essential. Your expertise in understanding the needs of each practice, combined with the ability to deliver high-quality diagnostic products, is what will make a difference in the lives of countless patients this season. So, whether it’s a lateral flow test, reader, or molecular test, your ability to guide your practice to ensure they have enough on hand is what will make the difference this season.

Let’s take this opportunity to reinforce the importance of preparedness. As you connect with your physicians, remind them of the value of early and accurate diagnosis. Equip them with the best tools available, and ensure they have the support they need to navigate this challenging time. Together, we can help keep our communities healthier and safer as we enter another respiratory season. That said, please reach out to your manufacturer counter parts in the supplement to hear what specials they are running this year.

Thank you for your continued dedication and commitment to excellence. Your efforts do not go unnoticed, and the impact you make is felt in every office and clinic you serve.

Dedicated to the Industry,

R. Scott Adams Publisher

editorial staff

editor Graham Garrison ggarrison@sharemovingmedia.com

editor-in-chief, Dail-eNews Jenna Hughes jhughes@sharemovingmedia.com

content creator Pete Mercer pmercer@sharemovingmedia.com

art director Brent Cashman bcashman@sharemovingmedia.com

circulation Laura Gantert lgantert@sharemovingmedia.com

senior sales executive Amy Cochran acochran@sharemovingmedia.com (800) 536.5312 x5279

publisher Scott Adams sadams@sharemovingmedia.com (800) 536.5312 x5256

founder Brian Taylor btaylor@sharemovingmedia.com

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Tumor Markers

Traditional lab diagnostic tools are being complemented by remarkable new tools. How to help equip your physician office lab customers.

 From a public health perspective, the U.S. healthcare system has been doing its job well. Since 1950, the death rate due to all causes has been decreasing steadily, while life expectancy has been increasing over the same period. In 2020, the U.S. life expectancy peaked at 78.9 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the overall reduction in U.S. death rate statistics for the leading causes of death for the first time in decades. COVID also decreased life expectancy in the U.S. by over two years according to a study published in Nature. This COVID-related life expectancy trend has recently begun to be reversed. In 2022, U.S. life expectancy once again increased by over 1.1 years according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but still lags behind pre-COVID figures.

By Jim Poggi, Principal, Tested Insights

Breaking long-term trends, leading causes of death such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, unintentional injuries and Alzheimer disease all saw increases in incidence from 2019 through 2021.

Yet cancer has been a shining example of progress. Cancer death rates have continued to decline. The cancer rate due to cancer in 1950 was 193.9 deaths per 100,000. In 2019 it had decreased to 146.2, and cancer today is one of the few leading causes of death to experience a reduction in death rates year after year.

Improved health habits are a significant factor. Americans experienced a reduction in smoking from 42% in 1965 to 14%

in 2019 following the surgeon general’s report definitively linking smoking to lung cancer and chronic bronchitis in 1964. Better diagnostic tools and awareness of the importance of early detection have also contributed significantly. Annual mammograms have decreased breast cancer morbidity and mortality. Multiple breast cancer studies prove that annual mammograms reduce the risk of death due to breast cancer by 35-41%. Fecal occult blood testing along with colonoscopy has improved early diagnosis of colorectal cancer reducing the death rate from 30 deaths per 100,000 in 1965 to 13 in 2019.

More recently, there have been innovative new diagnostic and monitoring tools for cancer.

Low dose CT scans have made early diagnosis of lung cancer a reality and are recommended annually by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and other advocacy organizations for current and former smokers between 50 and 80 years of age. This diagnostic tool enables diagnosis of lung cancer in earlier stages and dramatically improves outcomes. Even more recently, tumor genotyping assays provide the use of large-scale data to compare the genotype of a patient’s tumor to its vast database of similar cancers and helps to predict outcomes as an aid to monitoring and treatment. For cancers such as prostate and breast where the variability in tumor aggressiveness varies widely, this tool can recommend more individualized patient management saving lives and potentially reducing the need for surgery, biopsy and other more aggressive treatment methods. At the same time, cancer management has benefitted from liquid biopsy and identification of cell free tumor DNA to help guide treatment decisions based on the presence and amount of cancer tumor DNA circulating in the blood stream. Remission and recurrence of cancer can be confidently predicted by objective data for the first time using these tools.

Don’t forget the traditional tests

In the presence of these major improvements in diagnosis and monitoring, it would be easy to forget the impact made by traditional immunoassay tumor marker tests. Prior to the advent of these immunoassays, multiple enzyme assays including acid phosphatase

and LDH were identified as associated with cancer, but lacked the specificity to be useful tumor markers and are no longer used for cancer diagnosis.

The perfect screening test for any disease should exhibit several factors including high sensitivity and specificity, wide availability at a reasonable cost, and a low level of false negative and positive results. More precise, sensitive and accurate diagnostic immunoassay tumor marker tools have been a key element in early diagnosis of cancer since their inception in the mid 1960s with the discovery of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as markers for colorectal, liver and ovarian cancer.

Based on this pioneering work which identified assays with the required sensitivity to be reliable tumor markers, a large number of commercially available tumor markers and highly automated lab immunoassay platforms have become available. Your trusted lab manufacturers are the best source of information regarding currently available tumor marker tests and their clinical utility. The National Cancer Institute has published an excellent summary of current tumor markers including immunoassay, PCR, next generation sequencing and other techniques.

Tumor Marker Tests in Common Use

Scan QR code below to read the summary on current tumor markers.

These current immunoassay tumor markers provide good sensitivity, relatively low cost and wide availability. But, many tumor markers used alone fall somewhat short of specificity – the ability to tie an abnormal result to a specific cancer. As a result, specificity is still the greatest challenge for stand-alone tumor markers. But combinations of several tumor markers in a panel often referred to as multianalyte with algorithmic analyses (MAAA) tests have become more common in recent years and have improved specificity. An example is the combination of total PSA/free PSA along with a third test p2PSA. The use of MAAA test panels is growing and the range of available MAAA tests is shown in the Clinical Lab Fee Schedule with many of these test panels becoming frequent enough to be listed on the top 100 CLFS tests. They join the growing number of genomic assays rapidly entering the lab market providing enhanced diagnostic value along with high reimbursement.

In our physician office market, many of these tests remain CLIA high complexity and the combination of regulatory requirements for personnel, the relatively uncommon need for these tests and the cutting edge of their technology has not permitted them to migrate to the typical physician office lab. But advancements in technology have typically resulted in downward migration of cutting-edge technology into our market. Be sure to stay in touch with your key lab manufacturers to understand their current and future assay availability developments.

The experienced and successful distribution account manager needs to be well informed

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on the range of available tumor marker assays to effectively consult with their customers. The table below provides some useful information regarding available tumor markers, their CPT codes and reimbursement.

The above chart shows some of the most commonly performed tumor marker immunoassay tests.

For the experienced distribution account manager this information, along with the help of your trusted lab manufacturers can provide useful consultative help to your customers and can guide them to wisely choose tumor marker assays suitable for their practice as part of their overall diagnostic and treatment armamentarium.

In consultation regarding the ways lab tests can diagnose and monitor treatment of cancer, it is important to remember that both complete blood counts (CBCs) and common chemistry metabolic and organ panels are especially useful in completing

Public health authorities and advocacy groups have joined forces to deliver awareness of signs and symptoms patients need to be mindful of as well as healthy living habits to reduce the risk of disease.

the overall picture of health of a patient diagnosed with cancer and can assist your customers in providing the best care and being alert to metabolic changes (loss of kidney or liver function for example) that may require immediate intervention.

Lab tests provided at the point of care have long been known to improve the ability for the clinician to initiate or modify a patient treatment program. In our consultative efforts, it is important to consider all the elements of diagnosis important to individual disease states. In the case of cancer, we are clearly winning the battle. Public health authorities and advocacy groups have

joined forces to deliver awareness of signs and symptoms patients need to be mindful of as well as healthy living habits to reduce the risk of disease.

Patients are taking notice and are doing their part by engaging in better health habits.

Traditional lab diagnostic tools including tumor markers, CBC and chemistry tests are being complemented by remarkable new tools like low dose CT scans and tumor genotyping. The future is bright, and the successful distribution account manager has an excellent story to tell their customers to help them win the battle against cancer in your community. Spread the word!

YOUR SUPPORT FOR RESPIRATORY SEASON

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Mastering Sales 101

Five lessons to ace your Fall semester.

By Brian Sullivan

 Picture this: This month, my wife and I will take the bittersweet drive to drop our daughter Maggie off at college. Our last kid is leaving the nest, and I have a decision to make. I either wallow in my morning coffee knowing I am going to miss her, or I too get ready for the first semester of the sales “school year.”

This time of year is not just about the students; it’s about us too. That organized routine, the packed daily schedule – it’s like comfort food for the soul. And guess what? It’s the same for sales professionals. Imagine pulling up

your Outlook calendar on a Monday morning and seeing it brimming with high-value activities and client calls. The top salespeople don’t groan, “Ugh, I’m swamped this week.” Instead, they cheer, “Sweet, I’m swamped this week!”

A busy schedule doesn’t just lead to more sales; it makes you feel like a rockstar at work. So, this month, let’s go back to school and pack our schedules with routines and habits that will land us on the sales Honor Roll this semester.

Lesson No. 1: Prepare like a champion

First up, let’s channel our inner overachiever and schedule some time this week to strategize about our sales territory. Break out your client list and sort it into A, B, and C clients.

Your “A” clients are the cream of the crop, the top 20% who bring in the most sales, revenue, or profitability.

“B” clients have great potential but aren’t quite there yet, or they’re mid-sized clients already maxed out.

“C” clients are the ones who might give you small opportunities

Spoiler alert: this usually means low-value activities. Don’t mistake busyness for progress.

Right now, list all the activities that make up your workday. Seriously, write everything down. Here’s a typical list from my sales seminars:

` Checking emails

` Following up on voicemails

` Client meetings

` Putting out fires/service calls

` Driving

` Lunch

` Inputting calls

` Prospecting

It’s not just about making the initial contact; it’s about staying on your prospects’ radar. Use a CRM tool to track your interactions and set reminders for follow-ups.

or, worse, suck up your time like a black hole, preventing you from nurturing your “A” and “B” clients or finding new prospects.

Once you’ve sorted them, figure out your contact frequency and slap those sales calls into your calendar. This exercise alone can fill up a good chunk of your schedule for the next six months.

Lesson No. 2: Plan to increase your high-value activity

Average and below-average salespeople walk into the office on Monday morning and wing it. Without a plan, their calendars are empty, and they let whatever pops into their inbox dictate their week.

Look at your list and ask yourself which activities are the revenue drivers. Those are the ones that should dominate your calendar.

Lesson No. 3: Prospecting separates “A” students from “D” students Want to swap the Poconos for the Bahamas this holiday break? Then get laser-focused on what you want to sell and how much of it. Pick one or two products you think you can sell like hotcakes and plan to prospect on every call for the next 20 days. Before you start, set a goal. For instance, if you want to sell seven widgets by the end of the month, calculate how many prospecting calls and

presentations you need to hit that target. It might look something like this:

` To sell 7 widgets, you need to set up 14 live presentations.

` To get 14 presentations, you need to prospect 50 customers.

Now, get to work. Remember, while your competition quits after 7-8 rejections, you know that each “no” brings you closer to a “yes.” Keep going until you hit your magic number of 50 prospects.

Lesson

No. 4:

Embrace the power of follow-up

Follow-up is where the magic happens. It’s not just about making the initial contact; it’s about staying on your prospects’ radar. Use a CRM tool to track your interactions and set reminders for follow-ups. Be persistent, but not annoying. A well-timed follow-up can turn a maybe into a yes.

Lesson

No. 5:

Celebrate your wins

Finally, take the time to celebrate your wins, big and small. Did you land a new client? Treat yourself. Did you hit your weekly call target? Take a moment to savor that victory. Celebrating your achievements keeps you motivated and hungry for more.

By better preparing, planning, prospecting, following up, and celebrating your successes, you’ll be at the head of the class in no time. Here’s to making this fall 2024 selling semester your best one yet!

Show Time

How to add value in big meetings.

By Lisa Earle McLeod

 Are you increasingly staying silent during big meetings, only unmuting yourself just to say, ‘Thanks everyone!’ as the meeting ends? Or, on the flip side – Do you find yourself trying to contribute, only you wind up accidentally interrupting or overtalking others?

Meetings dynamics can be weird, especially over Zoom. Big meetings have a way of bringing back that awkward high school feeling of posturing, trying to be one of the cool kids. They can trigger our workplace insecurities.

Yet, big meetings are also a time that spotlights who is valuable to an organization, who has their finger on the pulse, and most importantly, who consistently delivers. If you’re not contributing, it shows. Don’t fool yourself into thinking people don’t notice. Knowing when and how to contribute can feel like a tricky dance when you’re not in charge of running the meeting. You want to talk, but you don’t want to dominate. You want to propel the discussion, but you also want the meeting to end on time. You want to show that you’re valuable to your boss, but not look like a show-off in front of your peers.

Here are three tips to help strike the balance:

Ask questions

Meetings always benefit from someone asking the right questions. Think quality, not quantity here. Questions like: ‘What effect will this have on our customers? Who will be responsible for this? What’s a reasonable timeline?’ move the meeting forward, adding insight and action. It’s not your job to grill everyone or raise all the potential pitfalls, but simply to put forth an effort to ensure the meeting is comprehensive and actionable. Ask in a collaborative tone and then listen. And the more you listen, the better questions you will be able to ask.

Contribute in advance of the actual meeting

If a big meeting is on your calendar, consider how you can contribute in advance. This doesn’t necessarily have to be asking for a formal spot on the agenda. Sometimes, that’s not feasible. Instead, get creative. You can forward a piece of topic-relevant research to the person running the meeting, or perhaps offer to support the meeting if the organizer needs someone to run breakout rooms,

capture the next steps, or corral unanswered questions.

If you’re unsure how you could help, ask for the agenda before the meeting to jumpstart your thinking. What’s going to be covered? What are the ideal outcomes? Who else is attending? Side note – if the person who called the meeting can’t answer those questions, you’ll likely jumpstart some more thoughtful planning on their part (and the whole group will benefit from that).

Zero in on action steps

Early in my career, when I was trying to up my informal leadership game, I would always jump in quickly to speak up at meetings. Over time, I learned there is great value in speaking last. After a long meeting, it can be challenging to wrap up. To add value, you can offer a few themes from the meeting and report your own, or your team’s, action items. Say something like, “For me the two biggest takeaways are, we need to prioritize X and Y.” If the meeting is very

large, you can post this summary in the chat. Don’t be surprised if the organizer reads your comments aloud as a helpful summary (I say that as a meeting organizer, who has read aloud insightful chat comments a zillion times)

Not all meetings need to be a snooze fest. Even if you’re an informal leader, you have the opportunity to set the tone. If you’re prepared, focused, and action-oriented, meetings can be hugely productive and leave you looking great.

Lisa McLeod is the global expert on purpose-driven business. She is the author of five books, including her bestseller: “Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue” and “Do Work That Makes You Proud”.

Preparing for the Next Pandemic

What distributors and manufacturers are doing to help safeguard the U.S. healthcare supply chain.

Among most global healthcare stakeholders, tomorrow’s outbreak (or pandemic) isn’t a matter of if – but when, and what. It’s even got an ominous name – Disease X.

According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Disease X is a placeholder concept that refers to a pandemic pathogen that has not yet been characterized. “Its purpose is to encourage proactive thinking about pathogens that could cause a pandemic,” the school states. “It represents a way to push people’s thinking forward so that they’re not wedded to lists of prior pandemic pathogens, like influenza.”

U.S. healthcare providers, and the distributors and manufacturers who supply them, aren’t taking the threat lightly. In the following two-part series, Repertoire Magazines highlights how the med/surg community is working with customers on their plans, inventory, and contingencies in the event of another outbreak or pandemic.

Henry Schein: Investing in Public-Private Partnerships

There are several ways in which Henry Schein serves customers through the organization’s approach to supply chain resilience and pandemic preparedness, said Allison Neale, vice president of Public Policy at Henry Schein.

First, Henry Schein cofounded the Pandemic Supply Chain Network (PSCN) in 2015. PSCN is a public-private partnership aimed at saving lives by strengthening the resilience of the global health supply chain in response to pandemics. “As the private sector lead of the PSCN, we have worked closely with partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Economic Forum, and other key stakeholders to foster coordination and enhance the resilience of the worldwide health care supply chain,” said Neale. “We also collaborate with the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) and the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) on this issue. Additionally, we serve as an active member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Supply Chain Resilience Working Group.”

Through these public-private partnerships, Henry Schein continues to hone preparedness systems to help ensure early warning of future supply chain challenges and sustain the robust pathways of collaboration needed to respond quickly to COVID-19, and future pandemics or emergencies.

Henry Schein also leverages its global scale and supply chain expertise to collaborate with its global supplier network. “This allows us to source the products most in demand by health care providers and quickly vet alternative products when needed, helping our customers best protect the health of their patients, team, and themselves,” Neale said.

Finally, the organization partners with customers to help ensure that they have the operational and clinical care solutions needed to effectively serve patients during an infectious disease outbreak, while also protecting patients and staff. Henry Schein’s medical and dental teams offer clinicians a host of products and solutions designed to reduce the spread of infection, improve air quality for patients and staff, and decrease waste

within facilities. “We offer solutions that help providers stay connected to patients and keep them informed during a pandemic or other public health emergency,” said Neale. “In addition, we assist our customers in delivering the highest quality care to patients during a pandemic through solutions such as telehealth.”

Lastly, Henry Schein is a founding member of the Association for Dental Safety (formerly OSAP). “Through our work with the organization, we have remained committed to helping dental practitioners ensure that appropriate infection control is integrated into all levels of the oral health practice,” Neale said.

What healthcare providers need to know

“As our collective experience with COVID-19 underscored, having a plan in place before emergency strikes is key to enabling providers to maintain their ability to effectively serve patients while reducing risk to patients, staff, and the practice overall,” Neale said.

Influenza preparation checklists, prepared by organizations including the CDC and the American Academy of Family Physicians, provide useful guides in helping providers develop robust pandemic preparedness plans for their practices. At a minimum, this should include designing an office management plan covering

Allison Neale

patient flow, triage, and treatment; preparing for staff illness and absences; cross-training staff for all essential functions; and establishing proper cleaning routines. While most health care offices already have infection control policies in place, it is worthwhile for practices to review those strategies and have a broad enough plan that accounts for contingency planning in case of product shortages. This may include determining which members of an office require particular levels of protection and prioritizing in advance based on the function of each individual in the office and proximity to patients, Neale said.

Vision, Values, and Goals of the National Strategy for a Resilient Public Health Supply Chain

Goal 1: Build a diverse, agile public health supply chain and sustain long-term U.S. manufacturing capability for future pandemics.

Goal 2: Transform the U.S. Government’s ability to monitor and manage the public health supply chain through stockpiles, visibility, and engagement.

Goal 3: Establish standards, systems, and governance to manage the supply chain and ensure fair, equitable, and effective allocation of scarce resources.

Source: HHS, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)

SEKISUI Diagnostics: Pandemic Planning Important to Customer Conversations

Luke Christensen, vice president of Global Sales, SEKISUI Diagnostics said approaching the topic of pandemic preparation with customers doesn’t have to be complicated. Initially, reps can ask customers a pair of simple questions: ‘What are your plans for this respiratory season?’ and ‘Anything from last season, or season’s prior you are looking to change/ improve?’ From there, the conversation can evolve toward logistical and strategic considerations.

Some of the discussion will inevitably involve assuaging any long-standing worries they may have from their experiences during the height of the pandemic.

Even today, healthcare providers are still worried about inventory and availability of product, said Christensen. They haven’t forgotten some of the difficult experiences of

supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. As a result, many providers prefer to have on hand multiple testing options in their labs for the same assay. They are also more open now to have a backup distribution partner and more open to buy direct online, via Amazon and from smaller niche distributors.

Providers need to know of any changes to the landscape from their reps, and as soon as possible. “Often there is an assumption that a provider knows any reimbursement changes, or new entrants to the market that could help improve office efficiencies and increase

Luke Christensen

patient care and access to the right diagnostic test for the right patient,” said Christensen. “The provider depends on distribution and manufacturers for this information and consultation.”

They need to be prepared for supply chain disruptions without overstocking products that could eventually expire, which can be a difficult task. Also, having a secondary distributor on hand and ready for when these issues arise is paramount.

Christensen said providers should be evaluating their DX offerings and ensure their needs or patient’s needs haven’t changed, as well as ensure they have pandemic preparedness plans in place to address their patient needs.

The following are preparedness steps Christensen recommends providers take:

` Develop and regularly update a pandemic plan to reflect new information and emerging threats.

` Stockpile essential supplies (PPE, medications, vaccines and other essential medical supplies).

` Provide on-going education for healthcare workers on infection control, use of PPE and updated protocols for pandemic response.

` Implement a system for monitoring and reporting disease outbreaks to ID and respond to pandemics early on.

` Establish a clear communication plan within an organization and with public health to get any new info out quickly and accurately.

` Implement infection control measures, including isolation procedures and sanitation practices to prevent spreading a disease.

` Work closely with local, state and federal health agencies as well as other healthcare providers to coordinate response efforts.

` Engage with the community to provide education and address any concerns.

` Expand telehealth services to reduce in-person visits.

` Provide resources for mental health and well-being of healthcare workers and patients who are affected by a pandemic.

` Regular evaluation of the effectiveness of response efforts and adapt new strategies from the lessons learned during a pandemic.

Regular check-ins

Pandemic preparation “surprisingly” comes up rarely, Christensen said, most likely due to the pandemic coming to a close.” It could also be due to what healthcare workers have endured during the last pandemic, whether it be burn out or knowing people who may

have passed away from complications due to COVID.

The topic does come up usually before respiratory season is set to begin; however, there is so much uncertainty on how “big” of a season it will be that it is still difficult for providers to fully prepare in confidence for respiratory season, let alone prepare for a pandemic, Christensen said. “At this point, being several years past the initial pandemic, most are well versed in how to handle the changes that have occurred since then and have plans in place should it happen again.”

For distributor reps, it’s best to make the subject a regular part of conversations with customers, rather than something to avoid. “Generally, [customers] are very pleased to be reminded that this should continue to be part of their yearly planning,” said Christensen.

Expanding professional and home testing capabilities

Earlier this year, SEKISUI Diagnostics received EUA clearance for the OSOM Flu SARS-CoV-2 Combo Test for use in professional and home testing settings. The OSOM Flu SARS-CoV-2 Combo Test is a lateral flow immunochromatographic assay intended for in vitro rapid, simultaneous qualitative detection and differentiation of influenza A and influenza B nucleoprotein antigens and SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antigen. It is the first of its kind for OTC, Christensen said, and U.S. produced – thus reducing the chance for supply chain disruptions.

“Our team is engaging with our distribution partners as well as customers to prepare for the upcoming respiratory season,” said Christensen. “With this product, and our well known OSOM rapid tests and new Metrix molecular platform, we have solutions for all types of respiratory infections, as well as helping update your pandemic preparedness plans.”

Concordance Healthcare Solutions: How to Assess a Customer’s Readiness

Late last year, Tim House, national vice president of Sales, Concordance Healthcare Solutions, paid a visit to El Rio Community Health Center and its director of procurement, Timothy Snowball. They had a very clear topic to discuss –pandemic preparedness. House wanted to emphasize the importance of having an ongoing preparedness plan with the Arizonabased healthcare provider.

The plan was multifaceted. Part of it involved sequestered inventory (inventory that is for one specific customer) that enabled their supply chain to have a continuous and predictable stream of PPE products. So, the provider and supplier discussed, planned and executed a strategy to create unique SKUs that only El Rio Health could purchase.

“With that strategy, we partnered in a very transparent

manner where they committed to buying stock so that it did not become obsolete,” said House.

Aside from that planning, relationships still mattered, so Concordance assigned a local market account manager (Chrissy Alexander) to support the needs of El Rio Health and the patients they serve.

“We firmly believe that onsite support, a strategically placed distribution center and a mission to positively impact lives is critical to be prepared for the next pandemic,” said House.

Top of mind

In a post-pandemic market, preparedness needs to be a frequent topic of conversation between providers and suppliers. “Our teams consistently have conversations with our customers on what they can be doing to be prepared for the next pandemic,” said House. “At

Tim House

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Concordance, we are trying to be a thought leader when it comes to pandemic preparedness.”

As such, the organization has developed technology (Surgence: wearesurgence.com) that assists providers with information that allows them to make strategic buying decisions, proactive inventory planning, substitution recommendations and much more. “We are uniquely positioned to offer this up given our exclusive relationship with Palantir,” said House. “Additionally, we have very tenured account managers that routinely discuss the best demonstrated practices. Our team members are the trusted advisors to our provider partners, and we always go the extra mile to ensure we positively impact their lives.”

Key practices

There are several important factors that providers need to be aware of, House said. Some of these may be reminders of best demonstrated practices but some may be new to their practices. The following are a few key practices House recommends providers implement to ensure a robust and resilient supply chain.

1 Forward thinking individuals

The business of providing patient care cannot continue to be done the same way as it has been in the past. In today’s healthcare environment the supply chain roles are such a critical function that the level of expertise needed to manage the day-to-day activity is much higher. These roles often require a higher level of education

As such, most distributors plan accordingly for those spikes by buying inventory upfront to help support the increase in demand of providers. These types of respiratory events are more predictable and yet they can still cause supply chain/resiliency issues.

Relative to their overall responses, some providers implement the recommendations Concordance outlines – and some do not. “Unfortunately, as a healthcare community, our memories can be very short and we may forget the challenges we faced during the pandemic,” said House. “As trusted advisors we can only continue to reinforce what the best supply chains in the country do and impress upon those who don’t change that change is needed and it should be acted upon.”

or advanced experience. “With that being said, culture and talent will eat strategy anytime,” House said. “Hire the right individuals and don’t be afraid to think about someone outside of industry.”

2 Diversify suppliers

Relying on a single supplier for critical medical supplies can be risky. Healthcare providers should diversify their supplier base to reduce dependency on any one source. “We have seen multiple customers use the strategy of

having a dual prime vendor award to thwart this risk,” said House. This could involve establishing relationships with multiple suppliers, including local and other regional (outside of state) partners.

3 Maintain adequate stock levels

Rather than operating on a justin-time inventory system, healthcare providers may need to keep higher levels of essential supplies in stock to prepare for emergencies. This includes items such as personal protective equipment (PPE), medications, and medical devices. Part of this strategy played itself out with the work Concordance has done with El Rio Community Health. Adequate stock levels don’t necessarily mean product has to be stocked at the provider’s par location; you can establish creative solutions with flexible partners.

4 Flexible supply chains

Healthcare providers should work with suppliers to develop flexible supply chains that can quickly adapt to fluctuations in demand or disruptions in the distribution network. This might involve establishing backup logistics routes or stockpiling certain supplies in strategic locations. If providers end up stockpiling product on their own, they should assign someone on their team to rotate stock and use up the inventory before it becomes obsolete. Replenishment of that product and a strong relationship with the distributor is key.

5 Leverage technology to help sourcing

and clinical teams

House said Concordance’s “Surgence” provides the level of intel

needed for providers in their day-to-day activity. It includes cross referencing, contract information, DIOH (days of inventory on hand), proactive inventory reporting and much more. “Technology is our friend and we must leverage it.”

6 Develop a pandemic

supply plan that is constantly monitored, turned and avoids obsolescence in

inventory

Emergency response plans must be clear and concise. Healthcare facilities need robust emergency response plans that outline procedures for managing supply chain disruptions. This includes protocols for reallocating resources, prioritizing critical patients, and coordinating with other healthcare organizations and government agencies. Providers should post the plan, share it with leadership and make sure their distributor can execute on the plan if needed. Depending on the level of expertise of the supply chain, it also might even be a worthwhile task to conduct pandemic

preparedness drills with the team. “As my old coach used to say, ‘Proper preparation prevents poor performance,’” House said.

7 Voice of the employee/provider

Providers need feedback from clinicians and patients about their plan. They should discuss their plan with stakeholders and make everyone aware of the proactive nature of their efforts. Over communicating a plan is key so that nobody is caught off guard, House said. “By implementing these strategies and working closely with your distributor partners, healthcare providers can enhance their resilience and preparedness to handle emergencies while maintaining the quality of care for patients,” he said.

Respiratory season reminders

There is perhaps no more opportune time to discuss pandemic preparedness than when providers are planning for the upcoming respiratory season. House said a traditional respiratory season is

one that sees spikes in usage of common respiratory products like Influenza/COVID tests, vaccinations, airway management products, pulse oximeters, isolation gowns, facial masks, exam gloves, alcohol prep pads, needles, syringes, sanitizers, etc.

As such, most distributors plan accordingly for those spikes by buying inventory upfront to help support the increase in demand of providers. These types of respiratory events are more predictable and yet they can still cause supply chain/resiliency issues.

“We often have our account managers discuss the provider’s PAR levels and ask them to increase their DIOH to help support the influx of respiratory illness related patients during the flu season,” he said. “Again, these events can be more predictable around cold/flu season, but measures need to be taken to ensure a healthy and robust pipeline. As I look to the future, providers must be prepared to tackle the challenges of the next pandemic and partner with the right manufacturers and distributors to do so.”

Dukal: Ensuring Proper Care Amid a Pandemic

Surprisingly, the topic of pandemic preparedness does not come up nearly enough in discussions with healthcare providers, said Charles Abbinanti, president of Dukal. Pre-pandemic research by the McKinsey Global Institute found that, on average, companies experience a disruption of one to two months in duration every 3.7 years. When these interruptions occur in our industry, the health of patients, families, and communities is left at risk. “For Dukal, patients and all who serve them are at the heart of what we do, and we recognize the essential role manufacturers play in ensuring proper care,” Abbinanti said.

For decades, Dukal has been a trusted source for medical consumables that represent a significant spend within acute and non-acute medical settings, Abbinanti said. “Today, with advancements in supply chain management, IT, and automation, we can provide

“Today, with advancements in supply chain management, IT, and automation, we can provide industry-leading end-to-end supply chain visibility and transparency, improving real-time accuracy to better manage your inventory, cash, and business.”

industry-leading end-to-end supply chain visibility and transparency, improving real-time accuracy to better manage your inventory, cash, and business.” Dukal communicates with customers that partnering with the company means not worrying about allocation, as their product is assigned from the start of production to their dock. “We work to exceed customer expectations

through collaborative decisionmaking and inventory planning to ensure you have what you need when you need it.”

Addressing concerns

The failure of the global supply chain in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 caused fundamental concerns about the sustainability of today’s health system, increasing demands for supply

Charles Abbinanti

chain transparency. According to Gartner, 60% of supply chain leaders say their supply chains have been designed for cost efficiency, not resiliency. Creating visibility barriers as siloed processes disrupt many companies from clearly communicating when an order ships, what was shipped, or if there are changes to an order.

Because the supply chain function oversees most of a health system’s external spend, which accounts for up to 40% of total costs, working with a high-performing supply chain can boost resilience, enhance care, increase satisfaction among physicians and reduce supply spend, placing health systems in a better position to achieve growth goals.

“Delays happen,” Abbinanti said. “[Our] Dukal InSight allows us to know about delays 60 to 90 days in advance, updating the customer with a report showing everything they ordered, the status of the shipment, where the products are located, and the new expected delivery date. This allows us to have a conversation with the customer, figure out how it will impact them, and find the best solution.”

Customers immediately see the value a transparent and proactive supply chain provides them today, as well as during times of disruption, Abbinanti said. “We’ve also had customers ask for our assistance in building out their own order-tracking tools and resources, after learning about our innovative capabilities.”

The new norm

As the healthcare industry continues to grapple with increasing

challenges across the manufacturing and supply chain landscape, port congestion and freight transportation issues have continued to emerge as significant disruptors. The need to adjust supply chains in a matter of hours or days rather than weeks has become the new norm.

Recognizing the need for transformative industry change, Dukal launched a cross-functional effort to achieve combined business, IT, and planning benefits. This effort involved crossfunctional and cross-geographical teams focused on agility, customer centricity, data interchanges, speed, and customer satisfaction.

The Dukal team implemented Dukal InSight, built on Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central

and in partnership with Mallory Alexander International Logistics’ order management process, to quickly deploy real-time visibility of customers’ orders from purchase to delivery.

“We also increase resiliency through a global footprint and collaborative safety stock programs and build upon our own disaster recovery plans by creating collaborative forecasts and safety stock programs with our customers,” Abbinanti said. “We are also continuing to expand our global footprint (i.e., sourcing product from multiple countries) and host bi-coastal warehouses to provide customers with recovery options even when faced with significant international disruptions.”

Dukal InSight Capabilities

Worldwide Tracking. Dukal said customers can stay informed on their order progress with world-wide visibility.

Compatible Excel Reporting. Provide clear visualizations and reports of inventory availability to cross-functional teams whether it’s in production or in transit.

Automated Communication. Get up-to-date reporting and respond to market disruptions, mitigate risk, and maintain business continuity with weekly automated emails.

Product Tracking at the Item Level. See item details down to the line item with descriptions, unit of measure, order date, planned shipment date, planned delivery date, and current milestone.

Product Assigned at the Factory Level. “Partnering with us means not worrying about allocation, as your product is assigned from the start of production to your dock,” Dukal said.

Proactive Collaboration. With full visibility and a global team, Dukal said it can act with speed and confidence to make proactive decisions to maximize efficiency and avoid costly delays.

Predicting the Next Pandemic

How the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics is ramping up efforts to better plan for infectious disease outbreaks.

 We live in a globalized, interconnected world. While this has created enormous opportunities for travel and trade, it’s also increased mankind’s vulnerability to zoonotic diseases through contact with animals. And most infectious diseases come from animals in some capacity, said Dylan George, PhD, director for the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“What we learned during the COVID pandemic is that the next infectious disease outbreak is only a plane ride away,” Dr. George said.

Indeed, as the pandemic taught us, we are just one incident away from one individual infecting another and causing an outbreak. Having better public health systems and capabilities will make sure that U.S. healthcare stakeholders can better prepare for and ultimately combat those infectious disease outbreaks.

Dr. George said we are at a transformative moment in history. It is an era of pandemics and epidemics throughout our interconnected world. We are also in the middle of a technological renaissance, with new inventions, systems and methods that can enhance our response to healthcare crises.

CFA’s team is tasked with developing the capabilities that will help address those threats in a much more robust way. CFA works with private industry partners, academia, local public health organizations, and other agencies

in the federal government to create forecasting tools and other resources to respond to public health emergencies.

In the fight against infectious diseases, information is power, said Dr. George. “Our main goal is to support public health decision makers in making decisions associated with infectious disease outbreaks,” he said. “The way that we do that, our kind of secret sauce in how we’re trying to achieve that goal, is by developing modeling analytics and forecasts to help us understand what’s coming next in an outbreak.”

CFA makes models, tests and adjusts them so that healthcare stakeholders and government agencies can better understand how interventions are used in real time during an outbreak.

In addition to COVID-19, CFA has supported the development of new tools and techniques to forecast emerging disease threats such as Mpox, Polio, and Acute Pediatric Hepatitis. Since 2022, CFA has awarded over $122 million in funding to academic, private and public institutions to advance modeling and forecasting strategies. In 2023, CFA launched

Insight Net, the first national network for disease outbreak modeling and analytics, which includes more than 100 partners.

Partnerships

As potential outbreaks develop, the CFA works closely with state and local jurisdictions, as well as academic groups, to analyze the data available and create better methods of monitoring. For instance, in the early stages of H5N1, the movement of dairy cattle being sold or transported across the United States was a critical concept to understand because it was leading to the spread of the disease. CFA’s partners at Northeastern University worked to come up with predictive models of how cattle movement was happening in the United States based on how they were being moved around from farm to farm across the interstate. This helped stakeholders target surveillance in different states in a much more effective way in the early stages.

Meanwhile, CFA’s partners at Johns Hopkins University created a risk assessment for H5N1. Although there was relatively little data to use, researchers were still able to apply a model for informed thinking towards the risk. The risk assessment went up relatively quickly to help stakeholders to start thinking through what the challenges and risks involved.

Partnerships with academic groups like Northeastern and Johns Hopkins are critically important toward developing new methodologies, modeling, and forecasting capabilities. State and local partners are also central to CFA’s mission. “In the United States, most of the action in public health happens at the state and local level,” said Dr. George. “The federal

government is here to support the state and local level government in what they’re doing. They are a key partner in how we’re moving things forward. That’s why we want to work much more closely with our state and local partners and their public health organizations, to make sure they have better resources and better modeling capabilities to help the people that live in their jurisdictions make better decisions about ongoing outbreaks. Both academics and state and local [officials] are critically important for us to execute on our mission and meet our goals.”

Because of the way the nation’s public health system is set up, there is diversity across various groups on how they’re

reporting data, and the frequency with the reporting data, Dr. George said. Efforts are ongoing to standardize what’s reported. There’s also a data modernization initiative underway to improve the technology used to enable data to be moved more effectively from electronic health and laboratory records, immunization services, death and vital record services to public health in a much more efficient and timely way.

“Not only are standards being developed, but also technology is being deployed to improve those processes to make sure that we have much more improved quantity and quality of data that will help us do the modeling that we need to moving forward.”

With an accurate forecast, state health officers can ask hospital leaders if they’re prepared for a surge, and if not, determine what steps they need to take before the numbers begin to rise.

AI and outbreak analytics

Technology is increasing the ability to better monitor and forecast infectious disease outbreaks as researchers are testing advanced analytics in different capacities to learn more about an infectious disease going forward. That includes the potential born from artificial intelligence. One of the challenges that researchers are finding currently with artificial intelligence, though, is that there needs to be a very big body of data to actually use it at scale.

“The challenge with an outbreak is that in its early stages, you have relatively few data,” said Dr. George. “There’s a mismatch of applying a lot of artificial intelligence capabilities to an emerging outbreak. We need to find tools that will help us work in a data sparse environment. That’s one of the challenges that we’re working on and trying to apply the advances in artificial intelligence and other advanced analytics to this particular problem.”

CFA and respiratory season

The big three respiratory diseases –influenza, COVID, and RSV – create the most hospital burden during respiratory season. Last year was the first year that CDC put out a Respiratory Disease Seasonal Outlook. Over the course of the season, CFA wanted to monitor how much hospital burden should be expected within various jurisdictions. This was a pivotal effort, because public health has historically looked retrospectively at the data to try to understand the real-time risks.

The pandemic revealed the need to do that much faster, and be forward leaning, said Dr. George “We need to be prospective, we need to be thinking forward into the future as to what’s coming at us, because it’s happening so fast,” he said. “CFA was born to create analytical capabilities that will help us anticipate the challenges we’ll see in an outbreak.”

The seasonal outlook was a major step forward in looking prospectively across the season, Dr. George said. “That’s really hard to do. I’m going to be the first one to admit that it is fraught with challenges going forward, but we just actually graded ourselves recently on that, and we did pretty well this first season. Now, we need to turn the crank and do it much better.”

The goal is for agencies and jurisdictions to be able to use the information to better anticipate and plan for the level of burden hospitals can expect for COVID, influenza and RVS. With an accurate forecast, state health officers can ask hospital leaders if they’re prepared for a surge, and if not, determine what steps they need to take before the numbers begin to rise.

“A couple different states were talking to their health hospital care, their hospital systems to actually do that sort of planning ahead of the time,” Dr. George said. “That’s how they used it last season, and they’re going to try to use it again in a similar way this upcoming season. We’re really excited about how it’s being used for preparation and preparedness in the face of this respiratory season.”

At the federal level, CFA works closely with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to anticipate the demand, and whether there could be supply

issues in a time of crisis. “We work very, very closely with our colleagues in ASPR to make sure that they understand what the kind of epidemiological predictions are, and the anticipated forecasts, so that they can then figure out the analytics for the demand that would be needed for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics in different capacity for important various medical countermeasures.”

Future response

Before joining CDC, Dr. George worked in the private sector as a vice president at Ginkgo Bioworks, where he helped develop

CFA Goals

CFA supports innovation to improve the science of disease outbreak analytics and modeling by:

` Producing data-driven models and forecasts to predict the course of disease outbreaks.

` Informing decision-makers of potential consequences of outbreaks and public health responses.

` Ensuring effective decision-making, using real-time data, advanced scientific analytics and modeling.

CFA staff work with partners in public, private, and academic sectors to advance their research and achieve their goals.

Predict

Deliver actionable analysis and response-ready modeling tools.

` Build an array of models and tools for outbreak analytics.

` Collaborate with public health programs to apply CFA's models and community tools.

` Test, evaluate, and improve CFA's modeling and data sources.

` Provide analysis for urgent response needs.

improved real-time infectious disease monitoring capabilities and analytics for pandemic response. Prior to Ginkgo, Dr. George was a vice president at In-Q-Tel (IQT), where he vetted life science and healthcare deals, and developed science and technical strategies to strengthen capacity within the U.S. to counter biological threats from infectious disease.

Dr. George served on the Biden-Harris transition team working on national security policy for the COVID-19 response, and on the agency review team for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Inform

Generate practical decision support products.

` Share technical reports with actionable insights for decision-makers.

` Translate and circulate CFA-developed analytics.

` Establish and maintain collaborations to improve CFA techniques.

Innovate

Drive technological and analytic innovation.

` Transform forecasting, analytics, and communication.

` Advance analytic technology architectures for CFA and it’s partners.

` Establish technical specifications to support the flow of information.

Advance

Build a world-class forecasting and outbreak analytics organization.

` Attract and retain an ambitious and diverse workforce.

` Drive CFA talent growth through robust career development initiatives.

` Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and transparency.

` Plan and execute for sustained success

One of the reasons he left the private sector to help build CFA was because he fundamentally believes that we are at a pivotal point in history where we can actually bring to bear new technologies, improved data and improved analytical capabilities to generate better information so that people can make better decisions about their own health and their family’s health.

“I know that we saw lots of failings in how we were using data across COVID, across the pandemic,” he said. “I am confident that the team, the tools, the processes, and the capabilities we’re building are going to be helpful to keep Americans safe in the next pandemic. That’s why I get up in the morning. That’s why I can look my kiddo in the eyes and can smile at him, knowing that he’s going to have a brighter future.”

Dr. George likens CFA to a startup company within the government. They began as a fiveperson team, and have grown to more than 75. “I’m very proud of the opportunity to work with the team that we’ve built at CFA,” he said. “They are some of the best in the business, and we are really shooting for becoming the world leader in how to use analytics to guide decision-making during an outbreak or a response.”

CFA has come a long way in its capabilities in a short amount of time. In the early stages of building the organization, if there was an outbreak or a surge in infectious disease cases, they had to choose whether to help in the response efforts or continue to build out the infrastructure.

“Of course, we were conceived of and built to respond, so we always picked response, but we had to put all the building the organization on hold while we were helping out.”

For example, during Omicron, there were only eight team members. While CFA helped with the Omicron response, it took weeks of involvement, and the team had to pause its build-out plans.

That’s no longer the case. For instance, CFA was involved with the measles response in Chicago in June and July. They’ve been involved in the H5N1 outbreak in cattle from the start. And they’ve been preparing

Insight Net

for the fall respiratory season. “We’ve been doing high quality work in all of those responses and preparatory work, while we’ve still been able to continue to build our organization,” Dr. George said. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We’re meeting our mission, and we’re improving on how we’re doing that at the same time, which is a really great place to be. I’m super excited about where we’re going.”

Established in 2023 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA), Insight Net focuses on training, analytical tool development, and advancing the analysis and use of data about infectious disease spread. Through this, CFA aims to improve anticipation of infectious disease outbreaks, generate information to empower public health decision-makers, and guide actions for protecting communities in public health crises.

The network brings together 13 centers, including 5 centers of innovation, 5 centers of integration, and 3 centers of implementation.

Innovators

` Develop advanced methods and tools.

` Train the next generation of specialists in ID modeling and analytics.

` Focus on supporting public health decision-making.

Integrators

` Bring together methods and tools that are closer to real-world use.

` Establish response-ready data collection mechanisms.

` Evaluate integration efforts.

Implementers

` Help scale up promising outbreak tools after pilot testing.

` Train public health professionals in forecasting.

“Together, our mission is to support state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health departments by establishing connections with STLT jurisdictions, creating infrastructure for response activities, and identifying key areas of focus in public health emergencies,” CFA says on its website. “All centers stand ready to activate in an infectious disease emergency.”

Source: https://insightnet.us

THE PATH TO BETTER PATIENT OUTCOMES BEGINS AT THE POINT OF CARE (POC)

Patients with diabetes who are tested to American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines are over 5 times more likely to acheive an HbA1c under 7%.1 The Afinion™ 2 analyzer enables providers to utilize in-visit test results to improve patient outcomes and quality metrics by coaching their patients to follow ADA guidelines.

Afinion™ 2 Analyzer Key Benefits

Small 1.5 μL fingerstick sample

Highly accurate HbA1c results in approximately 3 minutes

Easy to use in just 3 steps

Key questions to ask your providers:

The first and only POC HbA1c test cleared for diagnosing, screening, and monitoring diabetes

1. What percentage of your patients with diabetes are at goal with HbA1c under 7%?

2. On average, how many HbA1c tests do your patients with diabetes take per year?

3. How would patient outcomes improve if they tested at the POC following ADA guidelines?

Contact your Abbott Account Executive or scan the QR code for more information about the Afinion™ 2 Analyzer.

* Afinion™ HbA1c Dx and ACR tests are moderately complex.

Reference: 1. Whitley HP, et al. Ann Fam Med. 2017;15(2):162-164. ©2024 Abbott COL-25318

Today’s Research, Tomorrow’s Healthcare

AHRQ celebrates 35 years of advancing healthcare through research and innovation..

By Pete Mercer

 The Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ), the premier federal agency that works to improve the safety and quality of healthcare for all Americans, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. The operational theme for this anniversary is “Today’s Research, Tomorrow’s Healthcare,” positioning the agency’s history in providing a solid scientific evidence base for tomorrow’s healthcare delivery and policy.

Because improving healthcare is a communal effort, AHRQ will celebrate this anniversary by highlighting the successful partnerships and collaborations formed with co-founders, partners, grantees, stakeholders, staff members, and alumni that enhance the quality and safety of the healthcare industry. Congress decided to elevate the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment to full agency status in 1989, creating the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. “This pivotal moment recognized health services research (HSR) as a fundamental component of healthcare and a key to improving healthcare delivery. In 1999, Congress renamed the Agency as AHRQ, reaffirming and codifying our role not just as a funder of scientific research, but as the federal home of HSR,” Dr. Robert Otto Valez, PhD, MHSA, wrote in a blog post to commemorate the anniversary. This is a notable benchmark for AHRQ and the industry at large because of how critical it is to protect the safety and quality

of healthcare for every patient.

AHRQ has proved over the last 35 years that research is instrumental to the future of healthcare and the overall wellness of American patients. As Dr. Valdez wrote in his blog, “AHRQ has established a tradition of supporting groundbreaking health services research to make healthcare more accessible, equitable, affordable, and safer.”

Over the last 35 years, AHRQ has implemented several notable improvements and initiatives across the healthcare space.

How the state of patient safety has changed in the last 35 years

While it’s hard to imagine with the many levels of compliance that are in place now, the safety of the patient wasn’t the highest priority 35 years ago. In fact, Craig A. Umscheid, MD, MS, Director, AHRQ’s Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety said that patient safety was a “fledgling field” at that time. He said, “Medical errors such as healthcare associated infections were accepted as the cost of doing business. There was limited transparency about medical error, and individual clinicians were often blamed for medical errors, rather than addressing those systems facilitating errors in clinical practice. Such views made it difficult for providers and healthcare systems to learn from their own errors or learn from others facing similar patient safety challenges.”

Without the structure and framework that is necessary to track and prevent medical error, it creates an atmosphere without

any transparency or accountability for the healthcare professionals who are, intentionally or not, hurting their patients.

Umscheid also pointed out that without that framework in place, it robs patients and their families of the power to voice their concerns and advocate for themselves. That lack of agency is not only dangerous to the health of the patients in the care of the provider, but it also harms the patient-doctor relationship by removing any sense of trust from the equation. That relationship is critical to the health of the patient – when the patients don’t feel like they can trust their doctors, why would they put themselves at risk to receive care?

AHRQ accomplishments

Over the last 35 years, AHRQ has implemented several notable improvements and initiatives across the healthcare space. The Healthcare-Associated Infections Program has had a significant impact on preventing infections related to healthcare-related infections, one of the leading threats to patient safety in a healthcare space.

This program helps to prevent healthcare-associated infections by improving the provision of care to patients from frontline clinicians and other healthcare staff members. Through this program, AHRQ was able to develop tools to improve safety culture and develop better patient care processes like the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program. CUSP was developed by Peter Pronovost through an AHRQfunded grant in the early 2000s, resulting in a 61% reduction of central line-associated bloodstream

infections (CLABSI) in over 100 ICUs in Michigan.

After finding success there, AHRQ rolled out a national implementation project that resulted in a 41% reduction in more than 1,000 ICUs, showing that zero CLABSI was an attainable goal. The CUSP approach has since been applied to a number of healthcare-associated infections, including catheter-associated urinary tract infections in hospitals and nursing homes, surgical site infections in inpatient surgery, and the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use.

Other programs like the CAHPS Programs develop validated surveys that assess patients’ experiences with care in different healthcare settings and health plans, which has improved over time, according to research conducted by AHRQ. The Surveys on Patient Safety Culture Program surveys healthcare employees that assess patient culture in different care settings, while the Patient Safety Organization Program has been a significant contributor to patient safety across the healthcare continuum.

The state of patient safety today

While there have been significant changes and improvements to patient safety culture over the years, there is still work to be done. Umscheid said, “We need to continue to focus on how organizations can identify and address opportunities to strengthen the foundations of healthcare safety, including strengthening institutional culture of safety, amplifying the voice of patients and families in safety, supporting safety and

well-being of the healthcare workforce, and supporting a learning healthcare system, which can learn from error and grow in response.”

Those “foundations” can be supported at any healthcare setting – acute care hospitals, ambulatory care, nursing homes, primary care, and home health settings. As the population continues to age, ambulatory care, nursing homes and home health settings are becoming increasingly important. Additionally, equitable care is a significant component to providing safe care. The goal is to create environments where everyone can receive the highest level of healthcare, regardless of things like race, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation, geography, language, and plenty of other factors.

Healthcare providers have an exciting opportunity regarding patient safety these days with a vast array of tools and technologies to improve care and optimize efficiency. From improving workflows to enhanced diagnostic testing, there are many new ways to ensure the patient receives the best care possible.

Umscheid said, “We continue to learn more about opportunities for improving diagnostic safety, which includes making the right diagnosis and effectively communicating that diagnosis to patients. AI may offer one approach to support diagnostic safety but may also present unintended consequences which need to be better understood so that they can be mitigated, particularly as this technology becomes more pervasive in healthcare delivery.”

AI in Healthcare

How AI is shaping the current state of the healthcare industry.

 The topic of Artificial intelligence (AI) is a complex one, as the world continues to learn both about how AI works and how we can take advantage of its computing abilities while remaining ethical. AI softwares have now been introduced across the U.S. within hospitals and health systems, often making physician workflows more efficient and diagnosis results more accurate.

AI technology has begun to encompass just about every aspect of the healthcare field – from combatting physician burnout with technology, battling health misinformation, AI-specific health

research, and health systems coming together to regulate and control the use of AI as a healthcare tool.

Read on as Repertoire Magazine breaks down the latest in AI healthcare news.

AI and Health Information

Cedars-Siani study shows that AI can evaluate cardiovascular risk during CT scan

AI has largely taken off in healthcare because the technology can

assist researchers and physicians in more accurately identifying both diseases and their treatments.

A recent study developed by researchers at Cedars-Siani found that AI can accurately evaluate cardiovascular risk during patient CT scans without contrast. This accurate, technology-based imaging method measures coronary calcium and sizes of patient’s heart chambers and muscle, which makes identifying cardiovascular risk in patients much less expensive.

Research conducted in the Cedars-Siani study incorporated two different artificial intelligence models to evaluate data on coronary calcium and heart muscle chamber sizes from nearly 30,000 patient imaging records. Researchers were able to determine that these new measures using AI are a better indicator of cardiac risk than an individual radiologist’s identification of abnormalities.

Generative AI to fight health misinformation

Physicians and healthcare leaders across the industry are searching for ways to keep patients and communities safe from costly and deadly medical misinformation. The COVID19 pandemic and social media exacerbated the negative impacts of medical misinformation, which threatens the well-being of patients and leads to burnout for public health officials.

To combat misinformation, researchers at the University of California Davis launched the Health Cloud Innovation Center (UCDH CIC) in November of 2021, with the goal of solving issues within digital health innovation.

The UCDH CIC, in collaboration with The University

of Pittsburg and The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), started the groundwork for Project Heal, an open-source AI/ML-based toolkit concept that assists public health officials in protecting communities from misleading and incorrect health information. Project Heal provides public health officials with the tools to manage workloads more efficiently. It also allows them to shift from reactive to proactive behaviors, allowing community education to empower individuals to make informed health decisions.

Project Heal will give public health professionals the ability to generate, edit, tweak, and adapt counter messaging of false health claims, with messaging specific to certain populations. To achieve this, Project Heal will use generative AI foundation models (FMs) through Amazon Bedrock, such as Amazon Titan. Through this technological advancement, Amazon Bedrock can generate more personalized messaging by combining trusted information and user preferences.

Study shows potential for using AI tools to detect HAIs Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a serious, costly disease in both hospitals and healthcare environments. According to the CDC, there were approximately 687,000 cases of HAIs in acute care hospitals in the U.S., and 72,000 HAI-related deaths among hospital patients in 2015. About 3% of all hospital patients have at least one HAI at any given time.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) shows that

AI technology can be of great assistance in accurately identifying cases of HAIs in clinical scenarios. Researchers at Saint Louis University and the University of Louisville School of Medicine evaluated the performance of two AI-powered tools for accurate identification of HAIs. One tool was built using OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus and the other was developed using an open-source large language model known as Mixtral 8x7B.

For all six cases tested, both AI tools identified the specific HAI accurately when given clear prompts. The researchers found that missing or ambiguous information in the descriptions could prevent the AI tools from producing accurate results. This research exemplifies the potential for incorporating AI technology as a component of routine infection surveillance programs and highlights the need for clear and consistent language when programming AI tools within healthcare.

Many hospitals have a variety of systems in place to monitor and control infection risk, however they often require extensive training and resources. AI technology could potentially serve as a cost-effective alternative to current surveillance programs for cost savings and better protection for high-risk patients.

AI and Physician Burnout

Using AI to improve EHR

According to American Medical Association’s (AMA) Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, complicated data management systems can cause stress for physicians as they navigate extra administrative responsibilities in the workplace.

To combat this issue, healthcare practices have begun to use AI tools that integrate data automation to make the process of triaging and responding to patient messages much more efficient, noted Dr. Ehrenfeld. Administrative AI tools leverage technology to more efficiently accomplish time-consuming tasks, alleviating work-related burdens for physicians.

According to Dr. Ehrenfeld, the healthcare field is also starting to see practices experiment with AI scribes to cut down on the time physicians spend on documentation. This process uses generative AI to address long-standing problems within healthcare and physician burnout by addressing the most time-consuming tasks.

DAX Copilot to automate the creation of clinical documentation and reduce physician burnout at Stanford Health Care Nuance Communications and Stanford Healthcare have deployed an AI system that reduces heavy administrative workloads that lead to physician burnout, called the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot.

The DAX Copilot software expands access across the healthcare industry to personalized and highquality care, primarily by automating the creation of clinical documentation during patient exams. The technology automatically and securely drafts clinical summaries of exam room and telehealth conversations quickly for review and entry into the Electronic Health Record (EHR).

It gives physicians more time to see more patients each day by reducing the time needed to create clinical documentation.

According to Standford Health researchers, in a preliminary survey of Stanford Health Care clinicians using DAX Copilot, 96% of physicians stated that it was easy to use, and 78% reported that it expedited clinical notetaking. About two-thirds reported that DAX Copilot saved time.

DAX Copilot optimizes administrative efficiency, enhances care quality and value, increases access to care among communities, and trains the next generation of clinicians to advance precision care.

Mayo Clinic and Google Cloud collaborate to improve clinical workflows with generative AI To determine treatment options and help physicians with clinical definitions, conditions, and diagnoses, healthcare professionals often use information from various sources including medical records, research papers, and health guidelines. Healthcare data is often stored in clinical offices in numerous different locations and in a variety of formats, making it difficult at times for physicians to quickly find needed health information.

To make clinical workflows easier and more efficient for patients, Mayo Clinic and Google Cloud have collaborated for the benefit of the healthcare industry to create the Enterprise Search in Generative AI App Builder (Gen App Builder), which improves the efficiency of clinical workflows, makes it easier for clinicians and researchers to find the information they need quickly and easily, and ultimately helps to improve patient outcomes.

The Google Could Gen App Builder technology works by unifying data across dispersed documents and databases, making it more efficient to quickly search through and analyze needed health information. Mayo Clinic is an early adopter of the technology and is currently exploring how Google-quality search and generative AI can bring much needed information to doctors quickly and easily.

synthesizing a large amount of unstructured data. Fortunately, AI is very good at summarizing unstructured data in text form.

According to Providence and Microsoft, AI can assist doctors in treating cancer patients with more refined lab tests, scans, and genetic analyses that can help promote a better understanding of an individual patient’s case.

Summarizing these types of data and results into personalized

According to UT Southwestern Medical Center, AI holds the potential to transform the healthcare industry, can be used to help screen patients, develop new treatments and drugs, and enhance overall public health.

AI Partnerships

AI can help cancer patient receive personalized and precise treatment faster With the industry-wide adoption of AI, some health systems have begun to partner with technology leaders to implement more effective healthcare solutions and improve patient care. Providence, a 51-hospital healthcare organization across the Western U.S., has developed a research prototype of AI tools, with the help of Microsoft, that sort through patient databases. The technology aims to find the best therapies available to patients and advance their cancer treatment.

Patient information exists in a variety of formats – electronic medical records (EMRs), imaging scans, genomics, and many varieties of lab tests. The same information might be noted using different formats, and the core of the patient information requires

therapies can adapt treatments and medications to each patient’s genetic biomarkers. Assessing all this information into usable data, for one doctor alone, is an unfathomably huge task and AI cuts the processing time for these tasks in half.

Providence is working with Microsoft on more AI prototype tools that improve care for cancer patients and accelerate progress in understanding cancer. Providence and Microsoft are also working together on new technologies for machine learning using diverse data generated and managed by Providence.

New consortium of healthcare leaders form Trustworthy and Responsible AI Network (TRAIN) To increase the regulation and accessibility of AI technology, numerous healthcare organizations have come together to ensure the quality, safety, and trustworthiness of AI softwares within the healthcare field.

Organizations including AdventHealth, Advocate Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, Mercy, Mount Sinai Health System, Northwestern Medicine, Providence, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and many more, in partnership with and Microsoft (as the technology enabling partner), launched the Trustworthy & Responsible AI Network (TRAIN), which aims to operationalize responsible AI principles across the healthcare industry.

According to UT Southwestern Medical Center, AI holds the potential to transform the healthcare industry, can be used to help screen patients, develop new treatments and drugs, and enhance overall public health.

Across the UT Southwestern health system specifically, researchers are utilizing artificial intelligence to break down complex biological processes in human health to improve patient care. Examples include the development of a deep learning system to predict which melanoma cell lines will metastasize, and the deployment of an AI-powered location system to track equipment and improve efficiency in the Radiation Oncology facilities, according to UT Southwestern.

All of TRAIN’s members will help improve the quality and accessibility of AI by sharing best practices among the organization – including information on the reliability of AI algorithms and the skillsets required to manage the technology, providing tools and best practices for studying the efficacy of AI, and facilitating the development of a federated national AI outcomes registry for organizations to share and learn from.

Rising Irregularity

The cardiovascular condition known as Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) is on the rise in the U.S.

 The prevalence of cardiovascular disease is on the rise in the U.S., and statistics have shown the alarming trend that heart diseases could soon impact nearly half (48%) of American adults, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

A particularly prevalent, debilitating cardiovascular disease, known as atrial fibrillation, or AFib, causes patients to experience a quivering or irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). Sometimes the heart’s upper chambers quiver so quickly that the heart cannot relax between contractions. This functional abnormality reduces the heart’s performance and efficiency, leading to life-threatening symptoms for patients, according to The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH).

“AFib is an irregular heartbeat that, if left untreated, can lead to life-threatening complications such as blood clots, strokes, and heart failure. The disease can manifest itself differently in different patients,” said Mellanie True Hills, founder and CEO of StopAfib.org.

Currently, approximately 7 million Americans are living with atrial fibrillation, according to the NIH. The AHA estimates that over 12 million people are projected to have AFib by 2030. Each year in the U.S., AFib accounts for nearly 500,000 hospitalizations and almost 150,000 deaths.

AFib is generally an ongoing heart issue that persists for years. The disease tends to be progressive, going from paroxysmal

(intermittent) to persistent (all the time) or longstanding persistent, (more than one year of being persistent). The disease often becomes persistent or continuous over time and is no longer episodic.

In patients with AFib, because the heart is quivering rather than pumping blood rhythmically, not enough blood gets pumped out of the atria (heart chamber) each time the heart beats. The blood, as a result, becomes stagnant and forms into clots. Blood clots can be extremely dangerous, as blood clots formed in the heart can be inadvertently pumped out of

the heart to the patient’s brain, according to the NIH, blocking its blood supply and causing a variety of complications throughout the body.

Some patients may not notice the symptoms of the heart condition, known as asymptomatic AFib. The disease also may be much more difficult to diagnose if a patient comes into a physician’s office when the heart is beating at a normal speed. In these cases, patients don’t report anything amiss to their physician. As a result, AFib may not be caught or diagnosed unless a

patient comes in for a different surgery or procedure. In other cases, the disease might be mistaken for something else.

“If the disease is persistent or longstanding persistent, it may be caught in a doctor’s visit,” said Hills. “However, if it is paroxysmal, it may not be. If the disease is asymptomatic, regardless of whether it is paroxysmal, persistent, or longstanding persistent, the person may not notice it or mention it to their doctor, and thus it may not get caught, especially if the person’s pulse is not checked during the appointment.”

AFib can result in serious health issues if not diagnosed and treated promptly. About 15% to 20% of people who have strokes in the U.S. have also been known to have AFib, according to the AHA.

Timely diagnosis and treatment

Timely diagnosis and treatment of AFib is very important to best assess a patient’s condition and make treatment decisions. However, due to a variety of factors, patients across the U.S. may not receive the same treatment for the life-threatening condition.

The impacts of AFib have been shown to vary substantially due to a patient’s race, ethnicity, sex, and social determinants of health, according to a report from StopAfib.org titled “Addressing Health Equity to Improve Atrial Fibrillation Patient Experiences and Outcomes.”

AFib is most common in men and White individuals. The estimated lifetime risk of AFib in White patients is 1 in 3, in women is 1 in 4, and in Black populations is 1 in 5, according to StopAfib.org.

“For the most up to date treatment of AFib, it may be important to see a specialist, such as an electrophysiologist; that is a cardiologist with several extra years of training to specialize in the electrical system of the heart,” said Hills. “However, accessing specialty care for certain groups of patients can be challenging due to lack of transportation, lack of time away from work, or a lack of means to access specialists for inner city or rural individuals.”

Research shows that gaps in care can result in negative health impacts for certain groups including women, Black and Hispanic patients, and other underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Patients in these groups, according to the report, often do not receive guidelinerecommended management that has been proven to improve outcomes and quality of life.

Symptom burden, quality of life, and clinical outcomes are documented to be worse in Black and Hispanic people and other underrepresented groups. The StopAfib.org report findings shed light on a critical need to address AFib disparities – including differences in health status between certain groups and inequities related to social, economic, environmental, or healthcare access related to the treatment of patients with the condition.

Although the prevalence of AFib is lower in White patients, women and patients in racial and ethnic minority groups may have longer lasting and more frequent symptomatic episodes of AFib, and worse quality of life overall, according to the StopAfib.org report. These patients may struggle with managing AFib,

especially if they lack social or community support. Additionally, while Black and Hispanic individuals have a lower incidence of AFib than White individuals, these groups are shown to have a higher burden of comorbidities, including hypertension, cardiomyopathy, and diabetes, and a higher risk of adverse outcomes, such as stroke, heart failure, coronary heart disease (CHD), and death.

“Even if a patient does receive a diagnosis for AFib, medications, treatments, and procedures are expensive, and for some patients, can be entirely inaccessible because they cannot afford the cost of them,” said Hills. “Physicians can assist individuals on Medicare facing medication barriers by referring patients to a Medicare program called “Extra Help, ” a program that covers Medicare drug coverage (Part D) costs for people who have limited income and resources. Pharmaceutical companies also offer coupons or vouchers that may reduce medication costs.”

Additionally, women have a higher risk for adverse outcomes associated with the disease, which includes a higher incidence of stroke (by a factor of 5.7, versus 4.0 in men), heart failure (by a factor of 11.0, versus 3.0 in men), and death (increased by a factor of 3.5, versus 2.4 for men), according to the StopAfib.org report.

“Once a person is diagnosed with AFib, some doctors may not understand the effect AFib has on the patient. For example, women tend to be more symptomatic, and doctors may not realize that women may need different, more personalized AFib treatment,”

said Hills. “In many cases, doctors don’t recognize the way AFib can differ in its presentation in the individual, which can result in treatment disparities.”

More effective treatment

As medical research has advanced in recent years, researchers have learned more effective ways to treat AFib. The previous guidelines for AFib viewed rate control (medications that control heart rate) as being as effective, if not more so, as rhythm control (medications that control heart rhythm). More recent guidelines have shifted based on updated research. Guidelines now show that controlling both the heart’s rhythm and rate immediately after a patient is diagnosed often results in better health outcomes, according to Hills.

is not captured and confirmed on an ECG, a doctor will have a patient wear a heart monitor for up to a month to capture AFib patterns in the heart.

The ideal goals of AFib treatment, according to StopAfib.org, include four pillars: rate control (managing this reduces the risk of heart failure), rhythm control, stroke prevention, and risk factor management (lifestyle changes). Doctors also may recommend increased physical activity, eating a heart healthy diet, managing high blood pressure, avoiding alcohol, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight.

“StopAfib.org approaches spreading awareness about the disease by speaking at medical conferences to help doctors understand what the patient experience with AFib is,” said

“ If the disease is persistent or longstanding persistent, it may be caught in a doctor’s visit. However, if it is paroxysmal, it may not be.”

“Instead of requiring patients to try one rate control medication after another for their AFib, research has shown that initiating rhythm control early on can improve outcomes in patients,” said Hills. “This research showing improved outcomes from rhythm control allows physicians to use procedures earlier, soon after diagnosis.”

The treatment goals for atrial fibrillation start with a proper diagnosis by a physician, including an electrocardiogram (ECG), a type of heart test, and patient medical history. Generally, if AFib

Hills. “Our organization also speaks about the resources that doctors can provide patients to help educate them and help patients better participate in shared decision making.

“We also speak to patients at our annual conference and through webinars. At our conference this year, the chair of the new guidelines committee, Dr. Jose Joglar, will speak about ‘What Patients Should Know About the New AFib Guidelines,’” said Hills.

According to the StopAfib.org report, poor access to care and lack of access to specialist physicians,

screening, digital monitoring technology, and broadband internet may contribute to the underdiagnosis of AFib and reduced treatment options for patients. Similar factors and low socioeconomic status may also limit patient access to costly procedures and medicines. To address these disparities, the report recommends a strategy that addresses healthcare delivery, including improving healthcare provider awareness and knowledge of AFib care disparities and inequities. Other strategies include ensuring that clinical trials include a broad and representative range of patients by race, ethnicity, and gender.

Healthcare providers can also implement certain practices to help bridge AFib diagnosis and treatment gaps. These actions include improving community and patient education on AFib, such as encouraging at-risk patients to meet with their physician or to make lifestyle changes, changing the face of medical care, such as having more minority groups enter healthcare so that patients feel supported within physician offices, and including minority groups in clinical trials to get a better idea of how AFib impacts communities.

“It is important for patients to be able to access the right treatments for AFib at the right time,” said Hills. “The new guidelines allow patients to avoid developing further health complications such as heart failure, stroke, and more. From a patient’s perspective, it is critically important for doctors to understand the current guidelines and most up-to-date research so they can provide the best possible patient care.”

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Preparedness Summit Builds Muscle Memory for the Medical Supply Chain

 HIDA recently convened its third annual Preparedness Summit, which featured a record number of federal, state, and local partners from key government agencies. These agency stakeholders met with leaders in the healthcare distribution industry to discuss efforts to build greater resilience into the medical supply chain.

Like any exercise in the gym, repetition builds strength. After three consecutive years, the “muscle memory” developed from these Summits has strengthened links between the public and private sectors and maintained relationships built during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Preparedness Summit was a useful opportunity to gather perspectives and obtain feedback across three major topics – communications, technology, and resiliency.

Communications: In the past year, HIDA has developed a plan to establish effective communication channels between commercial supply chain partners and the federal government. This plan is aimed at supporting the playbook developed last year to monitor the medical supply chain, which we call the Traffic Protocol Partnership. This protocol resembles a traffic light – with levels of escalating concern from green, to yellow, and finally red.

At the Preparedness Summit, attendees were able to stress test the communications plan in tabletop discussions. Stakeholders focused on ways to keep lines of communication open during “Green” conditions – normal operations when the medical supply chain is NOT under strain. Participants discussed ways to build internal teams for inventory management and set thresholds for when to alert customers and federal agencies to emerging stress in the medical supply chain.

Technology: Informed decision-making requires access to impactful data to guide preparedness planning and response. This

requires an assessment of the remaining data gaps in our preparedness technology, and the development of ways to address them. Tools created during COVID-19, such as the Supply Chain Control Tower –should be maintained in ways that continue to encourage voluntary participation and protect proprietary data.

Furthermore, data needs to be protected from malign actors. Recent online attacks on healthcare providers put the issue of cybersecurity top of mind for Summit attendees. Supply chain leaders should conduct cyber risk assessments given their critical role in supporting health-

By Linda Rouse O’Neill, Senior Vice President for Supply Chain Policy, Health Industry Distributors Association

care providers and patient care. Federal partners discussed the multiple tools at their disposal to assist the commercial market in security assessments and exercises.

Resiliency: For many participants, issues of supply chain resilience remain top of mind. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that having earlier information on potential disruptions and product shortages would have eased stress on healthcare providers. Among government stakeholders, more engagement is needed with state, local, tribal, and territorial health officials. Additionally, the commercial market needs to deepen relationships with the shipping subject matter experts in their companies. Before the pandemic, supply chain managers were rarely part of executive level decisions in the corporate suite. After the pandemic, it is hard to imagine them NOT having a seat at the table.

Most importantly, the Preparedness Summit reaffirmed the value of public-private partnerships that were established during the pandemic and have been nurtured by HIDA ever since. Partnerships are the only way for effective preparedness planning and response. Neither the public sector nor the commercial market can do it alone. Only with continued collaboration can supply chain leaders ensure that policymakers and the public do not have short term memory when it comes to future response efforts.

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Health System Sustainability

AdventHealth’s supply chain is fully engaged in the health system’s emissions goals by 2030 and 2050.

By Daniel Beaird

 Supply chain leaders play a critical role in reducing the carbon footprint of hospitals and health systems. To that end, Altamonte Springs, Florida-based AdventHealth, and its supply chain team in particular, has been on a journey to discover how it can lessen its environmental impact. It estimates that its supply chain activity accounts for up to 40% of its emissions footprint, while another 40% is estimated to be tied into its investment portfolio.

In October 2022, AdventHealth signed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Sector Climate Pledge – a commitment to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and to get to net zero by 2050. Scope 1 emissions include direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources

that an organization owns or controls directly, while Scope 2 emissions include indirect purchased energy that comes from the energy an organization purchases and uses.

Five potential levers for AdventHealth to achieve its 2030 emissions reduction goal, based on financial and operational considerations, include:

` On-site renewable energy generation.

` Virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs).

` Energy efficiency improvements.

` Grid greening.

` Utility Partnerships (community solar programs)

In particular, AdventHealth sees on-site renewable energy generation and power purchase agreements serving as significant contributors to reducing their Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Reducing Scope 3 emissions with suppliers

Meanwhile, supply chain leaders enter the critical work with Scope 3 emissions, which are other indirect emissions. These emissions come from upstream and downstream operations, including supplies, purchased services, investments and business travel.

Marisa Farabaugh is senior vice president and chief supply chain officer for AdventHealth and says the health system has been working with its suppliers to collect data measuring Scope 3 emissions to help understand their decarbonization initiatives.

Many suppliers are early in their decarbonization journeys. To help its suppliers along, AdventHealth will soon be requesting information in its RFPs and through other discussions to make clear to suppliers that it is focused on sustainability.

“When we talk about this with our supplier community, we truly hear the gamut. Some suppliers are already on this journey and have been abating their carbon footprint for many years,” Farabaugh said. She says those suppliers are working on more sophisticated solutions at the manufacturing level and even at the supplier community level.

“They’ve got the education and the understanding, and they’ve moved upstream to abate their carbon footprint,” she added. “But there are other suppliers that don’t always understand environmental

sustainability and how to unpack their own carbon footprint.”

Farabaugh thinks the provider community needs to highlight the importance of this to its suppliers.

“As health systems, we need to come together and show this is important to us,” Farabaugh explained. “If we are all uniting around the work, it will drive the supplier community who are not already on this journey.” But education is still needed on the provider side, too.

“The provider community –and in particular the chief supply chain officers or supply chain leaders – are beginning to understand their role in this,” she said. “There are still gaps in education for the provider leadership in understanding how much of their carbon footprint is tied to the supply chain.”

It’s a complex undertaking given the number of items a provider like AdventHealth purchases and the number of suppliers that support their needs. So, AdventHealth is launching a platform to help complete its annual carbon footprint work and to help complete hybrid

accounting in the supply chain space, giving ‘credit’ and acknowledging the suppliers that are progressing in their decarbonization efforts.

“We’re in our third year now of calculating our carbon footprint across the organization. Early on, we learned the data was showing us that supply chain accounts for up to 40% of our overall footprint. That’s a lot of emissions attributed to the supply chain. So, when we think about addressing Scope 3 emissions, it’s imperative that we have our trading partners and other provider supply chain leaders at the table,” Farabaugh said.

Signing the HHS Health Sector Climate Pledge

When AdventHealth signed the HHS Health Sector Pledge, it tasked Farabaugh and Rob Roy, senior vice president and chief investment officer for AdventHealth, to co-lead the space and help create a plan and roadmap for the health system to tackle its Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.

Over 130 organizations have joined the HHS Health Sector Climate

Pledge, which was launched on Earth Day 2022, demonstrating a commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions and building more climate resistant infrastructure. HHS publicly recognized AdventHealth for installing more than 1,800 solar panels on its parking garage. AdventHealth is also actively under construction for a solar project on their corporate campus that will be one of the largest solar projects on a business campus within the state of Florida. This project is 3 MW, is expected to generate 30% of clean energy for the campus and provide 62 EV stations on their campus.

The HHS Health Sector Climate Pledge is still open and health sector groups are encouraged to sign on. Pledge signers commit to:

` Reducing organizational emissions by 50% by 2030 (from baseline no earlier than 2008) and achieve net zero by 2050, publicly accounting for progress on this goal every year.

` Designating an executive-level lead for their work on reducing emissions within six months of signing the pledge and conducting an inventory of Scope 3 emissions by the end of 2024.

` Developing and releasing a climate resilience plan for continuous operations within six months of signing the pledge, anticipating the needs of groups in their community that experience disproportionate risk of climate-related harm.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Farabaugh said. “It was a space that I had passion in, but not a lot of technical expertise. It’s been a fun journey to learn so much with a key group of people internally and externally who have helped educate us. I am deeply grateful for the partnership with Rob Roy and Kate Reid on this work and all the contributions of our lean environmental sustainability core team. We are blessed to have our CFO, Paul Rathbun, and our CEO, Terry Shaw, both highly interested and committed to the work.”

Two Texas farms and AdventHealth’s roadmap

Putting together the full roadmap for AdventHealth’s 2030 and 2050 goals is Farabaugh and Roy’s responsibility.

“Our first focus was on our 2030 goals. We have a plan to reduce our Scope 1 and Scope 2

emissions by 50% by 2030 as our primary focus. Last December, we executed two virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs), one of which is a wind farm in Texas that’s producing clean energy via wind, and another is a solar farm to be built in Texas that will produce clean energy via solar,” Farabaugh explained.

Through those VPPAs with key strategic partners, AdventHealth will offtake renewable energy credits for its electricity needs. With the size of these agreements, this will position AdventHealth to be 100% on renewable electricity by 2026.

“The HHS pledge calls us to a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030 and with just moving to the two VPPAs that we’ve executed on, we’re actually exceeding that 50% goal by four years earlier – in 2026 – than the target time period,” she said. “We’re conducting a facility condition assessment right now of major plant equipment across our more than 50 hospitals within nine states to understand the life of the equipment and to better understand the energy usage of this equipment.”

AdventHealth’s current assessment, target setting, planning and communication activities mark the beginning of its environmental sustainability work. They will become part of an iterative process that will evolve as standards and technologies continue to change.

“We’re highly tied into the journey,” Farabaugh said. “We have a great team to help think through the process, communicate it out, and help to drive this monumental change that ultimately will drive toward our mission of helping our communities feel whole.”

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IDN News

MultiCare forms ASC joint venture

Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health has launched a new joint venture with Atlas Healthcare Partners, which develops and manages ambulatory surgery centers in partnership with nonprofit health systems and physicians, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

The joint venture combines Atlas’ ASC strategy, development and operations skills with MultiCare’s broad hospital, physician and ambulatory network to expand access to high quality, affordable surgical care in the Pacific Northwest. MultiCare is the third health system to form a joint venture with Atlas since 2019. Phoenixbased Banner Health partnered with Atlas to develop and manage the health system’s ASC network in Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. Over the last five years, Atlas helped expand Banner’s ASC network from eight to 30 centers with additional ASCs in the works.

Atlas also formed a joint venture with Grand Rapids, Mich.based Corewell Health in 2022 and MultiCare in 2023, to develop and manage ASC networks in their markets.

BayCare opens new South Florida Baptist Hospital

BayCare opened the new South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City this August. The 424,000-square-foot facility, built by longtime BayCare construction partner, Barton Malow, cost $326 million, and is nearly double the

size of the original hospital. The six-story structure features 146 private patient rooms, 26 intensive care unit beds, eight operating rooms and 34 emergency department and fast-track beds. The construction company estimates more than 700 workers contributed 1.4 million man hours to bring the project to fruition.

Areas of specialization include general surgery, orthopedic surgery, urology, imaging, cardiac catheterization, emergency care, and labor/delivery. In addition, the hospital features an 85,000-squarefoot medical arts building with space for physician offices as well as outpatient and diagnostic services such as imaging, rehabilitation, and lab services, allowing patients to consolidate their health care needs in one location.

South Florida Baptist Hospital has been part of BayCare since 1997. The Clearwater, Florida-based health system currently operates 16 not-forprofit hospitals throughout West Central Florida.

Kaiser expands Hawaii home health program

Kaiser Permanente has expanded its home health agency on Hawaii Island. Kaiser Permanente Home Health agency is geared toward members who rely on assistive devices such as walkers, canes or wheelchairs, and those with health conditions that limit their ability to leave home and necessitate care from skilled nurses or therapists, according to a July 17 news release from Kaiser.

Kaiser Permanente Home Health agencies currently serve on Oahu and Maui. Launched in April with a team of one nurse and one physical therapist, it has expanded to six healthcare professionals, with plans for further growth to address increasing demand. Kaiser Permanente operates three locations on Hawaii Island: the Kona Medical Office, the Hilo Clinic and the Waimea Clinic. The facilities collectively serve about 31,000 members.

Mayo Clinic to expand hospital rehabilitation care

Brooks Rehabilitation, a leader in treating patients after life-altering brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, strokes and other complex conditions, will open an inpatient rehabilitation hospital on Mayo Clinic’s Phoenix campus. Brooks Rehabilitation has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 rehabilitation hospital in Florida and top 20 in the nation, and the new hospital will join Brooks’ network of three existing inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in Florida. The expansion into Arizona sets the stage for new growth, innovation and exceptional clinical outcomes and further demonstrates Brooks’ vision to redefine postacute rehabilitation.

The rehabilitation hospital will reside on eight acres adjacent to Mayo Clinic’s Phoenix hospital, near the Arizona State University Health Futures Center. The estimated $70 million project will begin construction in December 2024 with a projected opening in summer 2026. Plans include a three-story, 80,000-square-foot hospital with 60 private patient rooms and the ability to expand as demand for services increases.

The new hospital is expected to add more than 200 jobs to the market at full maturity.

Tenet

Healthcare to sell 5 Birmingham hospitals to Orlando Health

Tenet Healthcare Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement with Orlando Health for the sale of Tenet’s 70% majority ownership interest in Brookwood Baptist Health in Birmingham for approximately $910 million in cash (after-tax proceeds of approximately $790 million).

The transaction will include five hospitals:

` Brookwood Baptist Medical Center

` Princeton Baptist Medical Center

` Walker Baptist Medical Center

` Shelby Baptist Medical Center

` Citizens Baptist Medical Center

As well as affiliated physician practices and other related operations. Brookwood Baptist Health will remain a joint venture with Baptist Health System. Additionally, under the agreement, Tenet’s Conifer Health Solutions subsidiary will enter into a new and expanded ten-year contract to provide revenue cycle management services for the Birmingham hospitals and related operations.

Vizient completes acquisition of Kaufman Hall

Vizient, Inc. announced it has completed its acquisition of Kaufman Hall, bringing together two of the industry’s most trusted advisors focused on helping healthcare organizations solve complex challenges as they deliver high-quality patient care to their communities. The combined organization will offer advisory services in key areas such as revenue and cost, advanced clinical quality and operational analytics, corporate finance, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, access to capital and balance sheet management.

Vizient’s consulting services will be combined with Kaufman Hall and led by Kate Guelich who previously served as CEO of Kaufman Hall. “The new advisory organization is structured to expand on the existing, valuable components of each organization’s people, operations, infrastructure, and processes,” said Guelich. “As a result, we can offer a more comprehensive set of services and solutions that advance clients’ transformation to high-value care and enhance their mission-driven initiatives, ultimately leading to organizational success.”

Health News

CDC issues updated RSV vaccine guidance for seniors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its RSV vaccine guidance for seniors this upcoming respiratory season to make it easier for physicians and patients to make treatment and prevention decisions. CDC is recommending that everyone ages 75 and older receive the RSV vaccine. CDC also urges people ages 60–74 who are at increased risk of severe RSV, meaning they have certain chronic medical conditions, such as lung or heart disease, or they live in nursing homes, should receive the RSV vaccine.

This recommendation is for adults who did not get an RSV vaccine last year. The RSV vaccine is not currently an annual vaccine, meaning people do not need to get a dose every RSV season. Eligible adults can get an RSV vaccine at any time, but the best time to get vaccinated is in late summer and early fall before RSV usually starts to spread in communities.

CDC’s updated recommendation for people 60 and older replaces the recommendation made last year to simplify RSV vaccine decision-making for clinicians and the public.

U.S. Surgeon General on social media and mental health

Social media is a significant contributing factor to mental health challenges in the United States. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has spoken out saying that the threat social media

poses to children requires urgent action from the nation’s lawmakers. According to Murthy in an interview with CNN, the prevalence of social media use among children is very widespread, with over 95% of teenagers having some form of access to social media. To combat the negative impact of widespread social media use, Murthy has been pushing for lawmakers and the public to put a warning label (similar to the ones displayed on cigarette cartons) on all social media apps, CNN reported. The warning label would be an attempt to protect adolescents’ mental health related to social media overuse.

Social media has been documented to double a teenager’s risk of depression, and the rate

increases with the amount of time per day an individual spends on social media apps, according to a 2019 American Medical Association report. The report documented social media usage as being linked to internalizing problems for adolescents such as increased anxiety symptoms, as well as externalizing problems such as attention disorders and bullying. Further research is currently being conducted on the impact of social media on mental health in youth in order to better understand and address its impact.

Late summer heat waves: How to stay cool and healthy in unprecedented heat

The U.S. has witnessed ongoing higher than average warm temperatures

throughout the entirety of summer 2024. According to U.S. News and World Report and the Associated Press’ “Climate Glimpse,” report, across the nation extreme temperatures have continued to be the cause of increased heat-related illness, heatstroke, and respiratory illness due to unseasonable wildfires.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also recently released seasonal temperature outlook predications for 2024, citing out-of-the-norm heat for Summer 2024 in over 20 U.S. states. As a result, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is warning Americans to take precautions in the face of extreme heat. With hotter temperatures and long-lasting heatwaves, it is important to stay safe during periods of abnormal heat by staying inside air-conditioned buildings as much as possible, choosing to wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing, staying hydrated consistently with electrolytes and water, applying sunscreen, and wearing protective clothing like hats and sunglasses outside.

The HHS also recommends that people reduce or avoid any outdoor exercise during intense heat waves, rest in shady areas when outdoors, and limit any necessary outdoor activity to when it is coolest, primarily in the morning and evening.

Healthy aging

The number of people aged 65 and older in the U.S. has risen at an unprecedented rate, and according to the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information, the population of people aged 65 and

older will make up 20% of the U.S population by 2050. In 2010, it was estimated that 13.3% of the nation’s population was 65 and older.

As people age, their risk of chronic disease including heart disease, diabetes, dementia, arthritis, and certain cancers increase, according to the CDC. Healthy aging practices for individuals over 65 are critical, as they promote disease prevention and encourage behaviors that allow people to stay healthy as they age.

a new skill to reduce the risk of cognitive decline and disease.

COVID trends reach “high” level across Western U.S. The pandemic may be over, but COVID shows no signs of going away. According to the CDC, the spread of COVID-19 had officially reached “high” levels across Western U.S. states in early July. Levels of the virus have been shown to have been on the rise in certain parts of the country,

According to the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIH), taking care of your physical health through exercise, healthy eating, sleeping well, quitting smoking, alcohol, and other substances, and going to the doctor for regular physical exams can help to promote better health outcomes as an individual ages.

Many factors that influence healthy aging can be controlled through lifestyle changes. According to the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIH), taking care of your physical health through exercise, healthy eating, sleeping well, quitting smoking, alcohol, and other substances, and going to the doctor for regular physical exams can help to promote better health outcomes as an individual ages. It is also as important to take care of mental and cognitive health as you age, avoiding social isolation and loneliness, reducing stressors, recognizing symptoms of lowered mood and depression, and engaging in cognitive training such as activities like learning

according to recent CDC statistics. The CDC and other health organizations have increasingly relied on analyzing samples from sewers to get a sense of COVID-19 trends, now that cases are largely no longer being tested or reported. The CDC also relies on data from emergency rooms and hospitals to track the virus, according to the CDC and CBS News. The virus in wastewater across the U.S. has remained low, but figures from the most recent weeks show this key COVID-19 trend has now passed above the threshold that the agency considers to be “high” levels of the virus. Previous years also had COVID-19 cases increase in the summer months, according to the CDC. Hawaii and Arizona have seen the highest levels thus far.

Sickle Cell Awareness

National Sickle Cell Awareness Month is recognized in September to educate about the disease and share treatment options and research breakthroughs.

2030

National Sickle Cell Awareness Month is a time to increase recognition and support people living with sickle cell disease. New and expecting parents should prepare by learning about screening their newborn baby for sickle cell. Additionally, the Healthy People 2030 objectives aim to improve health for people who have blood disorders. Healthy People 2030 aims to increase the number of people who donate blood to use for lifesaving procedures, to prevent illness and disability related to blood disorders, and to educate on the medication and treatment options available for patients living with blood disorders.

There are many strategies to help with managing sickle cell disease. Children that have sickle cell disease may start treatment and disease management by seeing a hematologist, and for newborns, the first hematology visit should take place before 8 weeks of age. For some patients, blood transfusions or pain medications may also be needed, according to the NIH. For certain patients, curative therapies like a bone marrow transplant may be necessary. Additionally, four medicines have been approved to treat sickle cell disease. In 1998, hydroxyurea was approved. Later, voxelotor, L-glutamine, and crizanlizumabtmca were approved, which all treat different symptoms associated with the disease.

100,000

Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects more than 100,000 people in the United States and 20 million people worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In people with sickle cell disease, red blood cells become rigid and deform into a crescent (sickle) shape. These types of deformed blood cells often become lodged in small blood vessels, restricting blood flow and leading to serious health complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

20 years

In people with sickle cell disease, red blood cells become rigid and deform into a crescent (sickle) shape. Complications related to SCD occur because the deformed cells block critical blood flow to specific organs. They include health issues such as stroke, acute chest syndrome (a condition that lowers the level of oxygen in the blood), organ damage, other disabilities, and in some cases premature death, according to the American Society of Hematology. The estimated life expectancy for those with SCD in the U.S. is more than 20 years shorter than the average life expectancy, according to the CDC. Many people with SCD do not receive the recommended healthcare screenings and treatments.

2023

Sickle cell disease is a lifelong, inherited illness. In order for you or your child to inherit sickle cell disease, both parents must have either sickle cell disease (two sickle cell genes) or sickle cell trait (one sickle cell gene). A bone marrow transplant was the only cure for sickle cell disease until 2023; however in December of that year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two new therapies to treat the disease. One treatment approach works by adding a new gene to a patient’s body, and the other makes changes to a gene that is already in the body to address SCD, according to the National Institute of Health’s Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH).

1 in 13

About 1 in 13 Black or African American babies are born with sickle cell trait Many people who come from Hispanic, Southern European, Middle Eastern, or Asian Indian backgrounds also have sickle cell disease.

Amazon Clinic Becomes Amazon One Medical

 Amazon Clinic, which launched in 2022, has now rebranded to Amazon One Medical Pay-Per-Visit. This change serves to unify the company’s healthcare services under one comprehensive brand.

Customers now have two options when seeking healthcare from Amazon One Medical, Pay-Per-Visit telehealth or Membership, where customers pay a monthly or annual fee for ondemand virtual care.

Amazon One Medical inperson and telehealth visits treat more than 30 of the most common health conditions including pink eye, urinary tract infections, and the flu; making it much easier for patients to secure the care they need and get healthy, according to the company.

“It’s simply too hard to get the medical care you need, when you need it, and affordably – long waits, high costs, and impersonal care make it unnecessarily difficult for many patients today,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services. “Amazon One Medical’s Pay-Per-Visit telehealth service makes it easier for customers looking for care to see a provider, with fewer clicks and even lower per-visit pricing.”

All healthcare patients under Amazon now have access to the same telehealth experience of Amazon Clinic, giving customers that do not live near a One Medical office, or those who already have a different primary care provider, to access care. This also serves to provide patients with faster, more convenient access

to addressing numerous one-off conditions. Messaging visits are now $29, and video visits are $49, with patients paying for care on an as-needed basis. Insurance is not accepted or not needed, and FSA/HAS payment is accepted.

“We are improving our care model by making per-visit pricing even more affordable and reducing the number of steps it takes for customers to start a visit on Amazon.com and in the Amazon app,” according to a June 27 Amazon One Medical press release.

In messaging visits, a clinician reviews a patient’s information, messages them, and then

sends the patient a personalized treatment plan. For video visits, patients and clinicians discuss symptoms and treatment plans in real time over a video call.

One Medical’s membershipbased primary care delivers ongoing treatment, with a team of clinicians that are on call whenever they are needed. Members can also address long-term health through “well visits” and preventative screenings at a One Medical Office, and manage new and ongoing conditions (heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, etc.) through either in-person or remote visits. The membershipbased care is available to Prime Members for a discounted rate of $9 ($99 a year), or to all patients for $199 per year. Patients can also meet virtually 24/7 with a healthcare provider about any current health concerns such as cold and flu, skin issues, allergies, and more, for no extra cost.

Amazon One Medical Care is provided by Doctors of Medicine (M.D.), Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), Physician Assistants (P.A.), and Nurse Practitioners (N.P.). “Each primary care provider, whether in person or virtual, places a strong emphasis on fostering patient-provider relationships and aims to be a longterm health care advocate,” the company said on its website.

Industry News

Henry Schein celebrates new Southwestern Distribution Center

Henry Schein, Inc. recently marked the opening of an 811K-square-foot Southwestern Distribution Center in Fort Worth, Texas, the largest single building in the Company’s global network. Approximately 300 Team Schein Members, supplier partners, customers, elected officials, and Company leaders attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate this significant milestone, which reinforces Henry Schein’s commitment to enhancing supply chain efficiency and customer service.

The new distribution center is 30% larger than the next biggest Henry Schein distribution center, and home to 255 Team Schein Members. The facility provides Team Schein with an even more efficient workspace to ensure health care professionals receive the products needed to deliver the best quality patient care.

“Our new Southwestern Distribution Center is a testament to Team Schein’s dedication to innovation, reliability, and customer service,” said Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Henry Schein. “Over the course of our more than 90-year history, we have frequently reinvented the organization to meet customer needs, embracing new

technologies and advancements. Our Fort Worth distribution center illustrates our commitment to holding fast to our enduring values while remaining focused on our future. We are pleased to begin this new chapter of our supply chain history in the Fort Worth community.”

Henry Schein has served its customers across the Southwest region for more than 20 years through its Grapevine, Texas, distribution center. The Company opened the doors of its 242,000 square foot Grapevine facility in 1998 with 66 Team Schein Members. During that time, the Company experienced tremendous growth, leading to the decision to find a larger space. More than 95 percent of Henry Schein’s Grapevine team relocated to the new facility in Fort Worth.

CME Corp. earns Worksite Health Award for a second year

CME Corp. was recently recognized with a Superior Worksite Health Award from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) for consistently implementing programs encouraging employee health and wellbeing in a meaningful way. In the last year CME Corp. has facilitated quarterly step challenges, two DietBet challenges, monthly BCBS Wellness Wednesday and

Mindful Monday webinars, and monthly Employee Engagement activities focused on specific health/wellness/mindful topics.

“At CME Corp, we understand that to bring out the best in our employees, we must provide a healthy environment and foster a culture that values the well-being of each individual. By encouraging a balance between professional and personal life, we lay the foundation for our employees to thrive both in and out of the workplace,” said Maricar Caressimo, Chief Human Resources Officer.

FDA introduces online resources for reprocessing single-use medical devices

The FDA recently introduced online resources to provide information about reprocessing singleuse medical devices for health care facilities and FAQs. The FDA remains dedicated to providing resources to help health care facilities establish, implement, or improve their quality assurance programs related to reprocessing single-use medical devices. The webpage provides information to help health care facilities understand the use of reprocessed medical devices originally labeled for single-use, and to clarify the level of FDA’s regulatory oversight of these reprocessed singleuse medical devices to remain as safe and effective as the original manufactured devices.

The practice of reprocessing devices that are intended for single-use (known as single-use devices, SUDs) began in hospitals in the late 1970s. Since that time, this practice has become widespread as a mechanism to save costs for health care facilities and reduce medical waste. For example, use of reprocessed SUDs may reduce environmental impact by limiting the use of non-renewable resources and decreasing the amount of medical waste that requires treatment and disposal.

The FDA ensures the safety and effectiveness of reprocessed SUDs by regulating device manufacturers, third party reprocessors, and hospitals that reprocess SUDs in the same manner as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Midmark introduces 2024-2025 Sterilizer Maintenance Kit Promotion

Midmark Corp., a leading medical solutions provider focused on the design of the clinical environment to improve the delivery of care, announced the 2024-2025 Sterilizer Maintenance Kit Promotion.

The next generation of Midmark steam sterilizers are designed for enhanced durability and workflow with integrated features to help care teams gain instrument processing and documentation compliance efficiencies. During the promotion, customers who purchase a next generation MidmarkM9 or M11 Steam Sterilizer and register the device will receive a free Sterilizer Maintenance Kit, valued up to $225. Each kit includes one door gasket, one dam gasket, one gasket ring and two mesh filters.

“Midmark’s next generation of steam sterilizers are designed to help make instrument processing as easy and automated as possible,” said Kurt Forsthoefel, marketing director, Midmark Medical. “The Sterilizer Maintenance Kit Promotion helps customers protect their investment. By registering the warranty, customers will receive prompt support when they need it and opt in to receive future notifications for available software updates.”

The promotion models include: ` M11-050/-051 ` M9-050

To receive a free sterilizer maintenance kit, customers must purchase and register their device July 9, 2024–Apr. 30, 2025. For more information on the promotion, visit: midmark.com.

BD, Quest Diagnostics join forces to develop companion diagnostics for cancer, other diseases

BD and Quest Diagnostics announced a global collaboration agreement to develop, manufacture and commercialize flow cytometrybased companion diagnostics (CDx) intended to help select the best treatment for patients with cancer and other diseases.

Together, BD and Quest will aim to provide the pharmaceutical industry with an end-to-end solution for CDx development. The joint offerings will range from exploratory panel development to the manufacturing and distribution of FDA-approved diagnostic kits. sing companion diagnostics to help select a first-line therapy for cancer patients can be critical to ensuring the best outcomes

and cost savings. Today’s companion diagnostic tests commonly involve technologies such as immunohistochemistry (IHC), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS) and imaging. Flow cytometry, an established laboratory technology now being applied in the development of companion diagnostics, can rapidly analyze and sort individual cells to enable health care providers to understand an individual’s immune response and could provide insight as to how best to manage the patient to improve clinical outcomes.

Owens & Minor, Inc. signs definitive agreement to acquire Rotech Healthcare Holdings, Inc.

Owens & Minor, Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rotech Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (“Rotech”), a privately held home based care business headquartered in Orlando, Florida, for $1.36 billion in cash. Given anticipated tax benefits of approximately $40 million from the transaction, the net purchase price is approximately $1.32 billion, which represents approximately a 6.3x multiple of LTM EBITDA, excluding synergies.

Rotech is a national leader in providing home medical equipment in the United States. The company has over 4,200 employees and provides products and services in 46 states through approximately 325 operating locations. Rotech generated approximately $750 million of revenue and an EBITDA margin of nearly 30% in 2023.

Building Teams of Sales Champions

By Pete Mercer

 In a recent episode of “The Cure ... With Scotty and Sully ”, hosts Scott Adams and Brian Sullivan sat down with MTMC Managing Partner Jack Moran to discuss why manufacturers partner with groups like MTMC and the changing dynamics of the today’s sales environment.

MTMC is a leading medical device and supply sales leader in the healthcare industry, providing outsourced solutions for the needs of today’s manufacturers, supply chain, and end-users.

Challenges of today’s sales environment

As the industry evolves, sales reps must work harder to stay on top of any increased volume in accounts they are managing. An increase in sales volume means that the sales reps must stay organized with their workload – flexibility and agility are key, especially as volume increases.

Moran said, “I think your typical channel rep is managing five or six times the volume that they once did, which makes it difficult to get out and do those product driven ride days.”

Working the system to your advantage

Building partnerships is a critical component to success in healthcare. As an outsourced sales organization, MTMC is an organization that thrives off building strong partnerships. Moran and his team fields pitches from manufacturers who are looking to establish a partnership. But what is MTMC looking for in a partner?

“If they’re bringing a solution that hits the call points that we are already working towards, that’s always important,” Moran said. “If we can get efficiency out of the call point, it’s important. A big component is the channel. So often, companies come to us and say, ‘We’ve got the spray product for cardiology offices, internal medicine and surgery centers.’ In order to sell their product line, it has to be set up and go through the channel. We can’t go around that.”

Building champion teams

Sales is a profession that requires a champion mindset to be successful. With the rejection and negotiation that sales reps work through every day, you must be nimble and ready to adapt to any changes.

As for building those teams of sales champions, Moran is looking for people who are interested in the “noble and great profession” of serving the solutions to the healthcare industry.

Stressing that MTMC is not a marketing firm, he said, “At the end of the day, we’re selling products and solutions. We’re looking for people who are interested in sales. Why do you want to get into this? Do you really value how great sales can be? It’s changed a lot in terms of what people call it, and it’s just a little different that it was when we were first starting out.”

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The Next Generation of Midmark® Steam Sterilizers

Midmark Steam Sterilizers are designed inside and out to make instrument processing as easy and as automated as possible.

01 Navigate cycle setup and other processes with a clear, fi ngerprint-resistant 5-inch touchscreen you can utilize while wearing gloves.

02 Determine cycle status—cycle in progress, cycle complete and cycle error—from a distance with a progressing color-coded LED light bar, large cycle countdown clock and audible cues.

03 Stay audit-ready with device reminders, user authentication, unlimited storage of routine care events for the life of the sterilizer, and automated cycle recordkeeping.

See what makes them different at: midmark.com/steamsterilizers

Baxter has more than 100 years of innovation, 268,000 customers nationwide, and 100 configurable Welch Allyn products.

The numbers tell our story. With a broad portfolio spanning patient monitoring, diagnostic cardiology, vision screening, and physical exam tools there are always inspiring opportunities to discuss with customers.

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