SCAN Health 2022-23 Annual Report

Supply Chain Advancement Network in Health (SCAN Health) is a notfor-profit corporation hosted by the Odette School of Business, University of Windsor and established in 2015.

In 2022, the Government of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) awarded SCAN Health $2,489,160 over five years to develop a Community of Practice to advance health supply chain resilience, workforce sustainability and economic recovery in Canada’s post-pandemic future. With a network of over 60 multi-sectoral partner organizations and citizen advocacy groups from across Canada, SCAN Health will build a Community of Practice that designs, validates and scales collaborative supply chain solutions, practices and measurement tools to improve health system capacity to manage supply chain disruptions well into the future.

“The Community of Practice recognizes citizens as a key contributor, offering a moral compass to the design of effective supply chain solutions that will achieve value for Canadians.”

Message from the President

A Leap Forward to Building Supply Chain Resilience

It has been an incredible journey for SCAN Health as the team continues to identify priority solutions to advance supply chain resilience across Canadian health systems. As President for the past four years, I have witnessed the tremendous growth of multi-sectoral partnerships and collaborations that are foundational to the co-design of innovative solutions to address this critical need. SCAN Health research offers unparalleled evidence of supply chain fragility in Canada that will further inform solution design and policy recommendations to strengthen supply chain resilience.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding over the next five years is a testament to the critical importance of SCAN Health’s mission to adopt and scale solutions to achieve healthcare supply chain resilience across Canada. SCAN Health is uniquely positioned to execute the mandate of the Community of Practice to achieve resilient, highly agile and digitally enabled supply chain capacity that builds collaboration across jurisdictions and sectors. Through this work, health systems will develop the capability to track product utilization in healthcare delivery, from bench to bedside to patient outcomes. I have every confidence that SCAN Health will continue to grow and develop the Community of Practice capacity for Canadians.

Martha Huston President

A key learning of the COVID-19 pandemic was understanding the critical need to advance diversity, equity and inclusion to ensure every Canadian has access to health services where and when needed. A key strength of SCAN Health’s collaboration model is citizen engagement. Diverse communities provide unique knowledge, experience and insights to inform the co-design of solution strategies, embedded in principles of equity and ethics. A digitally enabled healthcare supply chain is foundational to driving progress towards equity, enabled by data driven decisions that identify citizens at greatest risk, to ensure health services are accessible to meet their unique needs.

It has been a pleasure to serve as SCAN Health’s President and work with such talented and passionate partners from all sectors. These diverse stakeholders and their skilled teams are committed to strengthening the resilience of the healthcare supply chain so that health outcomes are improved, the quality and safety of the workplace are enhanced and value is generated for all Canadians. As I step down, I am very confident that the organization will continue to prosper and grow through the leadership of our newly appointed President, Lynne Golding, our distinguished board members, and Dr. Anne Snowdon and her incredible team who deliver outstanding, strategy, value and impact. I look forward to the remarkable next chapter for SCAN Health.

Message from the Scientific Director & CEO

At the End of Health Supply Chain is Human Life

Healthcare is the largest business sector in the world and supply chain capacity in healthcare directly influences the capacity of health systems to protect human life. With new funding from SSHRC, SCAN Health is addressing the urgent need for innovative solutions to advance supply chain resilience to support the health and well-being of the health workforce and every Canadian. Supply chain resilience is a key enabler of agile and proactive responses to public health emergencies that result in disruptions of critical products that place our workforce at great risk and compromise access to quality healthcare for citizens.

This year, we have successfully established a robust Community of Practice comprised of 66 partner organizations representing citizens, government, health systems, health workforce and industry to advance supply chain resilience. Multi-jurisdiction collaboration across Canada has enabled new capacity to co-design solutions that are prioritized to advance supply chain resilience that is equitable and ethical across health systems. We have committed to an ambitious mandate that mobilizes Canadian health leaders to collaborate on the design of highly resilient supply chain strategies to overcome the many challenges experienced during the pandemic, that resulted in the loss of Canadian lives.

Dr. Anne Snowdon Scientific Director & CEO

I have every confidence that the solution designs underway will strengthen workforce sustainability, advance economic recovery and ensure safe and equitable distribution of critical products for Canadians when and where care is needed most. We are exceptionally honoured by the unprecedented engagement and support of our many partners who are all committed to the goal of developing solution co-design strategies to strengthen supply chain resilience to enable Canadian health systems to address the many challenges they are currently experiencing.

As we conclude our first year, we are delighted to be working with over 110 partners who have identified priority health supply chain solutions that will enhance access to data for decision-making to improve the health and safety of our workforce, enable multijurisdictional leadership to collaboratively manage supply disruptions, map domestic supplier capacity and capability to ensure supply of critical products, define the digital features of a resilient supply chain, and strengthen data sharing to advance supply chain security and sustainability. These solutions are all based on the principles of equity and informed through the active participation of our citizen representatives on every workgroup.

With the continued commitment of our partners, we are poised to advance the significant impact and value of a highly resilient supply chain to ensure Canadians receive safe, quality healthcare services, and our health workforce has the confidence in the safety and quality of their work environment. Thank you all for joining us as we continue working together for a stronger and resilient future.

Our Vision

Products and Care When and Where They’ re Needed Most

Health supply chain is an essential lifeline that makes it possible for health systems to deliver safe and quality patient care. It is crucial that Canada develops, adopts and scales solutions to achieve supply chain resilience that enables health systems to track products and utilization rates to inform strategies that reduce risk of supply shortages and disruptions to protect the health and safety of patients and our health workforce SCAN Health’s mission is to ensure every Canadian hospital, health system and community health setting has the capacity to deliver world-class patient care through a robust supply chain infrastructure which includes informing policy development, supporting domestic suppliers, and designing digital integration to capture critical data points.

All sectors around the world felt devastating impacts from COVID-19 and there is much to learn from each other. By working together, we can mobilize our collective expertise and accelerate the collaboration needed to tackle the most pressing issues facing health systems in a post-pandemic future. This Community of Practice is creating a future that will advance digitally enabled supply chain infrastructure to ensure access to essential data to inform decisions by governments and healthcare leaders, a secure pipeline of quality products where they are needed most, protection for personnel to sustain the workforce, and increased manufacturing capacity to advance economic recovery and prepare Canada to meet patient needs. The Community of Practice's co-design strategy dismantles barriers among stakeholders and jurisdictions, ensuring that all viewpoints and expertise contribute to the co-design of implementable and scalable solutions.

1

2

3

Year 1 Achievements

The Power of Collaboration and Synergy

Established a “first of its kind” forum for dialogue and collaboration

Established a “first of its kind” forum for dialogue and collaboration

This forum integrates multiple perspectives across public and private sectors, leading expertise and domains of knowledge of Canada’s health supply chain capacity to create a culture of learning and trust required to advance supply chain resilience across Canada.

Achieved consensus on the key priorities required to advance solutions

Solutions being advanced to the co-design phase will strengthen supply chain resilience to ensure every Canadian and every member of the health workforce has access to safe care environments. The endpoint of health supply chain is human life; this understanding is foundational to achieving consensus on strategies and solutions to inform solution co-design.

Defined opportunities for collaborative solution co-design

Mobilizing the respective strengths, insights and expertise of multi-sectoral partners (provincial health systems, private sector, military and federal agencies, citizens) will create the capacity for continuous improvement to proactively manage supply disruptions and implement responsive action in a coordinated and collaborative approach informed by shared data. Agreement on the opportunity to leverage economies of scale will ensure that Canada can secure access to critical products in the global market and achieve equitable healthcare outcomes for every Canadian.

Community of Practice

Partnership Building Across Sectors and Jurisdictions

The Community of Practice creates a forum for partnership building to effectively codesign scalable solutions to advance health supply chain resilience for Canadian health systems.

Health system stakeholders strive for proactive supply chain management to effectively respond to supply disruptions to support equitable and safe care delivery.

Private sector and industry bring expertise in global supply networks to build supply chain capacity for healthcare systems that leverage domestic manufacturing.

Policy makers and government want to achieve equitable supply chain processes that effectively manage product disruptions across jurisdictions.

Academic research teams capture evidence of the impact of supply chain solutions to advance resilience nationally.

Patients and citizens bring lived experiences to inform the design of equitable health supply chain solutions to achieve value for Canadians.

◼ 35% Government

◼ 31% Industry

◼ 16% Academia

◼ 12% Health System

◼ 6% Citizens

62%

$1.55M

1,844

“Advancing supply chain resilience in Canada is a multistakeholderresponsibilitythat requires both collective and individual action. By participating in SCAN Health’s Community of Practice, Health Canada can learn more about the experience of other supply chain stakeholders, share its own experience in this area, and work collaboratively to identify individual and collective efforts needed toimprovesupplychainresilience.”

-- STEPHANIE DI TRAPANI Director, Drug Shortages Division, Health Canada

“The solutions emerging from the Community of Practice all align to achieve our goal of supply chain resilience, fueledbydomesticmanufacturingcapacityin Canada . ”

-- JAYSON MYERS CEO, Next Generation Manufacturing Canada

“

Digital transformation in health systems requires adoptionofglobaldatastandardsto enable accuracy and supply chain capacity to deliver safe patient care.”

-- EILEEN MAC DONALD CEO & President, GS1 Canada

“The time is now to empowerandenableclinician leadershipinsupplychaindecision-makingwith data to ensure our health human resources and the communities they serve are protected.”

-- DR. KATHLEEN MACMILLAN Adjunct (retired), School of Nursing, Dalhousie University

Driving Co-Designed Solutions

To Strengthen Supply Chain Resilience

Community of Practice partners are enabled to collaborate and discuss key opportunities and shared challenges through dialogue forums, workgroup meetings, and an online knowledge translation platform. For the first time ever, there is a forum bringing diverse health system stakeholders and sector leaders from industry, healthcare, government, academia, indigenous communities and citizens together to advance supply chain priorities across Canada. This collective expertise and collaboration are necessary to build consensus and develop supply chain strategies to enable personalized care and predictive analytics for seamless flow of data and delivery of products to ensure care is delivered effectively, safely and equitably.

Achieving supply chain resilience requires the design and development of policy frameworks, procurement models, sourcing strategies, secure digital infrastructure, health provider engagement in decision-making, and the sustainability of Canadian manufacturing capacity. Providing access to real-time data captured at the point of care will empower clinicians to inform decisions and access to critical products where and when required which will achieve optimal and equitable patient outcomes.

Ultimately, the work of the Community of Practice is to achieve outcomes of resiliency, sustainability and equity through the adoption, scale and validation of supply chain solutions across Canadian health systems and community settings. By working together across sectors and jurisdictions, a digitally enabled and resilient supply chain is possible.

Sustainability

Resiliency

Equity

Workgroups were established to define and advance key features of the health supply chain that are needed to achieve outcomes of resiliency, sustainability and equity.

SOURCING, PROCUREMENT & COLLABORATIVE STOCKPILE STRATEGY: Design a model for multi-jurisdictional coordination of supply infrastructure and logistics

LEADERSHIP & POLICY: Create an engagement and ethical framework to support the establishment of an ongoing forum for discussions concerning healthcare supply chain and help guide decision makers by indicating the kind of policies necessary.

DOMESTIC SUPPLIER NETWORK: Create a manufacturing capability and capacity resource to identify strategies and pathways to support domestic manufacturing in Canada.

WORKFORCE SUSTAINABILITY: Develop education tools to support greater linkages between clinical work and supply chain management Educate leadership on the clinical relevance and importance of supply chain in advancing workforce capacity and quality of work environments.

SUPPLY CHAIN SECURITY & SUSTAINABILITY: Identify critical data points, develop a data sharing strategy and engage in risk and threat assessment to understand vulnerabilities, potential risk of disruption and inequities within sector supply chains

DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN: Design an “end-to-end digital supply chain” that captures the ideal future state for a digital health supply chain.

CITIZEN FORUM: Share learnings, experiences and align on strategies to ensure the citizen perspective meaningfully contributes as a partner in advancing supply chain resilience for the benefit of all Canadians.

Looking Ahead Advancing Priorities to Build Health Supply Chain Capacity

Build capacity and competency for testing actionable and scalable solutions to advance supply chain resilience within and across Canadian health systems. As solutions emerge from each workgroup, they will be defined and pilot tested to build the capacity for creating evidence of value and impact of solutions for health systems, private sector, and government leaders. Actionable solutions will require every sector and every jurisdiction team to tailor and translate the solutions into their own unique context. Mobilizing data, and transparency of outcomes and impact within and across jurisdictions and sectors will further inform and optimize solution testing and implementation.

Conduct simulation exercises to test, advance and optimize the application of supply chain resilience solutions across Canadian health systems, sectors and communities. Simulation of supply chain challenges and solutions will advance and strengthen relationships across partner sectors to enable collaboration and coordination well into the future. Simulation will create transparency within and across partner sectors to further advance the culture of learning, trust, and confidence in supply chain capacity to support equitable and safe healthcare delivery to all Canadians.

Define the pathways for implementation of co-designed solutions which will define roles, responsibilities, expectations, implementation strategies and expected outcomes when advancing supply chain resilience solutions at scale. Each jurisdiction and sector will need to tailor solutions to the needs of their unique structure, context, culture and population. Implementation must focus on equitable outcomes that build and support confidence of the workforce and every citizen. Pilot testing protocols and strategies will provide evidence for the value and impact of solutions with key dimensions such as leadership policies to sustain solution implementation and evolution; enabled by mobilizing knowledge and data to further strengthen and advance supply chain redundancy and resilience.

“TheSCANHealthCommunityofPractice hascreatedanovelopportunity for Federal, Provincial, Territorial, Private Sector and Academic partners to collaborate. Together we can emphasize areas of concern, identify opportunities for investment and, importantly, learn from each other.”

-- COL. NATASHA SINGH Director, Health Services Logistics at Department of National Defence

Acknowledgements

To the Changemakers Championing This Work

SCAN Health wishes to express its deep appreciation to the incredible partners driving the Community of Practice forward for their unwavering commitment and substantial contribution to achieving supply chain excellence in Canadian health systems. Together, we will work towards a brighter future where care, processes and products are available when and where it is needed most to ensure workforce safety, world-class service, and equitable outcomes.

Learn more about our network of partners, whose dedication and acumen have been paramount in our accomplishments over the past year.

• Board of Directors

• Advisory Council

• Community of Practice Workgroup Leaders

• Team

• Partners

A special acknowledgement to strategic partners, Shoppers Drug Mart, GS1 Canada, and Alberta Innovates for their support to launch the Community of Practice.

SCAN Health is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and hosted at the Odette School of Business, University of Windsor.