Looking backward

Healthcare Purchasing News may have closed the book in December on its 40th anniversary celebration, but technically HPN enters its 5th decade with the March edition. Until then, here’s a random list of 40 things the healthcare supply chain industry has now that it didn’t have four decades ago (more or less, even if it existed outside of healthcare).

1. Artificial intelligence (no, we’re not referring to “management”)
2. 3-D printing
3. RTLS (e.g., radiofrequency identification, infrared, ultraviolet, etc.)
4. Cellular/mobile telephones (traditional and smart)
5. Wearable computers (e.g., eyeglasses, watches, wrist computers, etc.)
6. Supply data standards implemented by roughly half the industry in some way
7. Open electronic data interchange (EDI)
8. Materials management information systems (MMIS)
9. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems
10. Widespread (greater than 50 percent at least) use of bar coding
11. Bar-code-reader-equipped mobile telephones
12. Kanban
13. Stockless distribution by more than a few facilities
14. Minimally invasive surgery devices (e.g., rigid and flexible endoscopes, etc.)
15. Low-temperature sterilization systems
16. Sharps safety devices
17. Electronic health/medical records
18. The term “supply chain”
19. Healthcare Purchasing News (nee Purchasing Administration) (Shameless plug: Previously no trade magazine dedicated to covering the industry)
20. Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (previously Lotus 1-2-3 under DOS)
21. Automated supply cabinets/automated open shelving
22. Laptop and notebook computers
23. Electronic readers
24. Single-use endoscopes
25. Clinically driven value analysis
26. Integrated delivery networks (IDNs)
27. Self-distribution
28. Centralized (provider-based) warehousing
29. Payer-driven economics (prior to 1982, “managed care” and payer-governed reimbursement largely didn’t exist outside of several provider models)
30. Proprietary EDI with translation software for value-added networks
31. Lean and Six Sigma management principles
32. Women occupy more than one-third of supply chain management leadership posts
33. Robotics in distribution and logistics
34. Open source software
35. Data scientists as an official job title
36. Email
37. Online search engines
38. Data breaches, hacking, phishing and skimming
39. Social media to share concerns, questions and stories
40. General public access to the internet/web (post-Arpanet)

Did we miss any? Comment below to us know!