Latest Faces of the Supply Chain Videos Underscore Industry’s Focus on Safety and Reliability
HDA’s Faces of the Supply Chain series continued this past month with the release of new videos featuring perspectives from nine distribution sector experts. Interviews touched upon topics ranging from innovations in healthcare distribution and manufacturing; the industry’s focus on patients; supply chain resilience through the COVID-19 pandemic; and more.
Highlights from the latest episodes are captured below.
The Patient Behind the Package
As the vital link between manufacturers and providers, healthcare distributors provide reliable and safe access to medicines, vaccines and lifesaving medical products for patients. Chris Alverson, SVP of Supply Chain Management, McKesson, shares how his organization captures this sentiment with a message displayed in their distribution centers: “It’s Not a Package, It’s a Patient.”
Alverson, along with Rena Goins, Executive Director Global Trade, GPO & Distribution, Regeneron, and Vince Cooper, PharmD, Senior Director, Trade Accounts, U.S. Wholesale Trade & Channel Management, Sanofi also discuss the pride they derive from knowing their jobs ultimately make a difference for patients across the country.
This drive to ensure people can get medicines whenever and wherever needed is further captured as Jessica Richards Hosgood, PharmD, BCGP, VP of Pharmacy Operations & Compliance, Capital Wholesale Drug Co. and Walter Shikany III, CEO, Health Coalition, explain what Health Delivered means to them.
Leveraging Technology for Industry Innovations
The supply chain continues to enhance delivery capabilities by employing cutting-edge technologies like drones and AI. McKesson’s Alverson, an industry and military veteran, conveys the rapid technological evolution that he has seen in the healthcare distribution sector over the past decade, helping distributors be even more effective in fulfilling their missions.
Goins and Cooper, along with Brad Leonard, Associate Vice President of National Accounts, Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC also talk about the nature of innovations within the sector, on topics spanning product personalization, the digitization of materials and the importance of industry partnerships.
Delivering Value Throughout the Healthcare Sector
Many people may not be aware of the distribution industry or the value it brings to our nation’s healthcare system, as Walter Shikany underscores.
Richards Hosgood, joined by sister Sarah Richards Lynch, speaks to Capital Drug’s continued support of independent pharmacies. Vince Cooper, a former pharmacist himself, also emphasizes the importance of pharmacies that serve as pillars of communities.
Further, HDA distributor members have also contributed toward strengthening the safety and security of the healthcare supply chain by collaborating within industry to implement requirements for the DSCSA, as Shikany describes.
Stay tuned for more stories delving into the unique operations of the healthcare distribution supply chain —and the people who make the supply chain work.
For more unique perspectives from HDA member company employees, check out the full Faces of the Supply Chain series.