What 2021 Trends in Medical Device Manufacturing Say About the Tomorrow’s Leaders in Healthcare

This blog will first examine how healthcare organizations can shore up their supply chain disruptions after the pandemic. 

Furthermore, we’ll explore a couple of medical devices that are aiding in workplace safety initiatives and what these trends mean for tomorrow’s healthcare leaders. 

How Cutting-Edge Organizations are Managing Immediate Supply Chain Disruptions

COVID-19 led to supply chain shockwaves that shook many businesses to their core–the healthcare industry included. 

Staying in business requires safeguarding operational viability for situations like the pandemic. 

Many organizations have incorporated something called a nerve center so they can mobilize immediately during a crisis. Here are some other factors to consider when faced with something that severely disrupts the supply chain:

  •     Transparency at multiple supply chain levels:

    This process involves creating a list of all essential moving parts, knowing the supply origin, and pinpoints alternative sources.  

  •     Deal with how customers/patients act when there are shortages (i.e., grasping buying behaviors when products run out):

    Assess these demands realistically. 

  •     Prioritize employee safety when streamlining production and distribution capacity:

    E.g., supply PPE and ensure infection-risk levels and work-from-home options are communicated appropriately.  

  •     Be sure about secure logistics capacity:

    Have a reasonable estimate on capacity and acceleration. Focus on flexible transportation modes wherever needed. 

  •     Cash and networking capital management:

   Run stress tests to grasp where potential issues might occur with the supply chain and lead to adverse financial consequences. 

Strengthening Supply Chains for the Future

The above section focused on handling disruptions as they happen. Whereas this part of the blog will examine how to prepare supply chains for the future. 

Ensuring the supply chains are resilient for the future involves creating a function that can assess risk. Moreover, it needs to update risk-impact estimates and strategies when there are slowdowns. 

Any tools developed to manage a crisis should be formalized and codified. And the nerve center mentioned before should become a regular part of your healthcare business. Doing so will ensure that vulnerabilities will be monitored reliably across the supply chain. 

Digitized supply-chain management is also a must to keep all the moving parts consolidated to a single source. This provides more visibility, allowing you to better assess risk. 

Workplace Safety Trends 

Given the impact of the pandemic, workplace safety across healthcare is now a pressing issue. This notion is reflected in trends in medical devices and manufacturing. 

For instance, robotic devices are currently automating research laboratories and helping disinfect clinic rooms and other medical facilities. This is on top of these tools providing non-invasive treatment to cancerous/non-cancerous tumors in sensitive areas like the brain. 

Another safety trend in the healthcare space is telehealth and telemedicine. 

Telemedicine – specifically – prevents overcrowding at hospitals and other medical practices. This is essential for worker safety during the pandemic. Unlike telehealth, telemedicine revolves more around clinical care. Thus, patients can receive care while remaining socially distanced, keeping staff safe from infections. 

What Do These Trends Mean for the Healthcare Leaders of Tomorrow? 

The shifts discussed in this blog are all imminent. The healthcare leaders of tomorrow must be on top of these trends; their fingers should be on the pulse of where the industry is headed, or else they’ll be left behind. 

Whereas staying on top of those trends means these leaders will know how to leverage, navigate, and manage these industry shifts.

If you want access to top leadership candidates in healthcare with a firm grasp on all these trends and possessing the direction to lead your organization into the future, contact HCRI today!