AI Bots in Medical Supply Chain: Friend or Foe?
Given the persistent adoption of AI in healthcare overall, it’s not surprising to see an AI uptick in the medical supply chain, too.?
Abundant, accessible data and sophisticated AI programs could influence how medical devices are purchased. One form that trend could take is an AI bot for complex implant sourcing and selection. A bot (short for robot) is an application designed to simulate repetitive human activity without manual intervention.?
Why a bot for implant sourcing and pricing opportunities? The scope of contracts and medical device spend management has never been greater, yet staffing has not kept up. Thousands of manufacturers and suppliers. Dozens of device categories. Endless columns of data to be evaluated.?
Even for just one contract, it’s an overwhelming assignment. Multiply that stress and time by a year’s worth of medical device contracts. It’s the kind of work bots were made for.?
How Helpful Are Bots in the Healthcare Supply Chain?
There are already many types of bots, but at their core, all are computer programs operating as an agent for a user or another application.?
In the medical device scenario, think of these digital servants as a cross between a shopbot and a knowbot.?
Not chatbots that engage on digital channels, but data-driven, decision-making AI bots. Not exactly robotic-process automation (RPA) either, but something else entirely. RPA typically involves a discrete business process, and chat isn’t part of it.
Bots as Agents of Digital Transformation in Medical Supply Chain
Digital transformation in the medical supply chain already delivers benefits:
AI bots could take those results to new levels when it comes to making sense of detailed, data-driven medical device decisions.?
The bigger challenge, as with most AI initiatives, is thoughtful implementation that actually loops in human behavior and decision making as well.?
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Keeping Humans in the Loop
It’s no wonder some spend management solutions already leverage the power of AI-driven data enrichment and analysis. But what about the next step? What if humans were removed from the supply chain steps of recommendations, selection and purchasing??
That might be an extreme example, but it’s possible, leading one to ask:
Good questions that health system leaders might want to think about.?
AI Already Reduces Medical Device Contract Cycles
More and more hours are now required for traditional manual data collection, normalization and visualization steps. This comes on top of an already-heavy contract workload. The complex task of bid and contract management is ripe for digitization, and in many hospital enterprises, that’s already happening.
Increased accessibility to data and advances in AI programs have launched a wave of fresh digitization in the healthcare supply chain. One important way digital transformation impacts sourcing and spending is by dramatically reducing contracting cycles.?
Digitization in the form of AI- and clinician-enriched data, analytics, and automation (and maybe soon AI bots) help teams analyze opportunities in a fraction of the time. This has the side effect of reducing contract cycles and creating bandwidth to tackle more savings opportunities in a year. What once took months can be done even better in fewer days using the technology advantage.?
Bots as Part of Hybrid Medical Supply Chain Workforce
Imagine AI bots as part of a hybrid supply chain workforce, where the AI takes on the heavy contract lifting, and the humans oversee the process. Think robot-assisted vs robot-selected medical device selection.
Already, some clinical spend management solutions combine human clinicians with AI to scour and manage vast amounts of medical device data. The AI is there not to replace people, but support them and enable greater efficiency. That should be the goal for AI bots, too.
More to Know About Bots in Medical Device Selection
Get the Curvo Executive View, “Rise of Bots in Medical Device Selection and Sales,” for thought leader insight on what healthcare systems need to know.