2017 Symposium in Innovating in the Health Sector

2017 Symposium in Innovating in the Health Sector*

March 22, 2017

Impacting the Medical Device Value Chain: What is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?

Companies around the globe are working to develop a set of technologies that will meet the goals of the triple aim – impacting cost, quality, outcomes, and improved population health. In his book, “The Creative Destruction of Medicine,” Eric Topol, M.D., (the 2017 McKenna lecturer at Arizona State University) identifies a disruptive change in medicine occurring due to an unprecedented "super convergence" of critical elements: low-power wireless biosensors, digital imaging, genome sequencing, mobile connectivity, smartphones, the internet, social networking, virtually unlimited computing power/data storage/bandwidth and pervasive health information systems. The 2017 symposium will focus on innovation in the health sector and impacts on the value chain and supply chains in medical device and pharmaceutical industrires.

We will consider ways innovative companies approach product development as well as principal upstream and downstream strategies and risks associated with innovative medical products. The extent to which products and processes are truly disruptive will be considered. Product diversity will be addressed including impacts of evolving business-to-business and business-to-customer strategies, biosensors, 3-D printing, and the shift of care outside of the acute care setting.

The symposium will be moderated by Dr. Dale Rogers, Interim Chair of the Department of Supply Chain in the Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business. A panel, moderated by Richard Perrin, CEO, Active Innovations will include presenters and be joined by Dr. Eric Topol.

Confirmed participants include Eric Miller from PADT, a company that does 3-D printing of design prototypes for bringing medical devices to market; Genco's Kevin McPherson, who is working on the design of strategies to enhance traditional pathways for moving products to patients; Kent Dicks, who at Life365 is bringing applications into the home; and Michael Nagle, Vomaris Innovations, Inc., who is bringing advanced wound healing through its bioelectric platform across multiple supply chain channels.

*Symposium on Innovation in the Health Sector is housed in the W.P. Carey School of Business, Department of Supply Chain Management with guidance from the Mark McKenna Lecture Committee.