Medline, Microsoft Partner to Address Supply Chain Challenges

NORTHFIELD, Illinois—Medline, a medical-surgical product manufacturer, announced its partnership with Microsoft, software platforms and tools creator, aiming to address the complex supply chain challenges facing health care professionals. Together, the companies are looking to reduce disruptions and enable more focus across patient care settings by designing a health care supply chain resiliency solution, “Mpower,” built on Microsoft’s “365” software and Azure’s artificial intelligence (AI). The solution aims to utilize AI-generated insights, save time and eliminate difficult technology implementation.

“Health care today is dealing with a crisis of complexity, and Medline exists to make health care run better,” said Jim Boyle, CEO of Medline. “In Microsoft, we see a partner who can help us power better-informed actions at a lower cost for our customers. This win-win will revolutionize the way we ensure a resilient health care supply chain.” 

“The potential for AI to help alleviate the burden on health care professionals is immense, and together with Medline, we’re helping to address a unique piece of this puzzle—the health care supply chain,” said Deb Cupp, president of Microsoft Americas. “By combining capabilities of our Copilot and AI offerings with Medline’s proven expertise across supply chain resilience and clinical solutions, we will be able to significantly reduce complexity and give providers time back to focus on patient care.”

The Mpower solution aims to tackle the challenges in advancing the health care supply chain, such as:

• Combining customer and supplier data to provide actionable, predictive recommendations for supply chain professionals. Powered by Microsoft “Copilot” and Azure AI, this solution will include features that aim to make complicated inventory management workflows easier and offer users recommendations they can choose to implement. Mpower intends to ease decision-making, so health care professionals can better focus on what matters.
• Avoiding expensive, resource-heavy implementations for new technology platforms. The Microsoft 365 suite of applications aims to shorten ramp-up time without the need for new, complicated tools or additional hires.
• Boosting positive employee experiences. The solution intends to help address the talent pressures faced by health care organizations by making software more helpful, action-oriented and insightful. Rather than creating heavy reports that require more from over-scheduled professionals, the goal is to improve suggestions to ease the workday.

The companies said the Mpower tool aims to build upon their data to empower better choices for patients and free up resources that can be redirected to patients at all points of care.