Armed with 2020 hindsight (pun intended), we acknowledge that the healthcare industry weathered the pandemic storm as well as it could, but it did seem to bring out a back-to-basics philosophy for the nerve-wracked Supply Chain that tried to keep pace like War Admiral chasing his nephew Seabiscuit at Baltimore’s Pimlico in 1938.
In a survey of Healthcare Purchasing News readers last year as a prerequisite to HPN’s October feature on “Future-Ready Supply Chains,” December’s “Healthcare Product Hall of Fame” and January’s “Healthcare Product All-Stars,” we asked readers the following question: If they were provided the resources to research, adopt and implement one or two technology-oriented processes, products or projects in 2021, which one or two would they choose? We gave them a long list of options.
With all the hubbub and multimedia hubbaloo about artificial intelligence, blockchain and 3-D printing during the last two years, we figured the results would be … predictable and ordinary.
Surprisingly, we were wrong. The three anticipated/expected leaders were nestled snuggly in the middle of the list. The leaders were more … dare we say it? Old school. See below for the results and ponder.
1. Wearables (e.g., computers, sensors, trackers) … 40.0%
2. Cybersecurity measure … 27.3%
3. 4-D barcoding and/or advanced RTLS … 25.5%
4. Drones for internal/external deliveries/distribution … 10.9%
5. Robotics/Robotics Process Automation (RPA) … 10.0%
6. Artificial intelligence (AI) … 8.2%
7. 3-D printing … 7.3%
8. Blockchain … 7.3%
9. Internet of Things (IoT)/Machine-to-machine (M2M) interoperability … 7.3%
10. Self-driving vehicles (e.g., AGVs, sensor-led tugs, etc.) … 3.6%
11. Virtual reality (VR) … 2.7%
12. Augmented reality (AR) … 0.9%
