Medline, Microsoft address ‘crisis of complexity’

NORTHFIELD, Ill. - Medline is joining forces with Microsoft to address the complex supply chain challenges facing today's health care professionals.  

The two organizations are designing a health care supply chain resiliency solution built on Microsoft 365 and powered by Azure AI that is easy to navigate, predictive and secure. The solution will aim to leverage AI-generated insights to save time, headaches and hassle, while eliminating onerous technology implementation through integrated inventory management, they say. 

"Health care today is dealing with a crisis of complexity, and Medline exists to make health care run better," said Jim Boyle, Medline CEO. "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 solution, called Mpower, will plan to tackle some of the toughest challenges in advancing the health care supply chain, including: 

• Combining customer and supplier data to provide actionable, predictive recommendations for supply chain professionals. Powered by Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI, this predictive solution will be designed to include features that make current complicated inventory management workflows easier and empower users with proactive recommendations that they can choose to implement. 

• Avoiding expensive, resource-heavy implementations for new technology platforms. Building the answer to these problems on the familiar, secure Microsoft 365 suite of applications will shorten ramp-up time considerably without the need for new, complicated tools or additional hires. 

• Powering positive employee experiences. The planned solution will also target to help address the current talent pressures faced by health care organizations by making software more helpful, action-oriented and insightful. 

The solution will pull upon Medline's data to empower better choices for patients—ultimately, freeing up valuable resources that can be redirected to patients in all points of care. 

"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."