Co-founder of Owned Outcomes Krupa Srinivas explores the value of fear in an entrepreneur’s journey as she describes partnering with a US healthcare intermediary to solve the problem of cataloguing hospital supplies.

The US hospital supply chain is one of the largest supply chains in need of an overhaul. Market participants struggle with the lack of standardization, interoperability and transparency on quantities and prices of devices and supplies they purchase.

Without industry-wide master unique identifiers for medical-surgical (med-surg) items, hospitals cannot easily compare products by their attributes to identify cost-savings opportunities, or map product selection to the best patient outcomes. In other words, an Amazon.com for hospital supply products is needed.