Innovation summit addresses data’s major role in creativity

By Leila Ugincius

Physicians don’t have the time to figure out if they can save money by using a more cost-effective scalpel. They have more important things on their minds, such as saving lives, said Stephen Olive, chief information officer at Owens & Minor.

But Olive, as it turns out, does have time to think of such things. In fact, that is Owens & Minor’s mission. The 136-year-old company started in pharmaceuticals before moving into health care products and logistics. Now it concentrates on patient outcomes, Olive said during the 2018 Virginia Commonwealth University innovation summit, “Innovation and Data.”

In addition to Olive, the summit, sponsored by the VCU School of Business Foundation and the VCU da Vinci Center, featured CoStar Group’s Mary Glerum, director of product management, and Mike Morrison, director of unified communications; and Khalid Behairy, global leader of the Cognitive Solutions Department at IBM Watson Group.

We know what needs to be delivered where better than the customer.

All addressed the importance of data in their respective fields. Owens & Minor, Olive said, uses data to forecast the demand of its customers.

“We know what needs to be delivered where better than the customer,” Olive said. “We’re the supply chain management all the way from what needs to be manufactured all the way to the patient.”

The health care product supplier can specify exactly what products, tools and techniques a physician wants when performing a surgery, he said.

“And we’re getting smarter,” Olive said. For instance, for a knee-replacement surgery, a supplier might ship 25 knees to the operating room or surgical center. The doctor puts in one. If it doesn’t fit properly, he tries another one. Say this one fits. “Now he’s got the right fit so he’s unsterilized one, he’s used one and 23 are sent back to go through re-sterilization,” Olive said.

But now, Owens & Minor is collecting procedure and patient information. If you knew the patient was a petite female versus an oversized male, and if it was a left knee, not the right, you can use analytics to determine statistically the five knees that should be sent, saving time and resources in the operating room, Olive said.

“Now, we’re starting to do procedure-specific kits,” Olive said. “You research everything. How can we help the physicians improve patient outcomes and how can we do that and allow them more time and more creativity to concentrate on the patient and the procedure and less time worrying about [if they] have the right things to perform this operation? That’s really the mindset.”

 

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