What Is Sustainable Business

Sustainable business practices can generally be defined as the operational behaviours that have minimal or no harm to the environment, economy, and society, and hence enable their indefinite continuity. This brings us to the motivation factors of sustainable business, which can be well aligned with digital healthcare supply chain. In particular, it encompasses a broad scope of activities from (1) the adoption of industry “best practices” in operational procedures, and selection of environmentally friendly raw materials to (2) the introduction of these innovations into the business model.

Integrated Digital Supply Chain For Sustainable Healthcare

In the effort to explore and integrate disruptive innovation products into the business model of healthcare (i.e. within a hospital setting), there is a high reliance on research-driven activities to facilitate such movement. A topic of great interest for both the internal and external stakeholders, and that also has tremendous potential to change the face of healthcare is the integration of technology and digitalization into the daily routines of the hospital’s supply chain.

By technology, it does not imply just wearable devices for health monitoring, but also personalised, patient-centered treatments, and analysing big data sets to improve the quality of care and reduce costs. All these have to be handled while balancing the ever-important concern of data security and maintaining patient confidentiality (e.g. Personal Data Protection Act in Singapore). In short, the concept is to internalise one or more critical steps of the supply chain using smart technologies (i.e. cognitive thinking) based model. This will allow healthcare professionals to better utilise their time on tasks that require critical decision-making and cases that require immediate attention. Also, this gives rise to the option of enhancing traceability as and when needed (e.g. change of local regulation) without increasing workload or regularly revisiting the supply chain operation within the hospitals.

Patients and consumers are increasingly well educated and willing to use devices to gather more information about themselves, which can then be integrated into a holistic, personalised healthcare routine, covering diet, exercise and medication. Doctors can use this data to advise their patients better or prescribe treatments more suited to their patients’ lifestyle. With increasing initiatives taken by the major healthcare players in the world, many are now following the footsteps by taking the opportunity to evolve, becoming more innovative, being an all-encompassing health and wellness provider, addressing the needs of patients and doctors from A to Z. This integration of such technology assistances will inevitably revolutionise the hospital supply chain, promoting higher efficiency as well as human resource management.

Conclusion

To conclude, as the development of sustainability unit has become more than just a support pillar for good corporate image, but also contributing to the financial metrics and participating in the long-term corporate strategic business plan, the concern over regulations for confidentiality and disclosure will be growing. From building a strategy to the implementation, the efforts in sustainability practices and innovations will continue to be at the heart of the healthcare industry.