The traditional approach towards purchase planning was limited by demand and supply aggregation to find the cheapest alternative in the healthcare sector. This approach lacked focus on critical aspects of quality care management, transparent consumption tracking, and supply chain process chokes. Due to this, hospitals faced quality issues, siloed consumption leading to wastage, dark purchasing, and delays in supplies due to several broken linkages.
StratMed is India’s first transparent group purchasing organization and has introduced an approach that looks at every aspect of the supply chain optimization curve – Clinical Requirement Mapping, Processes, Industry Cost and Consumption Benchmarks, and building a wider supply Eco-system.
StartMed’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Sameer Khan is an expert in the health care industry. In the following interview, he shed some light on the operations and services provided by the firm. He believes that this endeavor is a step towards making healthcare more productive and value efficient. Following are the key aspects of the interview.
Please brief our audience about StratMed, its USPs, and the key aspects of its stronghold within the healthcare supply chain niche.
StratMed partners with leading pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment manufacturers to provide large quaternary care hospitals, single specialty hospitals, corporate chains, community hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics with future-ready, end-to-end solutions for optimized hospital purchase planning and supply chain management.
While the clinical experts at StratMed work closely with the clinical leadership team within a hospital to evaluate and improve formulary design practices, process solutionists work towards de-bottlenecking. Supply partners engage at a deeper level to provide better value solutions and StratMed’s proprietary data-driven technology platform – Integer™ creates the intelligence layer for sharper decision-making and planning.
As a seasoned business leader, what is your opinion about the effects of the pandemic on the healthcare supply chain sector, and what were the challenges that StratMed came across?
The pandemic taught us how not to ‘depend’ on a single-supply source. Added to this is the impetus on localization. When the supply lines broke down during the pandemic, we leveraged our tech platform Integer™ to map the alternate source pools from our wide network of suppliers. This combined with predictive consumption analytics, we were able to support hospitals despite the challenges.
With continuous development in technologies such as AI and ML, what is your prediction about the future of the supply chain solutions niche?
AI and ML provide the much-needed intelligence layer, but they can be harnessed only if the underlying data is accurate and data attributes are comprehensively captured. Hence, our focus is on creating the right data landscape and leverage AI and ML applications for demand planning and forecasting, formulary design benchmarks based on specialty and treatment procedures, inventory level tracking, optimization, etc.
What would be your advice to the entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the healthcare supply chain solutions space?
Look beyond ‘Bulk Purchasing’ and focus on cost optimization methods that enhance clinical outcomes and do not disrupt them.
How do you envision scaling StratMed’s operations and offerings in 2021?
We have an aggressive growth plan for the coming years. While we will keep scaling our presence in India, we will also strengthen our presence in UAE. Our goal is to add 300 hospitals, 20,000 Beds, across India by 2023. We also intend to enter the MENA region and Southeast Asia in the coming fiscal.
On the offerings side, we plan to introduce different models of engagement – PaaS, Consulting, and Managed Services within the context of hospital supply chain optimization.
About the leader
Being a qualified doctor himself, the Founder and CEO, Dr. Sameer Ahmed Khan has deep clinical expertise, which when combined with his long-standing growth-leadership experience gives StratMed a unique value advantage of providing both clinical and business advisory support to hospital partners.
Dr. Sameer has played an integral role in setting up four flagship hospitals of fortis healthcare in India and steering revenue realization goals for leading healthcare brands. He has 20+ years of growth leadership experience. He held a leadership role in driving revenue, strategy, growth, and sourcing across large healthcare providers.
