Beyond Recognition: Reflections from Supply Chain Week 2025

Each October, Healthcare Supply Chain Week celebrates the essential professionals who keep hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory centers running smoothly—often behind the scenes. Their work ensures clinicians have the right products, at the right time, at the right cost—all without compromising patient safety or quality.

At ECRI, we view this week not simply as a time to celebrate—but as a time to reflect. Instead of spotlighting ourselves, we focused this year on listening to our clients and peers, gathering insights directly from the field at the 2025 Association for Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP) Annual Conference and Industry Partner Expo.

The result was clear: supply chain leaders are facing unprecedented challenges—but also unprecedented opportunity.

The State of Healthcare Supply Chain in 2025: Resilience, Data, and Redefinition

The conversations at AHVAP this year were honest and forward-thinking. Across breakout sessions, roundtables, and networking halls, three themes emerged that echo what we’re hearing from ECRI clients across the U.S. and abroad.

1. Resilience remains the north star.
While the acute disruptions of the pandemic have faded, their ripple effects persist. Supply chain leaders spoke about diversifying suppliers, building local sourcing capacity, and integrating predictive analytics to anticipate shortages before they impact care.

Yet “resilience” today means more than preparedness—it means visibility. Health systems are seeking deeper insight into their contracts, spend, and clinical utilization patterns. Leaders want to know not only what they’re buying, but why, from whom, and how it affects patient outcomes.

That’s where data integrity becomes a differentiator. As one AHVAP attendee noted, “You can’t optimize what you can’t see.”

ECRI’s own Supply Navigator™ platform was built on this premise—empowering teams to make informed, evidence-based purchasing decisions with transparency into product performance, safety alerts, and lifecycle costs.

2. Value analysis is expanding its influence.
At AHVAP 2025, one recurring theme was the evolution of value analysis teams from cost-containment units to strategic partners in clinical excellence.

More organizations are integrating value analysis with quality improvement, infection prevention, and sustainability initiatives, recognizing that purchasing decisions are clinical decisions.

During ECRI’s conversations on-site, leaders shared examples of cross-functional committees evaluating products not just on price, but on evidence, safety signals, and end-user feedback. This shift—toward total value and away from unit cost—marks a cultural turning point.

As ECRI’s Supply Chain Achievement Award recipients have demonstrated, success in this new era requires collaboration across departments, shared metrics, and a relentless focus on the patient.

3. AI and automation are shaping the next frontier.
Artificial intelligence isn’t a buzzword anymore—it’s becoming the operational backbone of modern healthcare supply chains.

From predictive replacement planning to automated contract normalization and spend analytics, AI is helping supply chain leaders uncover hidden inefficiencies and reduce manual burden.

But the consensus at AHVAP was pragmatic: AI must be applied responsibly, with transparency, accuracy, and clinician trust at its core. ECRI’s work in AI governance and safe adoption echoes this sentiment. Just as with clinical technology, AI in supply chain must be validated, monitored, and continuously improved to ensure it enhances—not complicates—decision-making.

Celebrating the 2025 Supply Chain Achievement Awards

As part of Supply Chain Week, ECRI proudly recognizes the recipients of the 2025 Supply Chain Achievement Awards—organizations that exemplify excellence in value analysis, data-driven sourcing, and collaboration across the care continuum.

This year’s honorees demonstrated measurable results through transparency, partnership, and innovation. Each implemented solutions that advanced patient safety, improved efficiency, and built a more resilient healthcare supply ecosystem.

Their stories underscore that transformation isn’t about technology alone—it’s about people.

From small rural hospitals leveraging ECRI benchmarking data to large health systems integrating predictive analytics across their supply networks, these leaders remind us that better data, aligned teams, and shared purpose drive meaningful change.

What We Learned by Listening

Our time at AHVAP reaffirmed that healthcare supply chain leaders don’t need more tools—they need more clarity.

They need clean, connected data that allows them to:

• Quantify cost-saving opportunities without compromising clinical integrity
• Monitor product recalls and safety signals in real time
• Link purchasing patterns to patient outcomes
• Communicate value across finance, nursing, and executive teams

That’s why ECRI’s approach is evolving from being a data provider to being a decision partner. We’re helping organizations close the gap between information and action—so insights become outcomes.

Why We Chose Reflection Over Recognition

We wanted our focus to match what we heard at AHVAP: that real progress comes not from surface-level celebration, but from sustained, system-level collaboration.

By using this week to reflect, reconnect, and recognize excellence through the Supply Chain Achievement Awards, we’re reaffirming our mission: to help every healthcare organization make smarter, safer, and more sustainable decisions.

Because in healthcare, supply chain isn’t a back-office function—it’s a clinical function. It’s where safety, cost, and patient outcomes intersect. And at ECRI, we’re proud to stand alongside the professionals who make that possible every day.

Looking Ahead

As we move into 2026, our focus will remain on helping supply chain teams transform complexity into clarity.

Through our work in Supply Navigator, Predictive Replacement Planning, and clinical evidence integration, ECRI is committed to supporting value analysis and supply chain leaders with trusted data, world-class expertise, and a shared vision for safer care.
To all the professionals driving this transformation: thank you. You’re not just managing supplies—you’re shaping the future of healthcare.