The Asia Pacific region is slated to record the highest growth rate in healthcare IT, with organizations digitizing in order to ensure patient safety and streamlining of workflow systems.
Asia is the most populous continent, accounting for 60 per cent of the worlds’ population. Market access barriers for foreign investors have been diminishing in recent years as governments are showing signs of relaxing regulations surrounding private investment into healthcare. Healthcare spending in Asia is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.2 per cent, compared to 5.6 per cent in the U.S. Private and public hospitals in Asia are increasingly looking to invest in IT solutions in efforts to increase operational efficiency, improve clinical outcomes, and boost profit margins. The Asia Pacific region is slated to record the highest growth rate in healthcare IT, with organizations digitizing in order to ensure patient safety and streamlining of workflow systems. Southeast Asia is poised for growth. The region’s healthcare market is projected to be worth $134.2 billion by 2020.
In this background BioSpectrum spoke to Sheng-Jie Ni, Managing Director, Product and Solution Development, APAC, FedEx Express, who made presentation at the Asia Health Conference 2019, in Singapore recently and shared his views on many topics including opportunities and challenges as healthcare trade rises; Important logistics considerations for global expansion and Cold chain best practices.
Edited excerpts-
The healthcare industry continues to expand globally. As businesses in this space look to expand overseas, what are some of the pertinent supply chain considerations they must have? How can they build logistics and transport as part of their quality systems?
The global healthcare industry is undergoing profound change as aging populations drive a growing need for new pharma solutions. This will be especially true for Asia, with more than a billion people over the age of 50 forecast to be living in this region by 2025. Businesses in the healthcare spaces are increasingly recognizing the importance of making their supply chain an intrinsic part of the value chain.
Against this backdrop, here are three key supply chain considerations that businesses must have as they look to connect to more possibilities around the world:
- Greater shipment monitoring and control with Industry 4.0
Advancements in supply chain technology has allowed healthcare companies an unprecedented degree of real-time tracking and tracing of their shipments through the Internet of Things (IoT). Using this data, pharmaceutical companies can map information such as location, light exposure, humidity, barometric pressure, and shock. They can also ensure the integrity and security of temperature, one of the most pressing challenges for the modern industry.
FedEx offers customers our own pioneering technology, SenseAware, which provides safe and compliant transportation of temperature-sensitive shipments in clinical trials and innovative pharma. Our network of connected sensors has the ability to gather, send and monitor data, enabling a comprehensive array of real-time tracking and tracing data.
- Transportation as a critical part of Quality Assurance (QA)
Transportation has become a major consideration in the QA system for businesses in the healthcare space. Transportation spending among healthcare companies is rising, with Asia’s biggest players spending around $3 million on logistics annually.
Highly specialized packaging is a key component of QA, with demand rising exponentially. Around 17 per cent are using specialized or active containers (referring to temperature-controlled transportation), while 12 per cent are using deep frozen packaging.
FedEx offers a suite of customizable healthcare packaging solutions to meet the unique needs of the industry, whether it involves delivering a pacemaker to a heart patient in Taiwan, China from half way around the world in just one night, or transporting sensitive biomaterials such as human liver cells between Japan and Singapore and have them arrive in perfect condition – the possibilities are endless.
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