The Future of Supply Chain Summit Recap
NOVEMBER 5–7 | HOUSTON, TX
Over three days, more than 20 health systems came together to connect, collaborate, and spark innovation at the Future of Supply Chain Summit.
From inspiring panels to late-night conversations over Top Golf and bourbon, this group is redefining how healthcare works together.
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Summit Highlights
Experience the best moments from the 2025 Future of Supply Chain Summit, where healthcare leaders tackled the industry's biggest challenges, shared visionary insights, and forged powerful connections to build a better tomorrow.
Sessions
Why Healthcare Supply Chain Is The Next Frontier
Kicking off the Future of Supply Chain Summit, Clarium Founder and CEO Steve Liou shared his vision for building a truly connected, data-driven, and clinically integrated supply chain — one that redefines how health systems work together to solve long-standing challenges through innovation, collaboration, and long-term thinking.
“It’s time to stop thinking in short-term fixes and band-aid solutions and start reimagining healthcare from the ground up.”
Steve Liou
Founder & CEO @ Clarium
Supply Chain Technology Common Ground: A Stakeholder’s Tale
The opening panel brought clinical, CMIO, and supply chain perspectives together to find common ground in technology, emphasizing platform thinking, tighter governance, and reframing “supply chain” as a system-wide network. Conversations spanned AI as an enabler, cross-site standardization, and moving from “hunting and gathering” to integrated operations.
“It's not the idea. It's the person that has the courage to be able to execute that idea.”
Amanda Chawla
SVP, Chief Supply Chain & Post Acute Care Officer @ Stanford Medicine
Swifties, Startups, and the Singularity
In our Thursday opening keynote, Dr. Stephen Klasko pushed the room to think beyond incrementalism, laying out a 2035 vision and the near-term steps to get there: senior-level sponsorship, reworked incentives, and scaling practical technologies like AI without breaking today’s business model.
“Even if you're not going to be able to talk to your CEO about how important new technology is, how do you get them to say, ‘look things are changing’? You have to change the culture within to accelerate things.”
Stephen Klasko, MD
Executive in Residence @ General Catalyst
Closing the Strategy to Execution Gap: Lessons from the “Messy Middle”
In these rapid-fire “TED Talks,” we heard from leaders across health systems on how they're collaborating with with different functions, tackling complex problems in new ways, and ultimately carving a path through the messy middle.
Rethinking Variation Reduction
René and Nattie from Ochsner talked through a pragmatic playbook for OR optimization: clean the data foundation, align ERP–EHR workflows, formalize preference-card governance with clinical champions, and shift ordering to trained supply chain staff while reducing requesters. The throughline: build shared governance and usable data first—then standardize, automate, and scale.
“Sometimes you have to change the name to get attention — we called it ‘margin optimization’ and suddenly everyone cared.”
René Gurdián Jr.
AVP, Supply Chain Finance, Strategy & Integration @ Ochsner Health
Rewiring Work for the Modern Supply Chain
Facing a 10% cost reduction target, MultiCare explored how to rethink roles, span of control, and technology to build a more adaptive, analytics-driven supply chain. By blending automation, AI, and process engineering, their team is upskilling talent, redefining decision-making, and proving that efficiency doesn’t have to come at the expense of people.
“I started to rethink job titles and span control. Could I enhance their workflows with AI? Could I change the actual decisions they’re responsible for making and upskill them?”
Matthew Palcich
System Director, Analytics & Process Improvement @ MultiCare Health System
The Leadership Behind Standardization
Bridging clinical insight with supply chain strategy, St. Luke’s has built a model for transformation from the inside out. With a new Consolidated Service Center and Dr. Michele Ebbers as the Supply Chain Medical Director, the team is proving how standardization, data, and physician partnership can unlock both savings and trust.
“Supply chain can’t just be background support — it has to be one of the players at the table.”
Michelle Ebbers, MD
Supply Chain Medical Director @ St. Luke's Health System
Standardizing Preference Cards: Lessons Learned
Behind every technology leap is culture change. Steve Downey showed how Cleveland Clinic is reimagining supply chain through AI, automation, and clinically aligned standardization. His message: operational precision and data-driven leadership are the new foundations for clinical excellence.
“We forced the hard conversations, from committee chairs to institute leaders, until everyone was aligned.”
Steve Downey
Chief Supply Chain & Patient Support Services Officer @ Cleveland Clinic
Bridging Pharmacy and Supply Chain
Mary Beth Lang and Mike Hopkins explored how integrating pharmacy and supply chain can strengthen resilience, improve visibility, and redefine partnership. From managing shortages and data sharing to rethinking warehousing and procurement, they emphasized that true progress comes from working together.
“I think one of the big pitfalls to avoid is assuming that a pharmacy supply chain works just like med-surg. It does not, it's very different.”
Mike Hopkins
VP, Supply Chain @ Northwestern Medicine
Workshop: From Supply Data to Financial Insight
In a dynamic, hands-on workshop, the team from Yale New Haven Health challenged participants to rethink how supply chain performance is measured — and who defines success. Through breakout sessions spanning finance, clinical, and operations, leaders worked to identify the next generation of KPIs that truly connect cost, care, and collaboration.
“Finance sees numbers, we see care. Bridging those lenses is where real progress happens.”
Jacqueline Epright
VP & Chief Supply Chain Officer @ Yale New Haven Health
Workshop: Roadmapping the Future of Supply Chain
In an energetic roadmapping workshop, supply chain, finance, and clinical leaders worked side-by-side to define the next frontier of healthcare supply chain — from smarter spend visibility to autonomous inventory management. Their ideas will directly shape what Clarium builds next.
“We shouldn’t rely on suppliers to tell us what’s happening — supply chain needs its own intelligence to push insights back to operators in real time.”
Meena Medler
Chief Supply Chain Officer @ Sutter Health
Closing Keynote: The Next Frontier for Health Systems
We ended the summit with a conversation that brought it all home. Dr. Toby Cosgrove shared stories from the operating room to the boardroom, on transparency, courage, and the role of empathy in leadership. His message to leaders in the room was simple but profound: the path forward isn’t just about efficiency or technology, it’s about people, purpose, and bringing care back to the center of every decision.
“If you want a CEO’s attention, talk about money. Supply chain drives up to a quarter of hospital costs, and that’s where transformation begins.”
Toby Cosgrove, MD
Former President & CEO @ ClevelandClinic