New Center Partners with Procter & Gamble

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Procter & Gamble will join the new University of Arkansas Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics as an affiliate partner. A $100,000 gift from Procter & Gamble will support the center.

The Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics was founded in March 2007 as an industry-university partnership in collaboration with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield. The goal of the center’s work is to efficiently put the right materials in the hands of doctors and nurses where and when they need them. “Too often,” said Ron Rardin, director of the center, “wasteful and unreliable practices in the health care supply chains that deliver those materials lead to excessive expense, unnecessary confusion and the risk of dangerous medical errors. Innovations in information and logistics systems can reduce those costs, make patients safer and free providers to spend more time with their patients.”

The center, which will be housed at the University of Arkansas, is dedicated to identifying and addressing gaps and roadblocks in the application and delivery of health logistics technology, as well as highlighting and replicating proven applications that are already benefiting patients and providers.

“Much of our initial work will seek ways to adapt logistics and supply chain solutions from other industries to health care,” added Rardin, who is also the White Distinguished Professor of Industrial Engineering. “Partnership with a global consumer products manufacturer and distributor like Procter & Gamble will offer tremendous opportunities for us to benefit from their experience and leadership.”

Jeff Schomburger, president of Procter & Gamble’s Global Wal-Mart business stated: “We believe that applying the best in information technology to our health-care delivery system will be at the center of improving health care for our consumers. This work is critical, and we are proud to be a part of what the University of Arkansas and Wal-Mart are creating through the Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics.”

The center’s founding partners were equally enthusiastic. Linda Dillman, executive vice president of risk management, benefits and sustainability at Wal-Mart, said, "Procter & Gamble will help bring important knowledge and expertise to this important task of filling a large information gap in the field of health care. We are proud to have P&G joining the partnership we have with Blue Cross Blue Shield and the University of Arkansas.”

The center’s work will address information technology-based innovations for bringing visibility and collaboration to every level of the health-care procurement and distribution processes. Examples of innovations to be targeted by the center include examining the broader use of bar coding, radio-frequency identification and related tracking technologies to verify that materials are delivered when and where they are needed. The center will also seek collaborations among different parties in health-care supply chains to find mutually advantageous ways to reduce cost and enhance product availability.