Marketing

Engineering

Health care

Healthcare delivery

Operating system

Economics

Computer science

Risk analysis (engineering)

Business

Process management

Supply chain management

Supply chain

Operations management

Economic growth

Finance

Knowledge management

Software deployment

Order (exchange)

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

The healthcare supply chain lags far behind supply chains in other industries in terms of performance and the deployment of best practices. Managers could bridge this gap and improve the performance of the healthcare supply chain by implementing digitalization initiatives. However, the erratic, disconnected digitalization of practices already deployed in the healthcare sector makes it difficult to maximize the potential of these initiatives. In order to generate the greatest benefits from digitalization while improving healthcare delivery, this article sets out a roadmap for implementing technologies. Unlike previous studies that focused on the entire supply chain or had been limited to patient flow, this study adopts the perspective of the hospital as a central launching point for digitalization initiatives. The roadmap, which involves both internal and external digitalization trajectories, is based on a research methodology that combines observations with an umbrella review of literature. This methodology enables us to capture the research challenges associated with the healthcare supply chain and show how digitalization initiatives can address them. The digitalization proposals put forward are structured in terms of priority and centered on hospitals. These proposals can help managers make improvements to the supply chain and also clinical flows.

Digitalization of the healthcare supply chain: A roadmap to generate benefits and effectively support healthcare delivery