The healthcare supply chain management market should reach $2.31 billion by 2022, up from $1.55 billion in 2017, according to a new study from MarketsandMarkets.

This growth will be driven by increased pressure on healthcare providers to improve operational efficiency and profitability, researchers said.

Key factors include the emergence of cloud-based systems, implementation of the unique device identification initiative by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the adoption of the GS1 System of standards in the healthcare industry globally and more.

[Also: The next big thing in pharmacy supply chain: Blockchain]

Continuous financial support in the form of various funding, investments and partnerships, along with growing efforts to reduce the large-scale counterfeiting of drugs, are also leading to big changes in the space, according to the study, "Healthcare Supply Chain Management Market by Component, Purchasing, Hardware, Delivery Mode, End User – Global Forecasts to 2022."

With regard to counterfeit drugs, an even newer development can help in the area of pharmacy supply chain management. Counterfeit prevention is yet another major potential use-case for blockchain in healthcare, said Tapan Mehta, market development executive, healthcare and life sciences services practice, at DMI, a mobile technology and services company.

"With an estimated global annual loss of $200 billion due to counterfeit drugs, pharmaceutical supply chain integrity may be one of the most relevant and demanding use-cases for blockchain," Mehta said. "A blockchain-based system could ensure a chain-of-custody log, tracking each step of the supply chain at the individual drug or product level."

The distributed ledger technology could offer legislative, logistical and patient safety benefits for pharmaceutical supply chain management. From a regulatory perspective in the United States, blockchain technological and structural capabilities, in fact, extraordinarily map to the key requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act.

In healthcare overall, the prominent players in the global supply chain management market include GHX, Infor, JDA Software, Jump Technologies, LogiTag, Manhattan Associates, McKesson, Oracle, SAP and TECSYS.

The North American healthcare supply chain management market is expected to grow the fastest between now and 2022, the study said, with factors such as the consolidation of hospitals, regulatory requirements, rising prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing patient burden in the U.S. and implementation of various strategies to improve healthcare supply chain management in Canada driving growth.

The software segment held the largest share of the healthcare supply chain management market in 2017; the large share of this segment can be attributed to the benefits it offers, such as increased efficiency, reduced costs and business intelligence, researchers said, noting that the high implementation cost of supply chain management systems is expected to restrain the growth of this market to a certain extent.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com