Massachusetts is implementing new regulations to protect horseshoe crabs, which play a key role in drug and device safety, the Portland Press Herald reported March 19.

The American Hospital Association's supply chain group, Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management, named Mike Schiller as its new executive director March 18. 

A software company that went through Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai's accelerator program is aiming to streamline the medical device recall process, Fast Company reported March 14.

For about a year, Cleveland Clinic has built and tested an AI-powered chatbot that generates answers on supply orders. Over the next three months, the technology will be launched to the system's 7,000-some employees who regularly place orders. 

Healthcare organizations have faced unprecedented pressures in the last decade. Shifting consumer preferences, changing reimbursement models and supply chain disruptions have all become the norm. In addition, health system leaders routinely struggle with escalating costs, as well as eroding margins.

Becton Dickinson has promoted Rian Seger, vice president of medication delivery solutions, to be president of the company's surgery business unit. 

Cardinal Health revised its product correction for more than 27 million syringes on Feb 2, and the FDA upgraded the notice to a Class I recall — the most serious type.

The largest health system in Maryland is constructing a logistics operations center to centralize its medical supply storage, The Baltimore Banner reported March 8. 

An affiliate of PruittHealth, a post-acute services system, acquired medical supply company Allied Health Resources on March 6. 

Medtronic Neurosurgery is recalling 45,176 drainage systems because catheters might disconnect from patient line stopcock connectors. There have been 26 reported injuries, the FDA said March 7. 

Smiths Medical has warned customers of more than 135,000 Medfusion syringe pumps about problems associated with earlier software versions. 

More than four dozen health systems have pledged to adopt the Healthcare Industry Resilience Collaborative's resiliency badge, which seeks to improve trust between medical suppliers and providers. 

Lehigh Valley Health Network signed a yearslong agreement for Medline to exclusively service medical supplies to the system's 13 hospital campuses. 

Hospital systems' supply chain teams are increasingly working on environmental initiatives as climate change threatens the healthcare industry. 

As hospitals and health systems worry over the unsteady supply of helium, a necessary element for MRI machines, Royal Philips installed its thousandth "virtually helium-free MRI," the company said Feb. 28. 

AdventHealth, in partnership with Medline, has opened a new 375,000-square-foot supply facility in Central Florida, according to a Feb. 28 announcement.

Here are six recent warnings the FDA has issued since Jan. 1:

 The CDC is anticipating a shortage of Td vaccines — which protect against tetanus and diphtheria — as the maker of one shot has discontinued production. 

Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center appointed William Obremskey, MD, as its executive medical director of supply chain services. 

U.S. supply chain leaders often underestimate the risk of labor-related issues, both domestically and with foreign suppliers, according to Kevin Kolben, a supply chain labor expert and professor of business law at Newark, N.J.-based Rutgers Business School.