Members of the Association for Health Care Resources & Materials Management have elected four supply chain experts to serve on its board beginning Jan. 1, 2020. 

The FDA may begin using blockchain systems to help drug and medical products reviews and recalls, according to CoinDesk.

The FDA has issued a class 1 recall of the Sapien 3 Ultra transcathether heart valve delivery system after reports of burst balloons during surgery. As of July, one death and 17 injuries had been reported to the devicemaker. 

Ten hospitals and health systems have posted job listings seeking supply chain expertise in the last week:

Sterigenics, an Illinois-based medical supply sterilization plant, has been sued by nearly three dozen people who allege it emitted fumes that have adversely affected their health, according to the Chicago Crusader.

A nationwide shortage of a protein used to help detect tuberculosis via a skin test has prompted Kansas City, Mo. health officials to limit and ration TB skin testing, according to local news station WDAF-TV.

Lauren Davis, product director of medical-surgical solutions at BroadJump, an expense management company, recently spoke with Becker's Hospital Review about the key opportunities for healthcare supply chain teams, emerging technologies in the supply chain space and advice to healthcare leaders on reining in costs.

The FDA has approved Barostim New System, a device to improve symptoms such as fatigue and swelling in patients with advanced heart failure.

Health systems across America are working toward total transportation management, where all freight spend is managed via a single, centralized system and data analytics drive new efficiencies and cost savings.

United States Pharmacopeia (USP) <800> standards highlight the need for healthcare facilities to protect clinicians from exposure to hazardous drugs. Determining how to update operating procedures to comply with the new standards has the potential to overwhelm healthcare facilities. 

United States Pharmacopeia (USP) <800> standards for handling hazardous drugs in healthcare settings is set to go in effect on Dec. 1, 2019. It sets the standards for the safe handling of hazardous drugs from receipt through disposal to ensure the safety of patients, the environment and healthcare staff who work with these drugs daily.

Pharmaceutical wholesalers Cardinal Health and Kinray agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle allegations that they violated labor laws by denying delivery drivers overtime wages, according to legal news website Law360.

An association of independent nuclear pharmacies in the U.S. has sued Jubilant DraxImage , alleging the supplier engaged in a range of anticompetitive behaviors that boosted prices of drugs and negatively affected patient care, according to STAT. 

 Medpricer, the leading purchased services cost management solution for the healthcare industry, today introduced mSource® Insights, its latest spend analytics and reporting tool. It comes equipped with Medpricer’s Predictive Plan, which leverages insights to help supply chains build actionable project plans around their spend on clinical and non-clinical spend categories.

Summit Pacific Medical Center, a rural critical access hospital with 250 employees in Elma, Wash., was able to reduce procurement labor expenses by 80 percent and lower shipping costs by 60 percent in two years by working with Amazon Business.

Ten hospitals and health systems have posted job listings seeking supply chain expertise in the last week:

Johnson & Johnson's acquisition of Auris Health, a maker of robotic diagnostics and surgical devices, tops market researcher EvaluatePharma's list of the 10 largest acquisitions  in medical technology this year. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defence will collaborate to create a centralized healthcare supply chain management system.

Ambu, a medical devicemaker based in Denmark, will pay $3.3 million to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by selling products to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon made in countries without U.S. trade agreements, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Ridge Properties is recalling four lots of its 4 percent lidocaine topical cream and liquid gel products due to microbial contamination. The products also contained a higher potency of lidocaine than the label suggests.