UPMC in Pittsburgh joined forces with Cambridge, Mass.-based IBM Watson Health to form Pensiamo, a new company aimed to helping hospitals improve their supply chains through a comprehensive source-to-pay offering and cognitive analytics.
UPMC will own a majority share of the new company, based in Pittsburgh, and is the initial customer in a long-term contract.
Pensiamo will combine UPMC's healthcare supply chain experience with IBM's knowledge of non-medical procurement services to offer providers a supply chain management approach tailored to each organization's individual needs, according to James Szilagy, who will leave his current position as the chief supply chain officer at UPMC to become CEO of Pensiamo.
"This is a breakthrough the industry has been waiting for — unlocking new insights from the volumes of structured and unstructured data existing on medical products and treatments — and will drive better decisions across the purchasing process," said Jesus Mantas, general manager of business consulting at IBM Global Business Services.
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