PITTSBURGH & CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a healthcare improvement company, and Pensiamo Inc., a cognitive supply chain company, have partnered to launch a new pharmaceutical supply chain solution that was co-developed with UPMC, a world-renowned healthcare provider and insurer.
CognitiveRx™ is a comprehensive pharmaceutical supply chain solution that predicts, manages and solves for challenges related to drug shortages, inflation, declining reimbursement and other factors impacting the life sciences supply chain. UPMC, which owns Pensiamo, will be the first to implement CognitiveRx to more precisely monitor market demand signals, predict shortage risk and recommend inventory levels that support its ability to insulate patient care from supply disruption.
“CognitiveRx provides access to market exclusive recommendations that predict drug supply disruption risk, and support the rapid identification of clinical, purchasing and inventory solutions,” said Jim Szilagy, President and CEO of Pensiamo and Chief Supply Chain Officer for UPMC. “The teams at Pensiamo and UPMC have developed a truly innovative tool, and we are excited to partner with Premier to launch it. We believe it will help UPMC and other healthcare organizations advance cost management and drug shortage mitigation strategies to further bend the cost curve.”
Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), CognitiveRx uses machine learning to bring speed and reliability to the process of controlling and reducing pharmaceutical costs. Specifically, CognitiveRx sends real-time “buy-right” signals to direct procurement activities and recommend formulary management strategies for buying the most advantageous products. By replacing manual data manipulation and integrating siloed data sources, the solution enables rapid insights on price increase predictions, egregious price changes and margin capture opportunities.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Pensiamo and UPMC on the launch of CognitiveRx,” said David A. Hargraves, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Premier. “This collaboration is an excellent complement to Premier’s market-leading suite of supply chain technologies that are designed to better inform overall contracting and sourcing processes. As more health systems adopt it, we will continue to improve pharmaceutical costs and ensure patients across the country have the medication they need when they need it.”
As part of the partnership, Premier will offer CognitiveRx to hospitals and health systems and provide market exclusive purchasing recommendations to maximize high volume opportunities. CognitiveRx is supported by a specialized team of advanced data managers, data scientists and pharmacy professionals who automate the intake and review of purchase data, garner insights, generate machine learning algorithms and develop AI models to enable an optimal pharmacy supply chain strategy.
The financial terms of this agreement are not being disclosed.
About Pensiamo
Pensiamo, a cognitive supply chain company, combines supply chain expertise, artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics capabilities to provide bottom line value to healthcare organizations. By harnessing the power of data, Pensiamo better informs decisions related to supplier and product selection and usage so that healthcare providers can succeed in an industry rapidly transitioning to value-based care. Launched in 2016, Pensiamo is an independent, for-profit enterprise with UPMC, a world-renowned healthcare provider and insurer, as its founding client.
About UPMC
A $20 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 87,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a 3.5 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year, UPMC contributed $1.2 billion in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution, and paid $587 million in federal, state and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside on its annual Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals.For more information, go to UPMC.com.
About Premier Inc.
Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 165,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blogfor more information about the company.
