Artificial intelligence is moving from promise to practice in healthcare supply chains, and NDC’s Ben Helfinstein says the most immediate gains are coming from better decision-making rather than headline-grabbing automation.
Speaking to Repertoire Magazine, Helfinstein, president of partner solutions at NDC, said the company’s position between more than 450 manufacturers and 1,500 distributors gives it a rare view of pricing, buying patterns and channel performance. That va...
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ntage point, he argued, is helping shift the industry away from static reporting and towards tools that reveal where growth is being lost, where margins are under pressure and where commercial strategy is out of step with execution.
NDC, founded in 1953, has built a business around supply-chain infrastructure, market intelligence and business-management services for healthcare manufacturers and distributors. Its offerings include sales-trace data, inventory planning reports, contract and rebate processing, and master distribution services designed to simplify logistics across a fragmented market. The company says its goal is to help partners operate more efficiently while unlocking growth.
For Helfinstein, the most valuable data is not simply information about volumes or outcomes, but purchasing behaviour, pricing intelligence and transactional records at channel level. In a sector shaped by dense contracting and multiple layers of distribution, he said visibility into what is being bought, at what price and through which routes can reveal demand patterns, mispricing and opportunities to increase share.
He said the biggest untapped opportunity lies in creating a more shared view of demand and pricing between manufacturers and distributors. Too often, he noted, each side is working from only part of the picture. Better connectivity, he believes, could reduce friction, improve margin and allow both sides to act on the same commercial signals.
NDC’s own approach, according to Helfinstein, starts with the business question rather than the dataset. The company uses information to identify under-penetrated accounts, whitespace in the market, pricing gaps and margin leakage, while also supporting the mechanics of contract administration, rebate and chargeback processing, sales-trace aggregation and dispute resolution.
He said healthcare distribution is particularly suited to AI because it combines high transaction volumes with complex pricing structures, repeated handoffs and a large number of operational exceptions. That makes it fertile ground for anomaly detection, workflow automation and other tools that can surface decisions faster than manual processes.
The broader payoff, Helfinstein suggested, could be a more connected supply chain that is less reactive to shortages and disruption. Better data, he said, would help companies spot pressure earlier, respond more quickly and move from fragmented execution to a more coordinated model.
What excites him most is the possibility of making healthcare supply chains smarter and faster in ways that directly improve care delivery. What concerns him most is the risk that organisations chase the buzz around AI without first ensuring the data is clean, the use case is right and the underlying process is mature enough to support change.
Source: Noah Wire Services
