Medline Inc.
10/05/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/06/2026 08:47
A mountain of potential with MpowerTM — and the bedrock to back it up
Others can develop AI-driven tools for supply chain resiliency, but they can't offer Medline's unmatched blend of data and customer relationships done right
By Brian Wells
Senior Vice President, Sales Operations
Every so often, you get close enough to a project to realize it's more than a promising idea. It has the potential to change how people work in a fundamental way that once might not have seemed possible.
That's how I feel about Mpower™, the cloud-based, AI-powered "digital control tower" Medline created with Microsoft and put in healthcare customers' hands earlier this year to help them stay ahead of supply chain disruptions by managing product substitutions, approvals and communications faster and with greater visibility.
Since 2024, I've had a front-row seat as Mpower has taken shape, building off earlier work by our Prime Vendor analysts and our established risk-prediction resource, Mpower Foundations. What excites me about Mpower is not just its predictive AI drawing from Medline supply chain data, although that part is obviously cool. It's that Mpower uses what Medline already does best to solve a problem that healthcare supply chain teams have lived with for years.
When a product disruption is coming, the drill is familiar: chase alternatives, check inventory, send emails, wait for approvals and try to keep clinical workflows moving. Historically, approving a substitute could take a week or two. By then, if there's going to be a backorder, it's probably already happened.
Mpower, launched officially in May after designing and piloting with 10 well-known U.S. health systems, alerts customers to potential problems early and lets them make decisions and initiate automated communications through widely used Microsoft Office tools long before a backorder reaches the care setting. The average approval time for a substitution isn't one to two weeks anymore with Mpower - it's one to two days. We've even seen approvals completed in as little as 30 minutes.
At a time when technology is evolving so quickly, granted, that may not seem unique to Medline. Plenty of platforms are developing around proactive risk management and supply chain resiliency. Many are impressive.
But without the right foundation underneath them, how valuable are they, really?
Above, from left: Business analysts Jason Eisentraut (left) and Erisa Farimani (center) and digital product designer Gabrielle Mendoza, all members of the team behind Mpower, interact with the platform at Medline's headquarters in Northfield, Ill. Below, right: Team member Joshua Smith, business systems product owner, with his Mpower shirt.
Why Mpower is different
Medline has the foundation: rich supply chain data, long and healthy customer relationships and a commitment to solutions that meet the customer where they are technologically to ensure we continuously improve how we get the product where they need it, every day.
Because of the Medline partnership, we can provide our customers with visibility to potential supply chain challenges before they happen, both with Medline-manufactured products and the others we distribute. That knowledge is gold, and it allows our customers the ability to be proactive in the global supply chain that is today's healthcare environment.
Our relationships - some built over decades - give us real skin in the game. We're not a third party coming in from the outside. We already know the customers we're building for, and that shaped Mpower from the start. Several large health systems helped us design and test the solution before launch so that it made sense for all, not just Medline. It's what makes Mpower a tool for the healthcare supply chain built by the healthcare supply chain.
The final piece that makes Mpower unique is the minimal time for customers to adopt and start using the system. They have flexibility to manage onboarding to their supply chain/purchasing structure and their clinical product approval processes for potential substitutes while also using AI chat features to quickly get answers Mpower's easy-to-use design meets them in their working environment by removing any need for a desktop or laptop computer, minimizing the need to take them away from critical care settings. Reviews and approvals through automated emails are just as easy.
Sometimes, one size can fit all
One technologically advanced customer recently told us that another predictive solution on the market might be suited for a large, sophisticated health system, but Mpower is built for any user in any system. That was one of those moments when we realized we really were on to something different - for customers and for Medline. As more customers use Mpower and the functionality evolves, continuously improving our supply chain efficiencies remains an ongoing goal as well. With improved data, processes and technology, who benefits from that? All Medline customers, but we also believe we can also improve the capabilities for our employees as well.
Benefitting everyone in the equation: That's what Mpower is really about - raising all boats. Inviting customers to use it is the first step. But we can already see the path to coming out better together.
And again, none of this works without the basics. As technology advances, the proof is still in the pudding. Medline has spent years building a bedrock of data, relationships, operational knowledge and gritty problem-solvers who can use the time saved by AI to serve customers in better ways. The "cool stuff" on top only works when the base is strong.
Brian Wells has held roles with Medline and Medline Canada since 2016. Visit Medline.com for more of the specifics behind Mpower or to connect with a Medline representative to discuss implementing it in your healthcare supply chain.
Medline Inc. published this content on October 05, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 06, 2026 at 14:48 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]