Deborah Kaplan

Acquiring enough personal protective equipment and supplies to test for and treat COVID-19 in the United States was a major challenge in 2020. With case numbers rising and vaccines rolling out, managing supplies and reducing waste continues as a huge issue this year.
Isolation gowns, gloves, masks, needles, syringes and vials discarded after use: some waste is inevitable, but supply chain leaders are finding ways to reduce the quantity, reusing and recycling when possible and adjusting procur...

The connected factory also captures huge amounts of data for analytic uses, which today often include machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Many companies leverage production data to optimize complex manufacturing environments in real-time, better predict and manage operations to drive down production costs, and gain valuable insights to develop and refine their products. For example, data from automated systems used to carry out routine preventive maintenance is now also used to...

Donna Pinto began getting mammograms at age 40 because her grandmother died of breast cancer at 50. In 2010, a suspicious mammogram led Pinto, then 44, to a needle biopsy in her right breast. The pathology showed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), considered the earliest form of breast cancer. DCIS refers to abnormal cells found only inside a milk duct.
Pinto’s surgeon wasn’t quite convinced, thinking the results might indicate atypical ductal hyperplasia, a marker for women who might have a ri...

As Red River Biorefinery plotted its April opening, it planned to produce 16.5 million gallons of ethanol (ethyl alcohol) annually to sell as a fuel additive. Some might say the timing couldn’t have been worse, with COVID-19 stay-at-home orders spreading across the country.
"We weren’t driving, so our industry went down to about 50% production capacity," said Kelly Davis, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Renewable Fuels Association.
If less ethanol is needed for fuel, theoreticall...

Recent announcements about Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 positive interim results brought the logistics issues to the forefront. Each movement along the supply chain is important, and freight forwarders are the linchpins, ensuring vaccines go door-to-door while maintaining their temperature. That means staying cold. In the case of Pfizer’s vaccine candidate, very, very cold.
"We refer to this as the biggest product launch in the history of mankind," said Neel Jones Shah,...

A topical nonaddictive, pain cream that can be used instead of opioids. Personalized hormone treatments delivered at a flat monthly rate, plus two-day free shipping. In spite of innovative offerings, Valor Compounding Pharmacy faces a barrier. “Not everyone knows what a compounding pharmacy does or how easy it is to work with us, including some doctors,” said Rick Niemi, Valor CEO. In the pharmacy world, compounding pharmacies are a minority. The U.S. has 56,000 community-based pharmacies, of...

When a Boston-based plumber hit his highest revenue two years in a row, Scorpion’s Chief Marketing Officer Corey Quinn knew his company was doing its job. The Boston plumbing business was just one of thousands that broke sales and revenue records with the marketing and technology company’s help. With 850 employees, and offices in California, New York, and Texas, Scorpion continues to focus on local service businesses like law firms, medical offices, and plumbers.

Donna Pinto began getting mammograms at age 40 because her grandmother died of breast cancer at 50. In 2010, a suspicious mammogram led Pinto, then 44, to a needle biopsy in her right breast. The pathology showed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), considered the earliest form of breast cancer. DCIS refers to abnormal cells found only inside a milk duct.
Pinto’s surgeon wasn’t quite convinced, thinking the results might indicate atypical ductal hyperplasia, a marker for women who might have a ri...

The concept of patient-generated data isn’t new, but it’s gaining prominence as COVID-19 has pushed telehealth front and center in the national conversation. The disease is unlikely to go away any time soon, and those in the healthcare field are looking for ways to help patients using accurate diagnostics and without office or hospital visits.
Even without the pandemic, though, patient-generated data can provide additional information for regular care and diagnostics, improving patient qualit...

Health systems able to harness their data and technology when COVID-19 hit were in the best shape to move to remote work and care, at least partially, and to continue offering patients the services they needed. The ability to work remotely and see many patients remotely is one of the silver linings of this health crisis. Those most prepared with technology could also use their systems to innovate during the pandemic for:
Contact tracing and disease surveillance
Using...

Amazon is synonymous with fast shipping, but many people don’t see or think about the company’s warehousing strategy. The key to one- or two-day delivery is not faster shipping; it is storing inventory in the right locations and quantities so it can get to the end customer quickly.
To facilitate high-speed delivery for merchants, fulfillment platform Flowspace built a network of warehouses and connected them with intelligent software. The result is one of the country’s largest warehousing and...

For e-commerce companies of any size, shipping can be one of the most complicated areas of the business to navigate. To start, shipping carriers have their own rules. And while they may often seem similar on the surface, the devil is in the details. Those rule variances can already be fairly complex when shipping domestically. But with international shipping, there’s a greater number of factors involved. Those factors can include aspects such as size and weight differences, delivery service l...

Patients with advanced or metastatic bladder cancer, after responding to initial treatment with chemotherapy, may preserve their health improvements by starting immunotherapy immediately.
When Christopher Schade noticed blood in his urine in 2010, he found himself at the beginning of a long and challenging road.
A urologist found a tumor in his bladder, and Schade, now 66, received a diagnosis of urothelial cancer, the most common form of bladder cancer. The doctor removed the tumor and inser...

Converting bottles to recycled plastic. Redesigning baby lotion bottles to ditch the pump. Swapping out the black Listerine cap for a clear resin one. Reducing the dimensions of cartons holding Carefree pads and o.b. tampons to use less paper.
These are some of the changes Johnson & Johnson will make in an effort to convert its consumer health products packaging to sustainable options.
The goal is for J&J's consumer brands to use 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable plastic packaging, and...