Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider, has joined IBM’s Rapid Supplier Connect blockchain network to assist with provisions for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rapid Supplier Connect, in the words of IBM, is a ‘consolidated source for buyers to meet non-traditional suppliers and see their inventory availability.’ It provides emergency supplier onboarding and inventory availability, helping cut down procurement time to vet and identity suppliers of medical equipment. The solution leverages the Trust Your Supplier framework, which

As reported by Forbes’ Robert Anzalone, the IBM network, launched last week, also counts The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation among its members.

Speaking to Forbes, Phyllis McCready, VP and chief procurement officer at Northwell Health, said the company, which is responsible for more than 800 hospitals in New York State, has had sufficient protection, but needed to keep on top of things.

“Northwell Health has had adequate supplies to protect patients and our staff during the increase in New York Covid-19 patient cases,” said McCready. “It is through creating our own group purchasing organisations (GPOs) and supply chain, and joining forces with non-traditional suppliers that we have maintained an adequate stockpile of personal protection equipment (PPE) and other equipment and supplies, so we are pleased to join IBM Rapid Supplier Connect.”

This is by no means the only work IBM is doing to help organisations amid the coronavirus crisis. Last month the company launched the Covid-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, alongside other leading players such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, to pool an ‘unprecedented’ amount of computing power to ‘help researchers everywhere better understand Covid-19, its treatments and potential cures.’

IBM is offering Rapid Supplier Connect to buyers and qualifying suppliers at no cost until the end of August. You can find out more about the program here.

Photo by pina messina on Unsplash

Interested in hearing more in person? Find out more at the Blockchain Expo World Series, Global, Europe and North America.