Many of us grew up with this old nursery rhyme. It likely was our first exposure to poetry and perhaps our first fascination with the night sky. Between this rhyme and Twinkle, twinkle little star, we sealed our association of stars being able to deliver wishes and aspirations. The stars give us that sense of awe and hope.

At HealthPRO we have spent some time coming up with our North Star strategy. The North Star for us represents an important paradigm. Polaris, the North Star (it is actually made up of three stars but that is for another day and a geek-out session on astronomy), allowed ancient travellers for the first time to leave the comfort of their shores while sailing to find new lands. The North Star allowed explorers to go into the unknown, find their way back and chart their progress, allowing them to share with others how to return to that new discovery.

After engaging over 300 of our member and suppliers for their input into our strategic plan, I am excited to share with you the key pillars of our new strategy. These pillars will further grow the value we have been providing for over 25 years to our members and suppliers, both of whom are our customers.

We describe our Health Polaris, our North Star, as:

HealthPRO grows knowledge and trust to advance Canadian health by 1) pursuing world-class procurement 2) driving insights from data, and 3) igniting stakeholder networks globally, nationally, and regionally.

We support the advancement of Canadian health by following our members’ journeys and enabling them to work across the continuum of both preventative and interventional care. We help them go to the new frontiers they want to reach in delivering care for their patients and communities.

Specifically, we are focusing on these three elements to make this aspiration tangible and provide measurable benefits:

Pursuing World Class Procurement

• delivering value beyond contracts, acting as proactive partners and problem solvers, and learning from global best practices to provide Canadian organizations with solutions that best address their local needs

Driving Insights from data

• creating timely access to integrated and aggregated information across the supply chain, providing partners with an unparalleled view of local-and national-level supply patterns

Igniting stakeholder networks

• overcoming silos, elevating and unifying individual voices, and facilitating greater integration and collaboration to shine a spotlight on priority needs and influence positive system change

Over the coming months, we will be sharing with our stakeholders in detail what this means to them. We have a very specific set of outcomes and actions that will help us deliver increased value to our customers that transcends the table stakes of good public sector procurement. We are pursuing great clinical outcomes as well as world class procurement.

We want to thank all our stakeholders who have been generous in their feedback to help us understand what they have been wishing for. We look forward to sharing our progress and our plans (much of this work is well underway).

When next you look at the night sky and see the bright shining North Star, remember its role in helping us expand our world and our ambition. We are confident our North Star will keep us focused while allowing us to grow and discover new frontiers.