Early efforts to define the opportunity for e-commerce identified the problem--an inefficient hospital supply chain--but failed to prove that e-commerce is necessarily the answer. Now, Novation and Neoforma, a leading hospital group and its e-commerce partner, have released an industry-wide look at Internet-enabled supply chain economics, done by consultants Arthur Andersen, hoping to prove the value to both providers and suppliers of widely implemented e-commerce.

For much of the past year, the promise of Internet-enabled e-commerce to deliver savings seemed just that: a promise. But a new study from Novation and Arthur Anderson goes a long way to finally putting some figures on the value and potential cost savings of a web-based supply chain.

From the politics of prescription drug coverage to the crash of the e-health sector, from biotech's market boom to the lackluster device IPO market, a look back at the most significant events of 2000.

MDISource.com is trying to solve the supply/service related challenges medical device firms face through a proprietary software solution that enables device companies to more efficiently manage procurement of critical services and supplies and link that with their core ERP systems. Mir Imran, one of the leading device developers in the San Francisco Bay area, founded the new company.