March 2026 | From HIDA's Healthcare Distribution & Supply Chain™ magazine
“HIDA's mission – advancing the essential role of distribution in a high-performing healthcare industry – has never been more important or more challenging.”
At the Streamlining Healthcare Expo & Business Exchange, Kelley Moffett – the 2026 Chair of the HIDA Board of Directors – stepped to the podium with a clear message: the ground beneath the healthcare supply chain is still shifting.
Moffett opened with a moment from an unglamorous Labor Day road trip, driving through rural Massachusetts with her children. When they spotted a Cardinal Health truck, debate ensued. Was it delivering products to doctors — or helping patients who needed feeding tubes so they can eat? Moffett’s answer was simple: both. In that exchange, she found a plainspoken truth that often gets lost in industry language. Distributors deliver what clinicians need. Manufacturers create what helps patients heal. The work, she reminded the room, is both practical and deeply human.
That shared mission has been stress-tested from every direction. Moffett discussed the realities of recent years — pandemic disruptions, inflation, PPE whiplash, port delays, regulatory changes, artificial intelligence, tariffs — listing them with humor that landed precisely because the strain was real. Volatility is no longer episodic. It is constant.
“We need to be agile, resilient, and make the distribution of medical products seamless for our customers and the patients they serve.”
Yet complexity, in Moffett’s telling, has brought clarity. The industry’s task is no longer ambiguous. It must remain agile and resilient while making the flow of medical products seamless for both customers and patients. To meet that challenge, she distilled HIDA’s work into four priorities:
- Partnership means tearing down silos across the supply chain.
- Education means equipping members to anticipate change rather than chase it.
- Advocacy means showing up with a unified voice as policies evolve.
- Information — data that drives better decisions — is now table stakes, not a differentiator.
“When we break down silos across the supply chain and collaborate, patients and providers see the benefit of having the products they need when and where care is delivered.”
Moffett closed with gratitude and resolve. She thanked the HIDA team and its leadership for steadying the industry through turbulence, then struck a tone of humility about serving as chair. The invitation was brief: celebrate the moment, raise a glass — then get back to work.
Members: Check out the full Winter 2026 magazine
here.