Laurel Junk, vice president of supply chain with Kaiser Permanente, details the transformation that's under way in the hospital industry, driven by healthcare reform and a new focus on the ultimate "customer" - the patient.

Those specialized sectors, with their need for strict regulatory compliance and product control, have lagged other industries in the use of third-party service providers. But the picture is beginning to change, says Angela Watson, UPS's vice president of enterprise sales for the healthcare sector.

Rod Derifield, chief executive officer of Envirocooler LLC, outlines some of the new ideas and technology that providers are deploying to boost efficiencies in the movement of temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals.