HOW MEDTRONIC TAPPED TRIPSOURCE TO TRANSFORM GUEST TRAVEL FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
Download case storyChallenge
Managing travel for healthcare professionals (HCPs) involved labor-intensive, email-driven workflows that created inefficiencies for event planners, program administrators and guest travelers.
Approach
Medtronic leveraged the guest booking capabilities of Tripsource to support HCP trip management, including flexible online and agent-assisted booking, while streamlining traveler profile management and event-level reporting.
Results
- Program generated $313,000 in savings in first three months
- HCP online booking adoption spiked from single-digit percentages to over 50%, significantly reducing manual servicing
- Booking process went fromhours to minutes throughTripsource self service booking
- Consistent access across 35 global markets consolidated data, eased profile management and optimized trip authorizations
- Improved compliance oversight, audit readine
As the world’s largest medical technology company operating in the highly regulated healthcare industry, a significant portion of Medtronic’s travel volume is related to non-employee healthcare professionals. Such guest travelers include physicians, specialists and clinical experts who are invited to participate in medical trials, educational programs, advisory boards and client forums.
Challenge
Prior to Tripsource, Medtronic’s HCP travel process was highly manual, driven by constant back-and-forth emails among planners, healthcare professionals and travel counselors. This led to a heavy operational load, additional costs, fragmented data collection and a disjointed guest traveler experience.
At the same time, the company must adhere to strict regulatory and reporting requirements. Guest trips must align with approved meeting schedules and compliance policies. The need to support multiple payment methods, temporary traveler profiles and detailed tracking added to the complexity.
Medtronic’s mission: Simplify without sacrificing control or compliance.
Medtronic at a glance
Industry: Medical technology and
healthcare devices
Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minn.
Presence: More than 150 countries
Number of employees: 95,000
Annual revenue: $33.54 billion
Approach
In November 2025, Medtronic implemented Tripsource to create a centralized, compliant booking experience tailored to HCP travel. The solution supports both self-service and agent-assisted workflows, allowing planners to book or invite healthcare professionals to self-book within approved parameters.
The solution is being used by Medtronic in the United States and Canada, with the broader program supporting 35 markets globally. The platform brings everything into one place, including controlled traveler profiles that activate and deactivate automatically, built-in reporting fields to support compliance and reconciliation, and financial tracking at both the organizer and event level. Workflows are tailored to specific meeting policies and forms of payment, and travelers enjoy mobile access to itineraries and real-time trip updates via the Tripsource app.
Return on investment
The results were immediate. This generated more than $313,000 in savings during the programs’ first three months, while reducing reliance on email and improving compliance oversight and financial visibility. With booking in Tripsource taking less than five minutes, shifting guest travel to a self-service model reduced manual work and servicing costs, with online adoption reaching over 50 percent within months.
Building on the initial impact, Medtronic now has a scalable, compliant global framework that delivers a more efficient, traveler-friendly experience while strengthening operational control.
Tripsource allowed us to modernize a highly manual process while maintaining the compliance controls required for HCP travel management. The result was a significantly better experience for planners and healthcare professionals.
Jeremiah Albrecht,
Senior Strategic Sourcing Manager, Travel at Medtronic
This program demonstrated how compliant HCP travel can successfully scale through digital self-service, automation and strong governance. The adoption and savings results validated the approach almost immediately
Jim Mahoney,
Senior Vice President, Global Client Team and Life Sciences Center of Excellence Senior Executive at BCD