Hosts:

John Kitchens, MD; Scott Krzywonos

Guest:

Eric Besse, Vice President & General Manager, Besse Medical (a Cencora company)

Show Summary:

In this episode, Scott and John return from the Cencora Vision Exchange meeting in Dallas and sit down with Eric Besse, VP and General Manager of Besse Medical, to unpack the unseen infrastructure that keeps retina practices running. Eric shares how his family’s corner pharmacy grew into one of the most influential specialty distributors in the country and explains why drug distribution is far more than logistics — it’s practice support, financial stewardship, technology integration, and practice-level partnership.

The conversation spans everything from cold-chain handling and inventory management to sustainability and the future of practice support. For retina specialists, this is a rare, behind-the-curtain look at the systems that make allow retina practices to operate smoothly. 

Topics Covered:

• What the Cencora Vision Exchange meeting is and who attends
• The family origins of Besse Medical and its growth into a national distributor
• How Cencora and Besse Medical fit together
• Why distributors manage more than just shipping 
• Technology platforms such as CubixxMD and PODIS
• How drug distributors support retina workflows, billing, and compliance
• The importance of stable, long-tenured support teams for practices
• Cencora’s new recyclable, corrugated cold-chain packaging initiative

Key Quotes:

• “We don’t want to be viewed as a distributor that picks, packs, and ships product. We want to be more than that, and we push ourselves to be more than that.” — Eric Besse
• “If the soda fountain down the street puts two cherries on top, you put three. If they put three, you put four.” — Eric Besse, on his family’s philosophy of service
• “If I were starting a practice today, [Cencora] would be the first place I would turn to partner.” — John Kitchens, MD