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New research on health from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including corporate wellness, investing in community health, and health insurance.
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Medicare for All or Public Option: Can Either Heal Health Care?

by Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace

A public insurance option could use its scale to hold prices down, but only if the approach avoids the financing gimmicks that are undermining Medicare, say Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Female Inventors and Inventions

by Rembrand Koning, Sampsa Samila, and John-Paul Ferguson

Does the gender of inventors make a difference for who benefits from their inventions? Analysis of all U.S. biomedical patents issued between 1976 and 2010 shows that research teams with women were more likely to produce patents addressing women’s health conditions, especially when female researchers led the teams. This link suggests that the dearth of women inventors might also result in fewer female-focused inventions.

Germany May Have the Answer for Reducing Drug Prices

by Danielle Kost

In Germany, drugmakers must prove that a new medication’s benefits merit a higher price than existing drugs. Ariel Dora Stern asks whether "value-based pricing" should become the standard elsewhere. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Who Drives Digital Innovation? Evidence from the US Medical Device Industry

by Cirrus Foroughi and Ariel Dora Stern

Major industries are undergoing a digital transformation, in which key aspects of new product development are migrating to a software-driven context. In the medical device industry, experience matters, as does the geographic clustering of new product development, which gives advantages to both new entrants and incumbent firms.

Case Histories of Significant Medical Advances

by Amar Bhidé, Srikant M. Datar, and Katherine Stebbins

Nine working papers by Srikant M. Datar and colleagues explore technologies pioneered during the late 20th century that US internists say have greatly improved patient care.

Distressed Employees? Try Resilience Training

by Dina Gerdeman

Depressed employees are up to five times more likely to experience work-related problems than employees with chronic physical illnesses. So why aren't employers helping them? asks Ashley Whillans. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Risk-Mitigating Technologies: The Case of Radiation Diagnostic Devices

by Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

Changes in risk perception, driven by extensive media coverage of accidents, for example, can be an important driver of innovation and shape the direction of technological progress. Large firms may play an important role in the development and commercialization of risk-mitigating technologies, with important implications for the dynamics of competitive advantage and market structure.

What Hospitals Must Learn to Compete

by Alumni Bulletin Staff

3QUESTIONS Why is it so difficult for American health care providers to compete for customers? Raffaella Sadun and Leemore Dafny discuss why health care needs a business strategy. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Throwing the Baby Out with the Drinking Water: Unintended Consequences of Arsenic Mitigation Efforts in Bangladesh

by Nina Buchmann, Erica Field, Rachel Glennerster, and Reshmaan Hussam

In this study, households that were encouraged to switch water sources to avoid arsenic exposure experienced a significant rise in infant and child mortality, likely due to diarrheal disease from exposure to unsafe alternatives. Public health interventions should carefully consider access to alternatives when engaging in mass behavior change efforts.

Consumers Blame Business for Global Health Problems. Can Business Become the Solution?

by Danielle Kost

Millions of people have been harmed by cigarettes, defective merchandise, pollution, addiction and other business by-products. now, pioneering companies are exploring healthier ways to operate, say Amy C. Edmondson and Dr. Howard K. Koh. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Can Biometric Tracking Improve Healthcare Provision and Data Quality? Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control in India

by Thomas Bossuroy, Clara Delavallade, and Vincent Pons

This paper shows the benefits of biometric technology for strengthening service delivery and improving reliability of government data. The technology improved productivity of health workers operating tuberculosis treatment centers and decreased misreporting.

Advancing Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Research Through Open Innovation Competitions

by Blasco, Andrea, Michael G. Endres, Rinat A. Sergeev, Anup Jonchhe, Max Macaluso, Rajiv Narayan, Ted Natoli, Jin H. Paik, Bryan Briney, Chunlei Wu, Andrew I. Su, Aravind Subramanian, and Karim R. Lakhani

Crowdsourcing is a way for many individuals to address a common problem. This paper describes the design and outcomes of three crowdsourcing contests focused on algorithms for 1) clustering antibody sequences, 2) imputing gene expression measurements, and 3) performing fast queries on a particular dataset. Innovation through contests greatly improved the solutions available.

Pursuing Precision Medicine at Intermountain Healthcare

Re: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy E. Giusti

What happens when Intermountain Healthcare invests resources in an innovative precision medicine unit to provide life-extending, genetically targeted therapies to late-stage cancer patients? Professors Richard Hamermesh and Kathy Giusti discuss the case and its connections to their work with the Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

by Carmen Nobel

The cost of healthcare in rural Haiti was found to vary widely, even inside the same health organization. A pioneering cost accounting system co-developed by Robert Kaplan was called in to determine the cause. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Women Heart Patients Have Better Survival Odds with Women Doctors

by Rachel Layne

Roughly one in 66 women has a better chance of leaving the hospital alive if their doctor is also a woman, according to research by Laura Huang and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Does Product Liability Risk Affect Innovation? Evidence from Medical Implants

by Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

This analysis examines how a surge in liability risk faced by upstream suppliers of general purpose technologies (polymers) affected downstream innovation in implant technologies. Implant patenting dropped by 36 percent relative to non-implant technologies.

In a Landscape of 'Me Too' Drug Development, What Spurs Radical Innovation?

by Rachel Layne

Pharmaceutical companies are criticized for not producing more breakthrough drugs. But new research by Joshua Krieger and colleagues shows that, given a financial windfall, drug giants turn on the innovation. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

by Carmen Nobel

Basic tweaks to the schedules of food safety inspectors could prevent millions of foodborne illnesses, according to new behavioral science research by Maria Ibáñez and Michael Toffel. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Could a New Business Model Make Clinical Drug Trials More Accessible to Patients?

Re: Ariel D. Stern

Ariel Stern discusses her recent case study about creating a new type of clinical trial designed to deliver life-enhancing drugs to patients more quickly. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Electronic Health Records Were Supposed to Cut Medical Costs. They Haven't.

by Roberta Holland

Digitizing patient information promised to cut health care costs by driving down administrative expenses. So why can it cost a doctor more than $200 to process a single bill? New research by Robert Kaplan and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.