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New research on health care and treatment from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including corporate investment in community health, health care management, and ways to improve health care delivery.
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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Identifying Sources of Inefficiency in Health Care

by Amitabh Chandra and Douglas O. Staiger

This economic study finds evidence of allocative inefficiency and substantial variation in comparative advantage across hospitals, with the benefits from treatment being much higher in some hospitals than others. The study overall suggests new directions for research on productivity in healthcare.

Healthy Business? Managerial Education and Management in Healthcare

by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, Renata Lemos, and John Van Reenen

A hospital's proximity to a university supplying both business and clinical education is associated with higher management practice scores and better clinical outcomes.

Making Health Insurance That Consumers Actually Like

Re: Regina E. Herzlinger

By motivating its insurance customers to take care of themselves, South African firm Vitality has expanded to the United Kingdom and China. In this podcast, Professor Regina Herzlinger discusses potential impacts of this model for health care in the United States. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Op-Ed: Can the Proposed American Health Care Act Improve on 'Obamacare'?

by John Quelch, Dr. Gordon Moore, and Emily Boudreau

Politics aside, the primary question to be asked about the newly proposed American Health Care Act is this: Will it improve choice, cost, and outcomes for health care consumers? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

A Good Thing Happens When Doctors Start Talking to Their Patients

by Michael Blanding

A longer visit with your doctor before a procedure can improve results and save money, according to Robert S. Kaplan. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation

by Michael Blanding

Many policymakers believe liability laws need reforming so that medical device makers are free to innovate without threat of costly lawsuits. But new research by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso suggests innovation is not thwarted—just rechanneled. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Building Affordable Health Care in Paradise

Re: Tarun Khanna

By some accounts, only about 5 percent of people worldwide receive cardiac treatment they need to survive. Professor Tarun Khanna highlights the need for affordable health care at scale, and a possible model based on factory-like repetition and learning in the Cayman Islands. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Business Should Invest in Community Health

by John Quelch, Howard Koh, and Pamela Yatsko

Many companies invest heavily to keep their employees healthy, but don't take the next step—invest in keeping their community healthy. John Quelch, Howard Koh, and Pamela Yatsko make the case. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.