Health Care and Treatment
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- 25 Apr 2023
- Cold Call Podcast
Using Design Thinking to Invent a Low-Cost Prosthesis for Land Mine Victims
Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is an Indian nonprofit famous for creating low-cost prosthetics, like the Jaipur Foot and the Stanford-Jaipur Knee. Known for its patient-centric culture and its focus on innovation, BMVSS has assisted more than one million people, including many land mine survivors. How can founder D.R. Mehta devise a strategy that will ensure the financial sustainability of BMVSS while sustaining its human impact well into the future? Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar discusses the importance of design thinking in ensuring a culture of innovation in his case, “BMVSS: Changing Lives, One Jaipur Limb at a Time.”
- 31 Mar 2023
- Research & Ideas
Can a ‘Basic Bundle’ of Health Insurance Cure Coverage Gaps and Spur Innovation?
One in 10 people in America lack health insurance, resulting in $40 billion of care that goes unpaid each year. Amitabh Chandra and colleagues say ensuring basic coverage for all residents, as other wealthy nations do, could address the most acute needs and unlock efficiency.
- 13 Mar 2023
- Research & Ideas
The Power of Personal Connections: How Shared Experiences Boost Performance
Doctors who train together go on to provide better patient care later in their careers. What could teams in other industries learn? Research by Maximilian Pany and J. Michael McWilliams.
- 12 Dec 2022
- Research & Ideas
Buy-In from Black Patients Suffers When Drug Trials Don’t Include Them
Diversifying clinical trials could build trust in new treatments among Black people and their physicians. Research by Joshua Schwartzstein, Marcella Alsan, and colleagues probes the ripple effects of underrepresentation in testing, and offers a call to action for drugmakers.
- 06 Sep 2022
- Research & Ideas
Curbing an Unlikely Culprit of Rising Drug Prices: Pharmaceutical Donations
Policymakers of every leaning have vowed to rein in prescription drug costs, with little success. But research by Leemore Dafny shows how closing a loophole on drugmaker donations could eliminate one driver of rising expenses.
- 22 Aug 2022
- Research & Ideas
Can Amazon Remake Health Care?
Amazon has disrupted everything from grocery shopping to cloud computing, but can it transform health care with its One Medical acquisition? Amitabh Chandra discusses company's track record in health care and the challenges it might face.
- 02 Nov 2021
- Research & Ideas
Why COVID-19 Probably Killed More People Than We Realize
Millions of people around the world have died from COVID-19, according to government records, but research by Ethan Rouen, George Serafeim, and Botir Kobilov suggests that the actual number could be much higher. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 30 Mar 2021
- Working Paper Summaries
Kidney Exchange: An Operations Perspective
Kidney exchange has become a standard form of transplantation in the United States and a few other countries in part because of exchange process improvements. However, much more needs to be done: There are still many more patients in need of transplants than can be saved.
- 22 Mar 2021
- Research & Ideas
How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make
A brush with disaster can lead to important innovations, but only if employees have the psychological safety to reflect on these close calls, says research by Amy C. Edmondson, Olivia Jung, and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Mar 2021
- Working Paper Summaries
The Health Costs of Cost-Sharing
Small increases in cost cause patients to reduce their use of drugs with major benefits, ultimately causing their death. Since patient cost-sharing introduces large and deadly distortions into the cost-benefit calculus, payers should evaluate the merits of policies in light of their impact on health, not just on health care costs.
- 22 Feb 2021
- Working Paper Summaries
Private and Social Returns to R&D: Drug Development and Demographics
Research and development (R&D) by pharmaceutical firms focuses disproportionately on medical conditions afflicting the elderly. The proportion of R&D spending targeting older age groups is increasing over time. Even though these investments in R&D prolong life expectancy and improve quality of life, they have little effect on measured productivity and output growth.
- 04 Jan 2021
- Working Paper Summaries
Hospital Allocation and Racial Disparities in Health Care
Black Americans experience disparities in health outcomes in the United States relative to other demographic groups. This study of heart attack sufferers over two decades develops a framework to examine the allocation of health care and the effectiveness of medical treatments, including beta-blockers and other technologies.
- 24 Nov 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
Evaluating Innovative Health Care Solutions for Obesity
From Weight Watchers to bariatric surgery, innovations for combatting obesity abound. But which will do the most good for society and yield the best business results? Professor Regina Herzlinger discusses a new case study. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Sep 2020
- Research & Ideas
Many Small-Business Employees May Be Close to Losing Health Insurance
Small-business owners have delayed rent payments and other bills to protect health benefits for employees. Now, financial pressure is mounting, according to research by Leemore Dafny, Yin Wei Soon, Zoë Cullen, and Christopher Stanton. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Sep 2020
- Op-Ed
Why American Health Care Needs Its Own SEC
The United States needs a health care equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission to increase transparency and competition, argues Regina Herzlinger. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Aug 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Can Shared Service Delivery Increase Customer Engagement? A Study of Shared Medical Appointments
Shared service delivery means that customers are served in groups rather than individually. Results from a large-scale study of glaucoma follow-up appointments at a major eye hospital indicate that shared service delivery can significantly improve patients’ verbal and non-verbal engagement.
- 20 Jul 2020
- Op-Ed
It's Time for a Bipartisan Health Plan for Employers and Employees
Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard J. Boxer prescribe a seemingly impossible cure for battling health care options: a plan that embraces both Republican and Democratic ideas. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 12 Jul 2020
- Research & Ideas
Solving COVID'S Mental Health Crisis
COVID-19 affects more than physical health. Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence describe how the pandemic is causing psychological trauma across a broad swath of society—and innovative methods to treat it. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Jul 2020
- Cold Call Podcast
SmileDirect Looks Beyond Direct-to-Consumer Marketing
PODCAST: Teledentistry company SmileDirectClub is butting up against the limits of direct-to-consumer marketing. Len Schlesinger discusses his recent case study with Matt Higgins. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
How Martine Rothblatt Started a Company to Save Her Daughter
When serial entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt (founder of Sirius XM) received her seven-year-old daughter’s diagnosis of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), she created United Therapeutics and developed a drug to save her life. When her daughter later needed a lung transplant, Rothblatt decided to take what she saw as the logical next step: manufacturing organs for transplantation. Rothblatt’s entrepreneurial career exemplifies a larger debate around the role of the firm in creating solutions for society’s problems. If companies are uniquely good at innovating, what voice should society have in governing the new technologies that firms create? Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar debates these questions in the case “Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams.” As part of a new first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School, this case examines the central question: what is the social purpose of the firm?