Health →
- 05 Jul 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Implementing New Practices: An Empirical Study of Organizational Learning in Hospital Intensive Care Units
How do hospital units, as complex service organizations, successfully implement best practices? Practices involve people and knowledge; people must apply knowledge to particular situations, so changing practices requires changing behavior. This study is a starting point for healthcare organizations to improve work practices. The researchers drew from literature on best practice transfer, team learning, and process change and developed four hypotheses to test at highly specialized hospital units that care for premature infants and critically ill newborns. Key concepts include: Organizations must set up project teams to investigate and implement new practices. Project teams are important for creating organizational change. There is a strong positive relationship between "learn-how" and implementation success. "Learn-how" makes new practices work in a specific context, and psychological safety encourages people to participate in this disruptive process. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Jul 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Deep Links: Business School Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Law and Ethics in Business
The researchers spent more than a year eliciting twelve MBA students' thoughts and feelings about the role of law in starting and running a U.S. business. This research offers new insights into the ongoing debate about how best to educate the business leaders of tomorrow. More than a standalone course in business law or ethics, it would be wise for educators to use an approach that treats the role of law and business in the broader context of societal needs and norms. Key concepts include: Business school curricula that ignore the role law plays in making markets possible may undermine students' appreciation of how law undergirds the capitalist system. Business students need to learn both more ethics and law. Teaching materials should highlight the positive associations or linkages between law, business, and societal welfare. The systems approach to management is one way to link law, business, and ethics to create an integrated mental model. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Jun 2006
- Research & Ideas
Using Competition to Reform Healthcare
In their new book, HBS Professor Michael Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg argue that the very structure of U.S. healthcare must be redesigned to create value and effective competition throughout the system. An excerpt from Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Feb 2006
- Research & Ideas
The Hidden Market for Babies
Surrogates. Fertility clinics. Egg donors. Adoption. It's time to recognize (and perhaps regulate) the huge market being created by reproductive technologies, says HBS professor Debora L. Spar. She discusses her new book, The Baby Business. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Jun 2005
- Research & Ideas
From Turf Wars to Learning Curves: How Hospitals Adopt New Technology
Turf wars and learning curves influence how new technology is adopted in hospitals. HBS professors Gary Pisano and Robert Huckman discuss the implications of their research for your organization. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Jan 2005
- Research & Ideas
Entrepreneurial Hospital Pioneers New Model
A "Robin Hood" cardiac hospital in India—which charges wealthy patients, yet equally welcomes the destitute—is an exciting example of entrepreneurship in the subcontinent, says HBS professor Tarun Khanna. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Jan 2005
- What Do You Think?
Public Pension Reform: Does Mexico Have the Answer?
Mexico may have found a formula for avoiding most of the misfortunes that could arise when individuals invest their own funds. What's the right way to support an aging workforce? And why is it that a concept—life-long security—that should bring comfort to all of us is so distasteful to address in public? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Nov 2004
- Research & Ideas
Side Effects: The Case of Propecia
Selling Propecia was a difficult marketing task for Merck & Co., and was recently the subject of a case study debated by Harvard Business School alumni. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Nov 2004
- Research & Ideas
Solving the Health Care Conundrum
Executive summary of a presentation on reforming health care made by Professor Michael Porter at a Harvard Business School Publishing Virtual Seminar. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 31 Oct 2004
- Research & Ideas
Bypass Marketing: Are Docs Influenced?
Although they are prescription drugs, Viagra, Prozac, Allegra and many others are pitched directly to consumers. Do physicians take notice? HBS professor Alvin Silk and Harvard's Joel Weissman discuss a recent study. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Aug 2004
- Research & Ideas
Health Care Research and Prospects
A groundbreaking project at Harvard Business School is bringing together faculty, researchers, and students to probe issues in health care management. An interview with Professor Gary P. Pisano. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Nov 2003
- Research & Ideas
The Business Case for Diabetes Disease Management
Diabetes is a tough disease to tackle. A case-study discussion led by HBS professor Nancy Beaulieu asked why it is so complex for business and society, and what might be done to curb its incidence. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Nov 2003
- Research & Ideas
The Business of Babies
The demand for babies by infertile couples and other would-be parents is huge—and little discussed. HBS professor Debora L. Spar looks at the market realities. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Sep 2003
- Research & Ideas
How Businesses Can Respond to AIDS
Partnerships among business, government, and advocacy groups are crucial to halting AIDS. A report from an influential conference at Harvard Business School. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Mar 2003
- Research & Ideas
AIDS in Africa—What’s the Solution?
The tragedy of AIDS has the potential to decimate society—and of course workforces, too. African-based experts in health care and the pharmaceutical industry traded ideas for alleviating this scourge in a session moderated by Harvard Business School Professor Debora L. Spar. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Jan 2003
- Research & Ideas
Making Biotech Work as a Business
What will it take for biotechnology to fulfill its economic potential? Participants need to think twice about the strategies and assumptions that are driving the industry, says HBS professor Gary P. Pisano. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Aug 2002
- Research & Ideas
- 05 Aug 2002
- Research & Ideas
Are Consumers the Cure for Broken Health Insurance?
"The health insurance system in the United States is broken, and business is paying the price," says HBS professor Regina E. Herzlinger. In this excerpt from Harvard Business Review, she describes how consumers may just be the cure. PLUS: Q&A with the author. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Dec 2001
- Research & Ideas
Healthcare Conference Looks At Ailing Industry
What's plaguing healthcare? Experts including HBS professor Clayton Christensen make the diagnosis on future trends for biology and medicine—and the business opportunities within—at the 2nd HBS Alumni Healthcare Conference. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Learning Tradeoffs in Organizations: Measuring Multiple Dimensions of Improvement to Investigate Learning-Curve Heterogeneity
How and why experience leads to performance improvement has made the learning curve an important management topic for sites ranging from nuclear power plants to cardiac surgical units. This new research looks deeper at learning curves by focusing on learning rates in technology adoption in similar organizations along multiple, potentially competing dimensions. Using longitudinal data from sixteen hospitals that are adopting a new technology for cardiac surgery, it specifically studies two dimensions: efficiency and application innovation and the potential tradeoff between efficiency and application innovation. It also asks how such tradeoffs are influenced. Key concepts include: Organizations should explicitly decide which dimension of learning is of greatest strategic importance to them. Some organizations may learn more slowly on a particular dimension because they are investing in a different, potentially contradictory dimension of learning. Hospitals in the study that focused on increasing the technical difficulty and innovativeness of their use of a new technology were less likely to increase efficiency as quickly as those that were focused on efficiency. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.