Publications

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20 Feb 2018
News

Electronic health records don’t cut administrative costs

June 2017
Article

A Systematic Approach to Discussing Active Surveillance with Patients with Low-risk Prostate Cancer

By: Behfar Ehdaie, Melissa Assel, Nicole Benfante, Deepak Malhotra and Andrew Vickers

A systematic approach to counseling—using appropriate framing techniques derived from principles studied by negotiation scholars—can be taught to physicians in a one-hour lecture. We found evidence that even this minimal intervention can decrease overtreatment of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Service Delivery; Negotiation; Health Industry

11 May 2011
News

Clinical Registries: The Opportunity For The Nation

01 Oct 2018
Blog Post

Josh Latson and his Fellowship: “It’s like a pie eating contest.”

One night during his first-year at HBS, Josh Latson (MBA 2015) shadowed an emergency room physician through his rounds in a busy urban hospital. Josh was there as a member of the school’s Health Care Club, which he had joined to pursue a... View Details

Keywords: Health Care

2014
Working Paper

The Diseconomies of Queue Pooling: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay

By: Hummy Song, Anita L. Tucker and Karen L. Murrell

We conduct an empirical investigation of the impact of queue management on patients' average wait time and length of stay (LOS). Using an Emergency Department's (ED) patient-level data from 2007 to 2010, we find that patients' average wait time and LOS are longer when... View Details

Keywords: Pooling; Queue Management; Strategic Servers; Social Loafing; Empirical Operations; Health Care; Fairness; Management Practices and Processes; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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October 2023
Article

What Does the Inflation Reduction Act Mean for Patients and Physicians?

By: Amitabh Chandra and Benedic Ippolito

The debate around prescription drug measures in the recently passed U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which limit some patients’ out-of-pocket costs, has not fully addressed their effect on physicians and patients via their effect on payers. Reducing patients’ costs... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Price; Health Care and Treatment

21 Oct 2013
News

Negotiation Strategies for Doctors — and Hospitals

Article

The Business of Medicine in the Era of COVID-19

By: David M. Cutler, Sayeh Nikpay and Robert S. Huckman

This Viewpoint discusses the shifting landscape of health care financing, regulation, and delivery as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and discusses regulatory and other changes that need to be in place if telehealth and physician practice and hospital mergers... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; COVID-19; Telemedicine; Business; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Change; Competition

November 2006 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Eli Lilly: Developing Cymbalta

By: Elie Ofek and Ron Laufer

Anticipating the expiration of its Prozac patent, Eli Lilly has to make tough decisions regarding the development of its next-generation antidepressant drug. In particular, the company needs to decide whether to first establish that once-a-day dosing for Cymbalta... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2010 (Revised September 2010)
Case

athenahealth: Innovating in Response to a Crisis in Healthcare

When Jonathan Bush and his partner, Todd Park, realized that their revolutionary approach to delivering clinical care was being stymied by the inefficiencies in the healthcare system and insurance red tape, they turned their proprietary technology, athenaNet, to a new... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Information Management; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Health Industry; United States

September 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Medtronic Vision 2010

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Describes the company's year-long efforts to transition from a medical device company selling products to physicians for use with patients suffering chronic end-stage disease, to a medical technology company providing life-long solutions for people with chronic... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Transition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Strategic Planning; Health Industry

August 1999
Case

Health Resources & Technology

Health Resources & Technology is an entrepreneurial company with aggressive growth goals. The company sells medical-consultation services to insurance carriers that then repackage the service with their health care policies. Founded by two Brigham & Women's Hospital... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Goals and Objectives; Competitive Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry

25 Apr 2008
Other Presentation

Value-Based Health Care Delivery

By: Michael E. Porter

This presentation draws on Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg: Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results, Harvard Business School Press, May 2006, "How Physicians Can Change the Future of Health Care" Journal of the American... View Details

Keywords: Health; United States

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16 Jul 2021
News

What Ever Happened to IBM’s Watson?

31 Oct 2017
News

Giving Doctors What They Need to Avoid Burnout

May 2015 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Philips Healthcare: Marketing the HealthSuite Digital Platform

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

In June 2014, leading healthcare and consumer technology company, Royal Philips ("Philips"), announced its HealthSuite Digital Platform to house healthcare data and enable applications used by physicians and patients. Philips had strong equity in the healthcare... View Details

Keywords: Health; Healthcare; Digital; Platform; Ecosystem; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Product Development; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Netherlands; United States

April 29, 2020
Article

How Should We Allocate Scarce Medical Resources?

By: Max Bazerman, Regan Bernhard, Joshua D. Greene, Karen Huang and Netta Barak-Corren

Who should get a ventilator if there aren’t enough to go around? Research on decision making leads to three concrete guidelines that policy-makers and physicians can use to make fair choices when allocating scarce, life-saving resources. The key to making fair and... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Resource Allocation; Decision Making; Policy; Fairness; Ethics

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September 2012 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Cialis Lifecycle Management: Lilly's BPH Dilemma

By: Elie Ofek and Natalie Kindred

How should Eli Lilly further develop and market a new indication of its highly successful erectile-dysfunction (ED) drug, Cialis, without confusing Cialis's hard-won brand equity with physicians and patients? With the final stages of clinical trials for the new... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Attitudes; Brands and Branding; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States