Publications

March 2010 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Community Health Workers in Zambia: Incentive Design and Management

By: Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred

This case examines the various considerations relevant to selecting and compensating workers in a context where their work involves a pro-social component. This is relevant to not only health care in Zambia, but to NGO and public sector workers who are both motivated... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Training; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Mission and Purpose; Non-Governmental Organizations; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry; Zambia

Educators

January 2014
Teaching Note

Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Malone

The case includes law, business, and public health perspectives on an African American leader's social entrepreneurship and leadership in other social movements. Later in his life, Dr. Benjamin Hooks championed the eradication of lead poisoning. Prior to that Hooks... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Health Disorders; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Social Issues; United States

Article

Health Care Providers Need a Value Management Office

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Catherine H. MacLean, Alexander Dresner, Derek A. Haas and Thomas W. Feeley

Many health care organizations are striving to implement a value agenda that delivers better patient outcomes at lower cost, medical condition by medical condition. To accelerate the dissemination and adoption of the value agenda, across many more medical conditions,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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03 Sep 2020
Op-Ed

Why American Health Care Needs Its Own SEC

A health care SEC could collect data on prices and outcomes that comply with its measurement standards, and certified, independent appraisers could attest that the numbers comply with accepted View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger; Health

04 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Is Health Care Making You Better—or Dead?

Regina Herzlinger is not afraid to call them as she sees them. And what she sees looking at the American health care industry is a bunch of killers. Not only are hospitals, insurers, employers, Congress, and academics killing View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

26 Mar 2018
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS

Keywords: by Katharina Janke, Carol Propper, and Raffaella Sadun; Health

December 2013
Article

Measuring the Value of Process Improvement Initiatives in a Preoperative Assessment Center using Time-driven Activity-based Costing

By: Katy E. French, Heidi W. Albright, John C. Frenzel, James R. Incalcaterra, Augustin C. Rubio, Jessica F. Jones and Thomas W. Feeley

Background: The value and impact of process improvement initiatives are difficult to quantify. We describe the use of time-driven activity-based costing(TDABC)in a clinical setting to quantify the value of process improvements in terms of cost, time and personnel... View Details

Keywords: Quality Improvement; Value Agenda; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Accounting; Health; Measurement and Metrics; Value; Health Industry; North and Central America

October 5, 2017
Article

Making Patients and Doctors Happier—The Potential of Patient-Reported Outcomes

By: Lisa Rotenstein, Robert S. Huckman and Neil Wagle

Keywords: Health Care; Outcomes Measurement; Outcomes Reporting; Quality; Health Industry

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03 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Supreme Court Health Care Ruling

Without an individual mandate, instead of buying their own insurance, most of the sick will qualify for subsidized coverage either in the public health insurance exchanges created under View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Health

10 Jan 2005
What Do You Think?

Public Pension Reform: Does Mexico Have the Answer?

to the social security system can be deposited in private versus public accounts, the transition "cost" (really a fiscal budget deficit) will be up to $2 trillion. Theoretically, the impact of this on pensioners could be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

March 16, 2021
Article

From Driverless Dilemmas to More Practical Commonsense Tests for Automated Vehicles

By: Julian De Freitas, Andrea Censi, Bryant Walker Smith, Luigi Di Lillo, Sam E. Anthony and Emilio Frazzoli

For the first time in history, automated vehicles (AVs) are being deployed in populated environments. This unprecedented transformation of our everyday lives demands a significant undertaking: endowing complex autonomous systems with ethically acceptable behavior. We... View Details

Keywords: Automated Driving; Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; Transportation; Health; Ethics; Policy; AI and Machine Learning

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20 May 2016
Op-Ed

World Health Organization Lacks Leadership to Combat Pandemics

Nutrition and Population Practice of the World Bank. Relevant WHO scientists and field health experts could be seconded to this Unit; they would work out of country offices in partnership with World Bank executives and national View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Health

March 2025
Article

Does Communicating Measurable Diversity Goals Attract or Repel Historically Marginalized Job Applicants? Evidence from the Lab and Field

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Ike Silver and Edward H. Chang

Many organizations struggle to attract a demographically diverse workforce. How does adding a measurable goal to a public diversity commitment—for example, “We care about diversity” versus “We care about diversity and plan to hire at least one woman or racial minority... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Recruitment; Diversity; Goals and Objectives; Communication Intention and Meaning; Behavior

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September 2013 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Rana Plaza: Workplace Safety In Bangladesh (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

On April 24, 2013 the Rana Plaza factory building collapsed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Over 1,100 people were killed in the worst industrial accident since the Union Carbide plant gas leak in Bhopal, India. Most of the victims worked for garment factories,... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Public Health; Safety; Workplace; Human Rights; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Bangladesh

Educators

23 May 2023
Cold Call Podcast

The Entrepreneurial Journey of China’s First Private Mental Health Hospital

Keywords: Re: William C. Kirby; Education

January 2017
Article

Impact Evaluation Methods in Public Economics: A Brief Introduction to Randomized Evaluations and Comparison with Other Methods

By: Dina Pomeranz

Recent years have seen a large expansion in the use of rigorous impact evaluation techniques. Increasingly, public administrations are collaborating with academic economists and other quantitative social scientists to apply such rigorous methods to the study of public... View Details

Keywords: Practice; Public Sector; Research; Policy; Performance Evaluation

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2001
Book

Diagnosis Corruption: Fraud in Latin America's Public Hospitals

By: Rafael Di Tella and William D. Savedoff

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Health; Health Industry; Latin America

November 2014
Teaching Note

Marketing Marijuana in Colorado

By: John A. Quelch

The case, set in the middle of 2014, reviews the first six months of marketplace activity in Colorado, following the legalization of marijuana for recreational use and the expansion of marijuana retailing from medical dispensaries to recreational stores. The case... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Innovations; Retail Government Services; Public Health; Agribusiness; Customers; Goods and Commodities; Government and Politics; Health; Marketing; Society; Health Industry; Health Industry; Health Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America