Publications

January–February 2013
Article

Fairness, Efficiency and Flexibility in Organ Allocation for Kidney Transplantation

By: Dimitris Bertsimas, Vivek F. Farias and Nikolaos Trichakis

We propose a scalable, data-driven method for designing national policies for the allocation of deceased donor kidneys to patients on a waiting list, in a fair and efficient way. We focus on policies that have the same form as the one currently used in the United... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Policy; Healthcare; Fairness; Resource Allocation; Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Health Industry; United States

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05 Jun 2006
Research & Ideas

Using Competition to Reform Healthcare

The ills of the U.S. healthcare system are well chronicled—soaring costs, low customer satisfaction, increasing problems with quality, and restricted coverage lead the list. But do we really understand the underlying issues well enough to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

Research Summary

Social Determinants of Health

By: Susanna Gallani

Healthcare provider organizations are becoming progressively more involved in ways to improve health equity and address social determinants of health (SDOH). In this line of work, Prof. Gallani studies organizational factors interacting with the implementation of SODH... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Organizations; Performance Management; Accountability; Health Industry

February 1988 (Revised February 1991)
Case

Baxter Healthcare Corp.: ASAP Express

A continuation of the ASAP story described in American Hospital Supply Corp.: The ASAP System (A). As the industry and information technology have evolved, ASAP and systems like it have moved from strategic advantage to competitive necessity. Poses the issues of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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04 Mar 2014
News

40 of the Smartest People in Healthcare

January 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Supplement

The Case of the Unidentified Healthcare Companies2010 (CW)

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Ethan S Bernstein, Margarita Krivitski and Srinidhi Reddy

This case presents financial statements and selected rations for 14 unidentified healthcare organizations and asks that each set of financial information be matched with one of the following healthcare companies: a biotechnology firm, a community nursing company, a... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry

Article

Managing Healthcare Costs and Value

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Michael E. Porter and Mark L. Frigo

Rising health care costs are a major global challenge. A number of factors contribute to this trend, including aging populations and medical technology. But an underlying and misunderstood source of health care’s escalating costs has been the inability of health care... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Cost Management; Cost Accounting; Health Industry

Read Now

28 May 2013
News

What the U.S. Can Learn From Healthcare Delivery Overseas

18 Feb 2016
Blog Post

Honing an Interest in Healthcare at HBS

internship with a well-known healthcare expert organization to do some consulting work. I also took a class in health policy over at the Kennedy School, and spent quite a bit of time in and out of class with... View Details

24 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

Medical records at a healthcare clinic in Lascahobas, Haiti. Ryan McBain A few years ago, the Boston-based nonprofit health care organization Partners in Health (PIH) set out to quantify the cost of primary... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

February 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Partners HealthCare System, Inc. (A)

By: Gary P. Pisano and Maryam Golnaraghi

Focuses on the decision confronting senior administrators at the Brigham and Women's Hospital: whether to enter into an affiliation with the Massachusetts General Hospital. Requires students to analyze the complex institutional changes in the health environment and to... View Details

Keywords: Consolidation; Health Care and Treatment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Management Teams; Health Industry; Massachusetts

October 2006 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Clinical Change at Intermountain Healthcare

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Erika Ferlins

Provides a detailed description of the way in which several improvements and innovations in clinical care were arrived at. Describes individual insights, how these were evaluated and validated, and how they were translated into improved medical practices. The changes... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Business Processes; Performance Improvement; Practice; Health Industry

November–December 2014
Article

Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to Identify Value-Improvement Opportunities in Healthcare

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski, Megan Abbott, Alexis Guzman, Laurence Higgins, John Meara, Erin Padden, Apurva Shah, Peter Waters, Marco Weidemeier, Samuel Wertheimer and Thomas W. Feeley

As healthcare providers cope with pricing pressures and increased accountability for performance, they should be rededicating themselves to improving the value they deliver to their patients: better outcomes and lower costs. Time-driven activity-based costing offers... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States; Europe

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06 Dec 2012
News

New Thinking on Healthcare Reform

HBS heavy-hitters Clay Christensen and Michael Porter closed out a recent conference organized by HBS and Harvard Medical School. Held on the HBS campus November 14 and 15, "Healing Ourselves: Addressing Healthcare's Innovation Challenge"... View Details

Keywords: Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

November 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Computerized Provider Order Entry at Emory Healthcare

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil, Andrew Katz, Michael Morgan and David LaBorde

The Computerized Provider Order Entry at Emory Healthcare case presents one hospital system's efforts to implement computerized provider order entry (CPOE) across all of its hospitals and the challenges they faced in doing so. Issues such as standardization of care,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Management; Management Systems; Standards; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Projects; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Industry

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Course Requirements

Students are required to prepare a business plan, which employs the framework of this course, to explore an entrepreneurial opportunity in health care, and to evaluate their classmates' plans.

Career Focus

For... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Healthcare Industry; Healthcare Innovation; Healthcare Costs; Healthcare Operations; Healthcare Organizations; Healthcare Startups; Healthcare Technology; Healthcare Ventures

December 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Transforming Healthcare Delivery at Karolinska University Hospital

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski, Elena Corsi and Nikolina Jonsson

The case study examines the journey toward value-based healthcare at Karolinska University Hospital. The hospital's ambitious shift to a patient-centered care delivery model, accompanied by the construction of a new facility, encountered challenges such as high costs,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Business Organization; Communication Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Health Industry; Sweden; Europe

June 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Background Note

The Challenge Facing the U.S. Healthcare Delivery System

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Discusses the challenges currently facing the U.S. health care delivery system. These challenges frame the problems managers of delivery organizations are currently facing. They include a burgeoning gap between demand and supply. Demand for health care services is... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States