Publications

December 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Sword Health

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Annelena Lobb and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Virgilio “V” Bento, CEO of Sword Health—a startup that provided virtual physical therapy to patients in self-insured firms via AI and sensor technology with supervision by a physical therapist with a doctorate—considered how to increase its U.S. market share. To do so,... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry

November 2022
Case

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

July 2023
Case

DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome (Abridged)

By: Ayelet Israeli

DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Nutrition; Market Entry and Exit; Product Marketing; Distribution Channels

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

26 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 26

supplement:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/711033-PDF-ENG Primedic—Providing Primary Care in Mexico Richard G. Hamermesh, Regina Garcia Cuellar, and Lauren MarguliesHarvard Business School Case 811-040 Primedic is a Mexican start-up that aims to deliver... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2008 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Proteus Biomedical: Making Pigs Fly

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Lauren Barley and Ginger Graham

Proteus is a healthcare start-up that has developed technology to embed electronics for computing and sensing in existing medical devices and drugs. The technology could potentially change the basis of competition in the pharmaceutical industry. The company is... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Rights; Negotiation Deal; Business Strategy; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

October 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

PrimedicProviding Primary Care in Mexico

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Regina Garcia-Cuellar and Lauren Sarah Margulies

Primedic is a Mexican start-up that aims to deliver affordable primary and preventative healthcare to those at the base of the economic pyramid. The company is about to exhaust its first round of venture capital funding and the business model has yet to gain traction.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Health Care and Treatment; Social Enterprise; Health Industry; Mexico

November 2007 (Revised August 2014)
Case

D2Hawkeye: Growing the Medical IT Enterprise

By: Robert F. Higgins, Rosie O'Donnell, Sophie LaMontagne and Brent Kazan

In mid-March 2007, Chris Kryder sat in his office and thought about how to best finance his company's growth. Over the previous five years as founder and CEO of D2Hawkeye, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based healthcare analytics company, Kryder had grown the firm from a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy Development; Strategic Positioning; Strategic Vision; Venture Capital; Small Business; Investment; Growth Management; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Financial Strategy; Business Strategy; Service Industry; Health Industry; Waltham

October 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Innovating Beyond Ochsner

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Olivia Hull

The Ochsner Health System has developed a proprietary software tool designed to treat hypertension. Built into the system’s electronic medical records, the Hypertension Digital Medicine program allows patients to record their blood pressure at home and share readings... View Details

September 2012 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Kyruus: Big Data's Search for the Killer App

By: Robert F. Higgins, Penrose O'Donnell and Mehul Bhatt

Kyruus is used in a course at HBS on Entrepreneurship in Healthcare IT and Services (EHITS). It describes a young company that has built a very large database on physicians. The company has had some early successful pilots with prominent customers, but it is now faced... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Business Startups; Boston

09 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

the conditions under which P-Will would work—and not work? Purchase this case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/419035-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 819-058 BreezoMeter: Making Air Pollution Data Actionable The case focuses on an Israeli View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

July 2024
Case

Roja Garimella: Developing a Founder's Judgment

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Roja Garimella’s path to becoming a founder was anything but straight. Setting her sights on a career in medicine since childhood, she committed to medical school with her acceptance to college. And yet, throughout her studies, she continually explored alternative... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Judgments; Financial Services Industry; Health Industry

August 2024
Case

Scaling Seven Starling

By: Ryan W. Buell and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Seven Starling, a maternal mental health startup, is scaling its digital clinic model. Seven Starling addresses perinatal mental health challenges by providing licensed therapists, peer support, and medication to mothers across five states, with a hybrid care model... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry

11 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 11

entrepreneur or as an investor. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/810072-PDF-ENG U.S. Healthcare Reform: International Perspectives Arthur A. Daemmrich and Elia PineiroHarvard Business School Case 710-040 The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

investors provide a little funding and limited governance to an increased number of startups that they are more likely to abandon, but where initial experiments significantly inform beliefs about the future potential of the venture. This... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2021
Case

Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull

Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health... View Details