Publications

Article

Drivers of the Variation in Prosthetic Implant Purchase Prices for Total Knee and Total Hip Arthroplasties

By: Derek A. Haas, Kevin J Bozic, Anthony M. DiGioia, Zirui Song and Robert S. Kaplan

Previous studies have documented wide variation in health-care spending and prices; however, the causes for the variation in supply purchase prices across providers are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the drivers of variation in... View Details

Keywords: Costing; Cost Variation; Total Knee Arthroplasty; Total Hip Arthroplasty; Prosthetic Implant Cost; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Health Industry; Health Industry

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June 2024
Supplement

Legacy Partners (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Abstract: Stephen Holbrook and Austin Pulsipher (both HBS '19) had been leading Nutrishare since acquiring the company six... View Details

November 2016 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Improving Access at VA

By: Ryan W. Buell, Robert S. Huckman and Sam Travers

In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ran the largest healthcare system in the United States, with over 1,700 sites of care that served nearly 9 million veterans. One year earlier, a scandal had erupted over a cover-up of the excessive wait times veterans... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Social Issues; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Performance Improvement; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

16 Sep 2024
News

Life Preserver

“There’s a massive gap between how many people get to benefit from a lifesaving organ transplant and how many truly need one,” says Sebastian Giwa (MBA 2009). He’s spent the last decade trying to change that. In the United States alone, scientists estimate between... View Details

2007
Working Paper

The Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices

By: Muriel Niederle and Alvin E. Roth

New gastroenterologists participated in a labor market clearinghouse (a "match") from 1986 through the late 1990's, after which the match was abandoned. This provides an opportunity to study the effects of a match, by observing the differences in the outcomes and... View Details

Keywords: Health; Employment; Marketplace Matching; Selection and Staffing; Job Offer; Compensation and Benefits; Health Industry

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24 Apr 2020
News

Spreading the Love

2015), a bioengineer and entrepreneur, and Emilio LaTorre, Lovepop’s head of supply chain. The team also collaborated with working groups at Partners Healthcare (which operates Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and other View Details

16 Nov 2020
News

Moderna Announces Promising Vaccine Trial Results

Moderna released promising news on the progress of their coronavirus vaccine this morning, noting that trials showed it to be 94.5% effective. “In this pandemic, what has been awful from a public health standpoint, an economic standpoint,... View Details

11 Aug 2014
HBS Case

The Business of Behavioral Economics

of these principles with individuals, can they be used by companies to help employees meet their health and other goals? Norton has been experimenting with one behavioral economic principle—social norming—in order to test incentives for... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Health

August 2024
Case

Pioneering Pain Management: CWC Alliance Combats the Opioid Epidemic

By: Susanna Gallani, Karen L. Sedatole and Sarah Mehta

Set in March 2024, this case is about CWC Alliance (CWC), a nonprofit working to prevent opioid addiction in the U.S. Founder Cammie Wolf Rice launched CWC in 2018 after her son, Christopher Wolf, died of a heroin overdose. Wolf’s dependence on opioids stemmed from a... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Jobs and Positions; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Delivery; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry; United States; Georgia (state, US); Atlanta

June 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

By: Robert Steven Kaplan, Christopher Marquis and Brent Kazan

Marc Buoniconti is the co-founder of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a nonprofit medical research organization. The project was founded in 1985 by Marc and his father Nick, a former Hall of Fame football player, when Marc suffered a spinal cord injury. In 2007,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health Testing and Trials; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Industry; Miami

March 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

OpenNotes

By: Jeffrey Rayport and Annelena Lobb

In 2017, executives at OpenNotes, a national movement to improve the relationship between doctors and patients by sharing doctors’ visit notes about patients with patients, were considering options in efforts to achieve scale. The movement hoped to reach 50 million... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technology Adoption; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

March 2025
Case

Niramai: An AI Solution to Save Lives

By: Rembrand Koning, Maria P. Roche and Kairavi Dey

Founded in 2017, Niramai developed Thermalytix, a breast cancer screening tool. Thermalytix used a high-resolution thermal sensing device and machine learning algorithms to analyze thermal images and detect tumors. Its patented solution leveraged big data analytics,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Strategy; Science-Based Business; Health Industry; Health Industry; Asia; India; South Asia

02 Apr 2020
News

Patriots Plane Delivers a Million Masks from China

Courtesy New England Patriots In his daily press conferences in March, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker had been growing increasingly frustrated by the state’s shortage of N95 respiratory masks that help protect health care workers... View Details

29 May 2020
Op-Ed

How Leaders Are Fighting Food Insecurity on Three Continents

vulnerable families and individuals are suffering from job losses, mental health issues, and food shortages due to significant disruptions in the food system.” SecondBite is a national food relief organization committed to “ending waste,... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Agriculture & Agribusiness

24 Apr 2014
News

Saving lives through new vaccine technology

has several years of regulatory hurdles ahead, it is working in the interim with global health organizations to explore applying the technology to a wide range of vaccines. “Our goal is to lower the cost across the globe and make sure... View Details

11 Sep 2018
Blog Post

Care for the Elderly: Process is More Important Than the Destination

current market. I have felt that my biggest achievement while working on this project, has been pulling together seven very diversified team members from the Harvard Public Health School, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Health Care

October 2020 (Revised November 2023)
Case

COVID-19 Testing at Everlywell

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

In March 2020, as COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the U.S., Everlywell founder Julia Cheek considers how to respond as a small start-up specializing in at-home lab testing. After making dramatic budget cuts, she decides to pivot the organization to address the... View Details