Publications

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January 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Teaching Note

Amgen Inc: Pursuing Innovation and Imitation? (A), (B)

By: Ian Mackenzie

Keywords: Strategic Change; Biosimilars; Medical Biotechnology; Emerging Markets; Industry Structure; Uncertainty; Strategy Development; Implementation; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

28 Aug 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Who Drives Digital Innovation? Evidence from the US Medical Device Industry

Keywords: by Cirrus Foroughi and Ariel Dora Stern; Medical Devices & Supplies; Medical Devices & Supplies

July–August 2024
Article

The Middle Path to Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Duke Rohlen, Ben Creo and Will Kynes

Too many companies are failing to innovate. One reason, say the authors, is the polarized approach companies take to innovation. At one end of the spectrum, corporate R&D efforts tend to focus on product refreshes and incremental line upgrades that generate modest... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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September 2023
Teaching Note

Fighting the Battle of the Bulge—Evaluating Do Good/Do Well Innovations in Morbid Obesity Treatment

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 304-009. The case is part of the first module of the Innovating in Health Care course. Its purpose is to demonstrate how to evaluate the “do good” and do well” potential of a health care innovation. View Details

Keywords: Innovation In Healthcare Delivery; Innovation; Obesity; Digital Health; Weight Loss; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Management; Business Model; Medical Specialties; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry

June 2016
Case

Aggressive Growth Plans For Zimmer Spine

By: Kevin Schulman and Miranda Shaw

Steve Healy, the President of Zimmer Spine, has to transform his organization into a market leader. Zimmer is a major medical device firm, but the Spine division has underperformed, and its core technology did not get the expanded FDA label that had been expected. The... View Details

Keywords: Medical Device; Organizational Innovation; Organizational Growth; Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Educators

10 Dec 2024
Interview

A New Model for Funding Healthcare Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Duke Rohlen

Ajax Health founder Duke Rohlen (HBS MBA 2001) and HBS Professor Regina Herzlinger join host Brian Kenny to discuss the key success factors for both start-up and established medical technology firms. The case “Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation”... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Business Model; Private Equity; Health Industry

March 2003
Article

Technological Development and Medical Productivity: The Diffusion of Angioplasty in New York State

By: David M. Cutler and Robert S. Huckman

A puzzling feature of many medical innovations is that they simultaneously appear to reduce unit costs and increase total costs. We consider this phenomenon by examining the diffusion of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA)—a treatment for coronary... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Cost; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Performance Improvement; Product; New York (state, US)

Research Summary

Innovating in Health Care

Since 2001, Professor Herzlinger has written over 50 new cases and notes for this second-year MBA course on the following subjects: insurance; providers; pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and biotechnology; medical devices sector; and health care information. She is... View Details

2 Dec 2021
Interview

How To Make Healthcare Innovation Happen

Regina Herzlinger has been called “the godmother of consumer-driven healthcare” because of her groundbreaking scholarly articles and books on the subject. As a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School for nearly 50 years, her focus has supported... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention

09 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

A Diagnostic for Disruptive Innovation

Would-be innovators know that one of their biggest challenges is systematically identifying the innovations with the greatest likelihood of creating disruptive growth. Pick the wrong one, and squander a year... View Details

Keywords: by Scott D. Anthony, Mark W. Johnson & Matt Eyring

10 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Novelty Paradox & Bias for Normal Science: Evidence from Randomized Medical Grant Proposal Evaluations

Keywords: by Kevin J. Boudreau, Eva C. Guinan, Karim R. Lakhani & Christoph Riedl; Health

31 Jul 2018
Working Paper Summaries

How Does Product Liability Risk Affect Innovation? Evidence from Medical Implants

Keywords: by Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

2009
Case

Innovamedica: Innovation in an Emerging Market

By: Roberto Charvel, Fernando Fabre and T. Putimahtama

Innovamedica was a medical start up with several state of the art devices such as a silicon substitute heart and other inventions. However, the founding scientist was struggling in attracting talent and fundraising and that had an impact on growth. View Details

Keywords: Biotech; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Start-up; Emergent Countries; Business Startups; Talent and Talent Management; Design; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Health Testing and Trials; Innovation and Invention; Managerial Roles; Biotechnology Industry; Latin America; North and Central America

August 2022
Article

Regulatory Considerations to Keep Pace with Innovation in Digital Health Products

By: John Torous, Ariel Dora Stern and Florence T. Bourgeois

Rapid innovation and proliferation of software as a medical device have accelerated the clinical use of digital technologies across a wide array of medical conditions. Current regulatory pathways were developed for traditional (hardware) medical devices and offer a... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Technologies; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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November 2007
Case

Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

Translating innovative ideas form the clinician to the patient remains a major problem in the field of medicine. Dr. John Parrish and colleagues created an organization (CIMIT) that brings the technical, financial, and administrative resources to these innovative... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Resource Allocation; Alliances; Research and Development; Health Industry; Service Industry

January–February 2014
Other Article

Barriers to Health Care Innovation: Regina Herzlinger Warns That Innovators Need to Know What Obstacles They Face and How to Overcome Them

Health care in the United States and in most other developed countries is ailing, says Regina E. Herzlinger. A chaired professor of business administration specializing in health care at Harvard Business School, Herzlinger says that although the world has witnessed... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Healthcare IT; Innovation; Health Care and Treatment; Health; Information Technology; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States

September 2018
Article

An Exploratory Study of Product Development in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Medical Device Testing in India

By: Budhaditya Gupta and Stefan Thomke

Recent research has studied innovation in emerging economies. However, microlevel product development processes in these economies are relatively unexplored, and the mechanisms by which the emerging economy context might affect such processes are still unclear. In this... View Details

Keywords: India; Product Development; Emerging Markets; Situation or Environment; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; India

June 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Innovation and Growth (A)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Michael Beer and James Weber

In late 2015, CEO Vince Forlenza was reviewing Becton Dickinson’s transformation efforts designed to enable the company to innovate and grow in a changing environment. Becton Dickinson had been a successful medical device company for over 100 years. In recent years,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

Educators