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October 2013
Article

A Traffic Light Food Labeling Intervention Increases Consumer Awareness of Health and Healthy Choices at the Point-of-Purchase

By: Lillian Sonnenberg, Emily Gelsomin, Douglas E. Levy, Jason Riis, Susan Barraclough and Anne N. Thorndike

We surveyed customers in a hospital cafeteria in Boston, Massachusetts before and after implementation of traffic light food labeling to determine the effect of labels on customers' awareness and purchase of healthy foods. View Details

Keywords: Nutrition Labeling; Obesity; Food Labeling

Article

Administrative Costs Associated with Physician Billing and Insurance-Related Activities at an Academic Health Care System

By: Phillip Tseng, Robert S. Kaplan, Barak D. Richman, Mahek A. Shah and Kevin A. Schulman

The federal government mandated adoption of certified electronic health record systems (EHR), at least in part, to reduce administrative costs for physicians. This study used time-driven activity-based costing to determine the administrative costs associated with... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Insurance; Problems and Challenges

07 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Electronic Health Records Were Supposed to Cut Medical Costs. They Haven't.

Despite the promise that electronic health records would cut billing costs, savings have yet to materialize, according to a major new study by researchers at Harvard Business School and Duke University. “The theory was that part View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

Research Summary

Male Circumcision and HIV/AIDS: The Macroeconomic Effects of a Health Crises (with Eric Werker and Brian Wendell)

Theories abound on the possible impact of AIDS on economic growth and savings in Africa; yet there have been surprisingly few empirical studies to test the mixed theoretical predictions. In this paper, we examine the impact of the AIDS epidemic on African nations... View Details

March 2015 (Revised June 2015)
Case

Medalogix

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Matthew G. Preble

This case examines an exciting new approach to health care that will help care providers identify when hospice services are the appropriate type of care for patients. The company, Medalogix, already has a product on the market that uses a proprietary algorithm to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Entrepreneurship; Health Care Services; Implementing Strategy; Dissemination; Innovation; Market Selection; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Analytics and Data Science; Marketing Strategy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Health Industry; United States

29 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Consumer-centered Health Care Depends on Accessible Medical Records

can be used in powerful ways, ideally leading to better patient care, lower health care costs and, ultimately, healthier patients. “Trust on the part of both the consumer and doctor is hugely important in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Health

Article

Moral Dilemmas and Trust in Leaders during a Global Health Crisis

By: Jim A. C. Everett, Clara Colombatto, Edmond Awad, Paulo Boggio, Björn Bos, William J. Brady, Megha Chawla, Vladimir Chituc, Dongil Chung, Moritz A. Drupp, Shristi Goel, Brit Grosskopf, Frederik Hjorth, Alissa Ji, Caleb Kealoha, Judy S. Kim, Yangfei Lin, Yina Ma, Michel André Maréchal, Federico Mancinelli, Christoph Mathys, Asmus L. Olsen, Graeme Pearce, Annayah M. B. Prosser, Niv Reggev, Nicholas Sabin, Julien Senn, Yeon Soon Shin, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Hallgeir Sjåstad, Madelijn Strick, Sunhae Sul, Lars Tummers, Monique Turner, Hongbo Yu, Yoonseo Zoh and Molly J. Crockett

Trust in leaders is central to citizen compliance with public policies. One potential determinant of trust is how leaders resolve conflicts between utilitarian and non-utilitarian ethical principles in moral dilemmas. Past research suggests that utilitarian responses... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Impartial Beneficence; Utilitarian Responses; Trust; Ethics; Public Opinion; Leadership Style

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23 Apr 2014
HBS Case

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?

of smokers who would have taken up tobacco if e-cigarettes didn't exist, as well as the number of smokers who would have quit cold turkey without the availability of electronic... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Advertising

02 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

A Rare Find in Health Care: A Simple Solution to Racial Inequity

for these long-standing disparities.” For the past 20 years, Chandra has been examining differences in health outcomes between white and Black Americans, searching for solutions to shrink the gap. In a recent working paper published... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

15 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

A Mass Crisis Can Overwhelm Health Care. Liberia Found a Solution.

Community training helps fight Ebola A new case study about Last Mile Health by HBS Senior Lecturer Brian L. Trelstad and V. Kasturi Rangan, the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, outlines how CEO Raj... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

August 3, 2022
Article

How Will Amazon Approach U.S. Primary Care?

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley Staats

Amazon has a playbook for reinventing businesses that it enters. It includes simplifying processes, experimenting to determine which new approaches work best, and continuously recombining its existing assets to come up with a better way to do things. It is likely to... View Details

Keywords: Amazon; Health Care; Technology; Primary Care; Health Care and Treatment; Information Infrastructure; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

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January 1983 (Revised February 1988)
Case

Hospital Corp. of America (A)

By: W. Carl Kester

HCAs ratio of debt to total capital is approaching 70%, jeopardizing its single-A bond rating. Students must determine an appropriate target debt ratio for HCA in light of its growth objectives, its acquisition strategy and its changing regulatory environment. View Details

Keywords: Situation or Environment; Capital Structure; Health Care and Treatment; Borrowing and Debt; Health Industry; Tennessee

13 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

The Consumer Appeal of Underdog Branding

large corporations, such as Apple and Google, are careful to retain their underdog roots in their brand biographies." A forthcoming article coauthored by Keinan for the Journal of Consumer Research, "The Underdog Effect: The... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2015
Case

The I-PASS Patient Handoff Program

By: Robert S. Huckman and Michael Norris

In 2015, the I-PASS Patient Handoff Program Team, led by six pediatricians around the U.S., had to determine the best way to disseminate their program that had been proven to reduce communication errors in patient handoffs in hospital settings. Should they turn it into... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Hospitals; Operations Improvement; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

November 2006 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Li Ka-Shing and the Growth of Cheung Kong

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo and Mark Benson

Events in the history of Cheung Kong's growth reveal how Li Ka-Shing applied his skills as a "first-class noticer" to complex political and socioeconomic environments. While Li's determination to succeed is legendary, so are his skills in reading and responding to the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Competency and Skills; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Portfolio; Business History; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Hong Kong

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

products. Developing new products. The development of new products can take several years. Anticipating the trends in consumer price sensitivity can provide producers with a significant edge in determining... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

September 2012
Article

The Relationship Between Economic Preferences and Psychological Personality Measures

By: Anke Becker, Thomas Deckers, Thomas Dohmen, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse

Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants of heterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this review, we first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological concepts of personality, such... View Details

Keywords: Risk Preference; Time Preference; Social Preferences; Locus Of Control; Big Five; Economics; Behavior; Personal Characteristics

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October 2013
Case

FasterCures: Removing Barriers to Treatments

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and James Weber

In mid-2013, as FasterCures celebrated its 10th anniversary as a center of the Milken Institute, Executive Director Margaret Anderson thought about what the organization should do to ensure it had even more impact in its next 10 years. FasterCures was a non-profit... View Details

May 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Kent Thiry: "Mayor" of DaVita

By: William W. George and Natalie Kindred

Kent Thiry, CEO of dialysis provider DaVita, is considering how to integrate employees from recently acquired Gambro Healthcare without damaging DaVita's robust, unconventional internal culture. When Thiry joined DaVita in 1999, breaking an important promise to his... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Experience and Expertise; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership Style; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Integration; Health Industry