Publications

28 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation

Doctors are afraid of getting sued. According to some accounts, 75 percent of them perform more tests and procedures than necessary to avoid potential lawsuits over medical malpractice. The phenomenon of “defensive medicine” has been... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Medical Devices & Supplies

2022
Working Paper

Post-market Surveillance of Software Medical Devices: Evidence from Regulatory Data

By: Alexander O. Everhart and Ariel D. Stern

Medical devices increasingly include software components, which facilitate remote patient monitoring. The introduction of software into previously analog medical devices as well as innovation in software-driven devices may introduce new safety concerns—all the more so... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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September 2024
Case

The Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Witkowski and Katie Sonnefeldt

This case describes how Boston Medical Center, a hospital and safety net organization, changed its strategic approach to health equity after realizing that previous efforts were not sufficient to address the health disparities among their patients. In 2021, the Health... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Decisions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Diversity; Race; Ethnicity; Urban Scope; Local Range; Equality and Inequality; Health Industry; Boston

February 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: Coordinating Patient Care

External cost pressures are motivating the adoption of case management (CM) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), but several of the organization's key professional groups are working against it. President and CEO David Dolins must decide whether CM is... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Boston

2016
Article

Integrated Care from the Patient's Perspective and its Relationship to Medical Group Attributes.

By: Michaela Kerrissey, Jonathan Clark, Ashley-Kay Fryer, Wei Jiang, Maryaline Catillon, Patricia Ramsay, Stephen Shortell, Lawrence Casalino, Mark Friedberg and Sara J. Singer

Integrating care for patients with multiple chronic conditions is essential to improving quality. Yet little is known about care integration from the patient’s perspective and how it relates to medical group characteristics. We created a nationally representative... View Details

Keywords: Care Coordination; Integrated Care; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Perspective; Health Industry

2022
Working Paper

The Regulation of Medical AI: Policy Approaches, Data, and Innovation Incentives

By: Ariel Dora Stern

For those who follow health and technology news, it is difficult to go more than a few days without reading about a compelling new application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to health care. AI has myriad applications in medicine and its adjacent industries, with... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technological Innovation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

February 1993 (Revised August 1995)
Case

Medicare Payment for Drugs and Medical Devices

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Business and Government Relations; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Article

Designing Transparency Systems for Medical Care Prices

By: David Cutler and Leemore S. Dafny

In the contentious political environment surrounding health care reform, calls for increased price transparency in health care are among the few areas of general agreement. But the wrong kind of transparency could actually harm patients, rather than help them. View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Health Care and Treatment; Price

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2023
Article

Evidence from the First Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) Randomised Controlled Trial in India: SMAs Increase the Satisfaction, Knowledge, and Medication Compliance of Patients with Glaucoma

By: Nazlı Sönmez, Kavitha Srinivasan, Rengaraj Venkatesh, Ryan W. Buell and Kamalini Ramdas

In Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs), patients with similar conditions meet the physician together and each receives one-on-one attention. SMAs can improve outcomes and physician productivity. Yet privacy concerns have stymied adoption. In physician-deprived nations,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Customer Satisfaction; Outcome or Result; India

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March 2018
Case

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center: Managing Capacity in Neurology

By: Joel Goh, Robert S. Huckman and Nikhil Sahni

In December 2014, Dr. Anthony Furlan, chair of the Department of Neurology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH), faced a mandate from the hospital’s executive leadership team. Specifically, all UH departments were directed to take steps within six... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Hospitals; Capacity Planning; Scheduling; Health Care and Treatment; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Health Industry; North America; United States; Ohio; Cleveland

Forthcoming
Article

The Anatomy of a Hospital System Merger: The Patient Did Not Respond Well to Treatment

By: Raffaella Sadun, Martin Gaynor, Adam Sacarny, Chad Syverson and Shruthi Venkatesh

Despite the continuing US hospital merger wave, it remains unclear how mergers change, or fail to change, hospital behavior and performance. We open the “black box” of hospital practices through a mega-merger between two for-profit chains. Benchmarking the merger's... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Industry

August 2003 (Revised August 2024)
Case

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

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and John McDonough

Many health care innovations appear successful; but fail. This is the first case in the Innovating Health Care course that investigates how to create successful health care innovations. It is part of the first module in the course. This module focuses on how to... View Details

Keywords: Three Pillars; Industry Analysis; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Medical Specialties; Health Industry

April 2010 (Revised April 2010)
Teaching Note

Managing Orthopaedics at Rittenhouse Medical Center (TN)

By: Robert S. Huckman and Richard M.J. Bohmer

Teaching Note for [607152]. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management; Health Industry

August 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Teaching Note

The UCLA Medical Center: Kidney Transplantation (TN)

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Teaching Note for 711410. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Price; Programs; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry

March 2010 (Revised August 2012)
Supplement

WellSpace Treatment Centers for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (B) - The Marino Center

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

The Marino Center provides complementary traditional and alternative health care services. It wants to grow, but how and where? View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry

01 Oct 2020
News

Does Your Company Need a Chief Medical Officer?

04 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Attention Medical Shoppers: What Health Care Can Learn from Walmart and Amazon

Medical School professor, surgeon, and New Yorker staff writer Atul Gawande; and HBS professor Raffaella Sadun, who has led an international research project on the role of management in acute care hospitals and View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

June 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Information Technology and Clinical Operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, F. Warren McFarlan and Julia Rose Adler-Milstein

Describes the history of clinical computing at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and the development, since the 1996 merger to form the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, of an information system designed to support the delivery of patient care. The hospitals' CIO, John... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Design; Service Delivery; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Industry; Boston

January–February 2024
Article

Shared Service Delivery Can Increase Client Engagement: A Study of Shared Medical Appointments

By: Ryan W. Buell, Kamalini Ramdas, Nazlı Sönmez, Kavitha Srinivasan and Rengaraj Venkatesh

Problem Definition: Clients and service providers alike often consider one-on-one service delivery to be ideal, assuming – perhaps unquestioningly – that devoting individualized attention best improves client outcomes. In contrast, in shared service delivery, clients... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Customer Satisfaction; Outcome or Result; Performance Improvement