Publications

September 1997
Case

Radiology Management Sciences

Radiology Management Sciences (RMS) analyzes diagnostic imaging claims to help HMOs and insurers control utilization. As industry changes threaten RMS's profitability, the company's founders contemplate two alternative business models. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Industry Growth; Service Industry; Health Industry

2017
Working Paper

Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services

By: Maria Ibanez, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Work scheduling research typically prescribes task sequences implemented by managers. Yet employees often have discretion to deviate from their prescribed sequence. Using data from 2.4 million radiological diagnoses, we find that doctors prioritize similar tasks... View Details

SSRN

09 Apr 2019
Podcast

The prognosis for AI-assisted radiology

Improvements in machine learning and image recognition, and gradual acceptance by regulators, have brought innovative companies the threshold of the radiology lab. Bill sits down with HBS Professor Shane Greenstein to discuss one such company and the challenges of... View Details

September 2018
Article

Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services

By: Maria Ibanez, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Work-scheduling research typically prescribes task sequences implemented by managers. Yet employees often have discretion to deviate from their prescribed sequence. Using data from 2.4 million radiological diagnoses, we find that doctors prioritize similar tasks... View Details

Keywords: Discretion; Scheduling; Queue; Healthcare; Learning; Experience; Decentralization; Operations; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Decisions; Time Management; Cost vs Benefits; Health Industry

SSRN

September–October 2013
Article

Learning from Customers: Individual and Organizational Effects in Outsourced Radiological Services

By: Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

The ongoing fragmentation of work has resulted in a narrowing of tasks into smaller pieces that can be sent outside the organization and, in many instances, around the world. This trend is shifting the boundaries of organizations and leading to increased outsourcing.... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Customer Satisfaction; Health Industry

2012
Working Paper

Learning from Customers: Individual and Organizational Effects in Outsourced Radiological Services

By: Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

The ongoing fragmentation of work has resulted in a narrowing of tasks into smaller pieces that can be sent outside the organization and, in many instances, around the world. This trend is shifting the boundaries of organizations and leading to increased outsourcing.... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Knowledge Acquisition; Volume; Performance Productivity; Health Industry

SSRN

Article

Mentoring: Application for the Practice of Radiology

By: L. L. Barr, K. Shaffer, K. L. McGinn and B. J. Hillman

Keywords: Health; Training

The ongoing fragmentation of work has resulted in a narrowing of tasks into smaller pieces that can be sent outside the organization and, in many instances, around the world. This trend is shifting the boundaries of organizations and leading to increased... View Details

Article

Assessing the Training Costs and Work of Diagnostic Radiology Residents Using Key Performance Indicators—An Observational Study

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Marta E. Heilbrun, Brad Poss, Luca Boi, Yoshimi Anzai and Nan Hu

09 Sep 2019
Podcast

Can You Read Me? How AI Can Help Bring Radiology Out of the Dark Ages

The workload for radiologists has reached the point that it is impossible to keep up with demand. AI based technologies may be able to support new clinical workflows, improve automation, and ensure that physicians are focused on the cases that are most in need of their... View Details

06 Jun 2023
Podcast

110. Why AI Hasn't Helped Radiology (Until Now): A Conversation with Cameron Andrews

Radiology touches around 80% of all hospital and health system visits, impacting nearly every specialty in medicine. However, the incumbent radiology IT system infrastructure places the promise and power of AI out of reach for practitioners. Though radiology has... View Details

May 2024
Article

True Costs of Uterine Artery Embolization: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing in Interventional Radiology Over a 3-Year Period

By: Julia C. Bulman, Nicole H. Kim, Robert S. Kaplan, Sarah Schroeppel DeBacker, Olga R. Brook and Ammar Sarwar

The study used time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to estimate the costs to perform uterine artery embolization (UAE). Utilization times for patients undergoing outpatient UAE for fibroids or adenomyosis were captured from electronic health record timestamps and... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

September 2018 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Zebra Medical Vision

By: Shane Greenstein and Sarah Gulick

An Israeli startup founded in 2014, Zebra Medical Vision developed algorithms that produced diagnoses from X-rays, mammograms, and CT-scans. The algorithms used deep learning and digitized radiology scans to create software that could assist doctors in making... View Details

Educators

Purchase

May 2014
Case

Health Care Accountability: Examples in Cancer Treatment

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

This case is designed to support a discussion of the importance of outcomes evidence in empowering the public to make better health care decisions, the desired level of transparency and accountability for health care providers, and the issues with current measuring and... View Details

Keywords: Accountability; Health Care; Cancer; Cancer Treatment; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Cancer Treatment Centers Of America; Vantage Oncology; Radiology; Risk Adjustment; Treatment Outcomes; Health Care Outcomes; Prostate Cancer; Transparency; Health Care and Treatment; Risk Management; Outcome or Result; Health Industry; United States

Educators

Awards

POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Competition

By: Robert S. Huckman

Winner of the 2017 Best Paper Competition from the College of Healthcare Operations Management at the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) for “Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services” (Management Science, September... View Details

Article

Dissecting Costs of CT Study: Application of TDABC (Time-driven Activity-based Costing) in a Tertiary Academic Center

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Yoshimi Anzai, Marta E. Heilbrun, Derek Haas, Luca Boi, Kirk Moshre, Satoshi Minoshima and Vivian S. Lee

The lack of understanding the true costs (not charges) of delivering health care services poses tremendous challenges in the containment of health care costs. In this study, we applied an established cost accounting method, time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC),... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Costs; Medical Imaging; Computed Tomography; Activity-Based Costing; Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Health Industry

August 2012 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Hub and Spoke, HealthCare Global and Additional Focused Factory Models for Cancer Care

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Amit Ghorawat, Meera Krishnan and Naiyya Saggi

This case compares and contrasts four different models for delivering cancer care in India and the US. Students are asked to select the best model in its alignment with the Six Forces in those two countries and Africa, to which one of the models is considering... View Details

Keywords: Cancer Care Services; Focused Factories For Cancer Care; Hub And Spoke Cancer Care; Cancer Care In The U.S.; Cancer Care In Africa; Cancer Care In India; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Six Sigma; Health Disorders; Health Industry; United States; India; Africa