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Health Care

Health Care

    • February 2015
    • Supplement

    The Affordable Care Act (A): Legislative Strategy in the House of Representatives

    By: Joseph L. Bower and Michael Norris

    In early 2009, the Obama administration and the Democratically-led Congress began working on what would eventually become the Affordable Care Act. The (A) case in this series discusses the legislative strategy in the House of Representatives, where three different committees each had jurisdiction over health care legislation.

    • February 2015
    • Supplement

    The Affordable Care Act (A): Legislative Strategy in the House of Representatives

    By: Joseph L. Bower and Michael Norris

    In early 2009, the Obama administration and the Democratically-led Congress began working on what would eventually become the Affordable Care Act. The (A) case in this series discusses the legislative strategy in the House of Representatives, where three different committees each had jurisdiction over health care legislation.

    • Blog Post

    Innovation in Health Care Education: A Call to Action

    By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Vasant Kumar, Kevin Schulman and Karen Staman

    Health care administration educators are at a crossroads: the health care sector is rife with inefficiencies, erratic quality, unequal access, and sky-high costs, complex problems which call for innovative solutions, and yet, according to our content analysis of top U.S. health administration schools and a recent article in the Lancet, our educational systems focus their curricula on isolated,theoretical subjects, such as analytics and quantitative problem solving, rather than the team-oriented, practical problem-solving skills required for innovation. All too often, when graduates of these programs enter the workforce, they find themselves unequipped to meet the challenges for innovation of 21st century health care.

    • Blog Post

    Innovation in Health Care Education: A Call to Action

    By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Vasant Kumar, Kevin Schulman and Karen Staman

    Health care administration educators are at a crossroads: the health care sector is rife with inefficiencies, erratic quality, unequal access, and sky-high costs, complex problems which call for innovative solutions, and yet, according to our content analysis of top U.S. health administration schools and a recent article in the Lancet, our...

    • December 2014
    • Article

    No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Public Services Delivery

    By: Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera and B. Kelsey Jack

    A substantial body of research investigates the effect of pay for performance in firms, yet less is known about the effect of non-financial rewards, especially in organizations that hire individuals to perform tasks with positive social spillovers. We conduct a field experiment in which agents recruited by a public health organization to sell condoms are randomly allocated to four groups. Agents in the control group are hired as volunteers, whereas agents in the three treatment groups receive, respectively, a small monetary margin on each pack sold, a large margin, and a non-financial reward. The analysis yields three main findings. First, non-financial rewards are more effective at eliciting effort than either financial rewards or the volunteer contract and are also the most cost-effective of the four schemes. Second, non-financial rewards leverage intrinsic motivation and, contrary to existing laboratory evidence, financial incentives do not appear to crowd it out. Third, the responses to both types of incentives are stronger when their relative value is higher. Indeed, financial rewards are effective at motivating the poorest agents, and non-financial rewards are more effective when the peer group is larger. Overall, the findings demonstrate the power of non-financial rewards to motivate agents in settings where there are limits to the use of financial incentives.

    • December 2014
    • Article

    No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Public Services Delivery

    By: Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera and B. Kelsey Jack

    A substantial body of research investigates the effect of pay for performance in firms, yet less is known about the effect of non-financial rewards, especially in organizations that hire individuals to perform tasks with positive social spillovers. We conduct a field experiment in which agents recruited by a public health organization to sell...

    • August 2001 (Revised January 2015)
    • Case

    SonoSite: A View Inside

    By: Clayton Christensen and Jeremy Dann

    After its spin-off from one of the world's largest ultrasound makers, Sonosite attempts to popularize a new kind of handheld ultrasound units. Sonosite needs to decide if it should focus on new markets that will value the portability and ease of use of its products, or if it should evolve its offerings so that they appeal to radiologists and cardiologists, the largest purchasers of ultrasound systems.

    • August 2001 (Revised January 2015)
    • Case

    SonoSite: A View Inside

    By: Clayton Christensen and Jeremy Dann

    After its spin-off from one of the world's largest ultrasound makers, Sonosite attempts to popularize a new kind of handheld ultrasound units. Sonosite needs to decide if it should focus on new markets that will value the portability and ease of use of its products, or if it should evolve its offerings so that they appeal to radiologists and...

    • March 2014 (Revised December 2014)
    • Case

    Vision 2020: Takeda and the Vaccine Business

    By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

    In 2014, Yasuchika Hasegawa was orchestrating the transformation of Takeda from a Japanese pharmaceutical company with a global footprint into a global company with a Japanese heritage. A 33-year veteran of Takeda, Hasegawa-san was appointed president of Takeda in 2003 and chief executive in 2009. By 2013, Takeda was in the midst of implementing its new Vision 2020 plan, a strategic plan for the evolving global corporation, which included developing a global vaccine business.

    • March 2014 (Revised December 2014)
    • Case

    Vision 2020: Takeda and the Vaccine Business

    By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

    In 2014, Yasuchika Hasegawa was orchestrating the transformation of Takeda from a Japanese pharmaceutical company with a global footprint into a global company with a Japanese heritage. A 33-year veteran of Takeda, Hasegawa-san was appointed president of Takeda in 2003 and chief executive in 2009. By 2013, Takeda was in the midst of implementing...

    • August 2015 (Revised August 2015)
    • Case

    Hoag Orthopedic Institute

    By: Robert S. Kaplan and Jonathan Warsh

    Two groups of orthopedic surgeons form a joint venture with a community hospital to establish Hoag Orthopedic Institute, a for-profit hospital and two ambulatory service centers. By controlling and integrating all aspects of the patients' medical treatment, the physicians deliver superior outcomes, which they communicate with an annual public outcomes report. They also introduce bundled payment contracts with three insurers for orthopedic surgeries, and join a multi-hospital study for applying time-driven activity-based costing to identify process improvement and cost reduction opportunities. The case concludes with HOI leaders examining several options for expansion and growth.

    • August 2015 (Revised August 2015)
    • Case

    Hoag Orthopedic Institute

    By: Robert S. Kaplan and Jonathan Warsh

    Two groups of orthopedic surgeons form a joint venture with a community hospital to establish Hoag Orthopedic Institute, a for-profit hospital and two ambulatory service centers. By controlling and integrating all aspects of the patients' medical treatment, the physicians deliver superior outcomes, which they communicate with an annual public...

Initiatives & Projects

The Health Care Initiative and the Social Enterprise Initiative connect students, alumni, faculty, and practitioners to ideas, resources, and opportunities for collaboration that yield innovative models for health care practice.
Health Care
Social Enterprise

Over the past several decades, HBS has built a foundation in health care research, from Clayton Christensen's application of disruptive innovations and Regina Herzlinger's concept of consumer-driven health care to Michael Porter's use of competitive strategy principles. Today our research focuses on

  • how management principles and best practices from other industries can be applied;
  • how the process of innovation can be improved;
  • how principles of strategy and consumer choice can be utilized;
  • how information technology can expand access, decrease costs, and improve quality;
  • how new approaches in developing nations can impact global health.

Initiatives & Projects

The Health Care Initiative and the Social Enterprise Initiative connect students, alumni, faculty, and practitioners to ideas, resources, and opportunities for collaboration that yield innovative models for health care practice.

Health Care
Social Enterprise

Recent Publications

The Rise of Remote Work: Evidence on Productivity and Preferences from Firm and Worker Surveys

By: Alexander Bartik, Zoë Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton
  • Fall 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
Drawing on surveys of small business owners and employees, we present three main findings about the evolution of remote work after the onset of COVID-19. First, uptake of remote work was abrupt and widespread in jobs suitable for telework according to the task-based measure from Dingel and Neiman (2020). The initial adoption lead to a persistent shift in work arrangements that both firms and workers forecast would continue into the future. Second, business leaders’ perceptions of how remote work affected productivity shifted over time. In early 2020, 70 percent of small business owners reported a productivity dip due to remote work. By contrast, the median business owner reported a positive productivity impact of remote work by 2021. Third, 21 percent of workers report being willing to accept a pay cut in excess of 10 percent if it allowed them to continue working from home, but the median worker in a teleworkable job would not tradeoff any compensation for the option of continued remote work. Taken together, our evidence points to perceived productivity gains and some workers’ preferences as reasons for the persistence of remote work in the years following the onset of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; Remote Work; Health Pandemics; Jobs and Positions; Demographics; Surveys
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Bartik, Alexander, Zoë Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca, and Christopher Stanton. "The Rise of Remote Work: Evidence on Productivity and Preferences from Firm and Worker Surveys." Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 34, no. 3 (Fall 2025): 759–772.

Valeant: Pharma’s Enron? (B)

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and David Allen
  • August 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
This supplement details the fallout from Valeant’s decline after 2016, noting federal convictions and SEC findings.
Keywords: Accounting; Business Earnings; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Financial Statements; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Management; Health; Investment Funds; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; New Jersey
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Dey, Aiyesha, Jonas Heese, and David Allen. "Valeant: Pharma’s Enron? (B)." Harvard Business School Case 126-017, August 2025.

Valeant: Pharma’s Enron? (A)

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and David Allen
  • August 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
This case examines the rapid rise and even faster fall of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Led by former McKinsey partner J. Michael Pearson from 2008 to 2016, Valeant abandoned the traditionally research-intensive strategy of most pharmaceutical companies and instead concentrated on generating shareholder returns through serial acquisitions. Although Valeant quickly became a Wall Street favorite, aspects of its accounting practices came under increasing scrutiny, including the ways in which it accounted for its acquisitions, its use of non-GAAP metrics that hugely improved its profitability compared to GAAP, and its revenue recognition and disclosure policies relating to Philidor, a specialty pharmacy that it relied on to increase sales of drugs whose prices it had raised sharply. Exploring each of these aspects of Valeant’s accounts, the case also poses a broader question: should the market really have seen Valeant's bold strategy as a warning?
Keywords: Accounting; Business Earnings; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Financial Statements; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Management; Health; Investment Funds; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; New Jersey
Citation
Educators
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Dey, Aiyesha, Jonas Heese, and David Allen. "Valeant: Pharma’s Enron? (A)." Harvard Business School Case 126-015, August 2025.

Emory Healthcare on the Front Lines of the Nursing Workforce Crisis (B)

By: Susanna Gallani, Karen L. Sedatole, Sarah Mehta and Nicole Zelazko
  • August 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
This supplement to the Emory Healthcare (A) case details organizational developments from July 2023 through October 2024. It explores leadership transitions, expanded recruitment efforts, compensation strategy shifts, and technology investments aimed at addressing persistent nursing workforce challenges.
Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Technology Adoption; Retention; Working Conditions; Health Industry; United States
Citation
Educators
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Gallani, Susanna, Karen L. Sedatole, Sarah Mehta, and Nicole Zelazko. "Emory Healthcare on the Front Lines of the Nursing Workforce Crisis (B)." Harvard Business School Case 126-012, August 2025.

Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Olivia S. Kim, Jonathan A. Parker and Antoinette Schoar
  • August 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Financial Economics
Using financial account data linking small businesses to their owner households, we examine how business owners’ consumption responded to changes in business revenues during the COVID-19 crisis. In the first two months following the National Emergency, business revenues declined by 40 percent, largely driven by national factors rather than local infection rates or policies. However, the pass-through of revenue losses to owner consumption was limited: each dollar of revenue loss resulted in only a 1.6-cent decline in consumption. This muted pass-through persisted through 2021, even after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines. Our findings suggest that federal subsidies and pandemic-induced reductions in spending opportunities explain the limited impact.
Keywords: Revenue; Small Business; Health Pandemics; Spending; Consumer Behavior
Citation
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Kim, Olivia S., Jonathan A. Parker, and Antoinette Schoar. "Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the COVID-19 Pandemic." Art. 104079. Journal of Financial Economics 170 (August 2025).

Rejuvenate Bio: Turning Back the Biological Clock

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Shweta Bagai and William Marks
  • July 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
The case traces the journey of Daniel Oliver and Noah Davidsohn, founders of Rejuvenate Bio, a biotech company developing gene therapies for age-related diseases. Inspired by Davidsohn's dog Bear and building on research from George Church’s lab at Harvard, the company aimed at extending healthy human lifespan by 20–40 years. By transforming the liver into a 'biofactory' for beneficial proteins, their approach targeted the root cause of multiple chronic diseases: aging itself. Rejuvenate Bio took the non-traditional path of pursuing parallel development in both human and animal health markets. With positive clinical data in canine heart disease, established commercial partnerships, and human trials approaching, the founders must decide whether to maintain their integrated dual-market strategy or split into separate companies. Their choice will determine both their business trajectory and how quickly aging technologies reach patients.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Biotechnology Industry
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Ghosh, Shikhar, Shweta Bagai, and William Marks. "Rejuvenate Bio: Turning Back the Biological Clock." Harvard Business School Case 826-100, July 2025.

A New Framework for Reducing Healthcare Disparities

By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Lynch Witkowski, Lidia M. V. R. Moura and Katie Sonnefeldt
  • July 3, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
Despite decades of initiatives to address healthcare inequities in the U.S., disparities across race, gender, geography, and income remain stubbornly persistent. This article introduces the Strategic Fingerprint Framework for Health Equity, a practical, principle-based tool designed to help healthcare organizations tailor equity initiatives to the specific needs of their communities and capabilities. Developed through in-depth study of Boston Medical Center’s Health Equity Accelerator, the framework emphasizes four foundational principles—hyper-locality, community co-creation, condition-specificity, and internal consistency—and two operational pillars: data-driven decision-making and prioritization. Using BMC’s experience as an illustrative case, the article outlines six strategic choices healthcare leaders must make to translate intention into impact. Early results from BMC include eliminating racial disparities in urgent cesarean section response times and cutting diabetes-related inequities in half—demonstrating the framework’s promise as a guide to targeted, measurable, and sustainable equity improvement.
Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Demographics; Outcome or Result; Health Care and Treatment; Framework; Health Industry
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Gallani, Susanna, Mary Lynch Witkowski, Lidia M. V. R. Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt. "A New Framework for Reducing Healthcare Disparities." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (July 3, 2025).

The Future in Sight: LumineticsCore and the First Autonomous AI for Diagnostics

By: Michael Lingzhi Li and Tinglong Dai
  • July 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
After two decades of research, Dr. Michael Abramoff successfully launched LumineticsCore—the first autonomous AI system authorized by the FDA to diagnose diabetic retinopathy without physician oversight. The case traces his journey across algorithm design, clinical validation, regulatory navigation, and the challenges of real-world adoption. It explores the interplay between technological innovation and healthcare institutions, highlighting the need to establish evaluation metrics grounded in clinical outcomes rather than physician consensus. As adoption lags despite regulatory approval, Abramoff faces decisions about which operational, reimbursement, and trust-building barriers to prioritize—decisions that may shape not only LumineticsCore’s future but also the broader path of AI in medicine.
Keywords: Healthcare; AI; Regulation; Medical Technology; Health Care and Treatment; AI and Machine Learning; Medical Specialties; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States
Citation
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Li, Michael Lingzhi, and Tinglong Dai. "The Future in Sight: LumineticsCore and the First Autonomous AI for Diagnostics." Harvard Business School Case 626-019, July 2025.

Dell Med: Transforming Care Delivery & Payment

By: Robert S. Kaplan, David N. Bernstein and Mary L. Witkowski
  • May 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Health care in the U.S. and globally continues to undergo massive transformation, surging towards a system that rewards value for patients. However, widespread adoption of value-based health care remains a challenge. This case study focuses on the care delivery transformation undertaken within an academic medical center, with a specific focus on novel payment structures (e.g., bundle payments), integrated practice units (IPUs), and outcomes measurement. Insight into time-driven activity-based costing, or TDABC, and the use of innovative digital health solutions are also touched upon. Leadership challenges and strategic dilemmas are highlighted.
Keywords: Integrated Practice Units; Outcomes Measurement; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Business Strategy; Leading Change; Decisions; Transformation; Service Delivery; Adoption; Value; Health Industry; United States; Texas
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Kaplan, Robert S., David N. Bernstein, and Mary L. Witkowski. "Dell Med: Transforming Care Delivery & Payment." Harvard Business School Case 125-117, May 2025.

Wilburn Medical USA

By: David Ager, Lynda M. Applegate and James Barnett
  • May 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In September 2024, Emily Wilburn Andrews, CEO of Wilburn Medical USA, is five years into her tenure leading the medical equipment supply company since taking over for her father, the company’s founder. She considers approaches to grow the company while maintaining the company purpose—to provide value to customers and improve their quality of life.
Keywords: Small Business; Change Management; Decision Making; Values and Beliefs; Health; Medical Specialties; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Family Business; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States
Citation
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Ager, David, Lynda M. Applegate, and James Barnett. "Wilburn Medical USA." Harvard Business School Case 825-039, May 2025.
More Publications

Faculty

Michael E. Porter
Regina E. Herzlinger
Robert S. Kaplan
Robert S. Huckman
Amy C. Edmondson
Richard G. Hamermesh
John A. Quelch
Amitabh Chandra
Alvin E. Roth
Leemore S. Dafny
Tarun Khanna
James E. Austin
→See All

HBS Working Knowlege

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    Inside One Startup's Journey to Break Down Hiring (and Funding) Barriers

    Re: Paul A. Gompers
    • 08 Nov 2024

    What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders

    Re: Robert Simons
    • 08 Nov 2024

    How Private Investors Can Help Solve Africa's Climate Crisis

    Re: John D. Macomber
→More Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • July 3, 2025
    • Article

    A New Framework for Reducing Healthcare Disparities

    By: Susanna Gallani, Mary Lynch Witkowski, Lidia M. V. R. Moura and Katie Sonnefeldt
    • July 2025
    • Case

    Rejuvenate Bio: Turning Back the Biological Clock

    By: Shikhar Ghosh, Shweta Bagai and William Marks
→More Harvard Business Publishing
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