Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration
Robert Huckman is the Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the faculty co-chair of the HBS Healthcare Initiative. He teaches the first-year MBA course in Technology and Operations Management and has taught the second-year MBA course in Operations Strategy. Professor Huckman is on the faculty of Executive Education's Managing Health Care Delivery and Leadership and Strategy in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the chair of the management track of Harvard's doctoral program in health policy.
Professor Huckman's research focuses on the linkages between organizational characteristics and operating performance, with an emphasis on the health care industry. His articles have appeared in publications including the American Economic Journal, the American Economic Review, Harvard Business Review, Health Affairs, the Journal of Health Economics, Management Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, Organization Science, and the Strategic Management Journal. His worked has been cited in numerous media outlets, including a 2007 profile in The Financial Times. He is an associate editor of Management Science, a senior editor of Production and Operations Management, and a member of the editorial review board of Organization Science.
Professor Huckman received a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University and an A.B. in Public Policy, summa cum laude, from Princeton University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Prior to his graduate studies, Professor Huckman was a Principal and Founding Equity Member of Stamos Associates, Inc., a strategy and operations consulting firm serving clients in the health care industry. In 1997, Stamos Associates was acquired by Perot Systems, Inc. Professor Huckman has also worked at Booz Allen & Hamilton, Inc.
Press / Media
Nature, 10 July 2008
Some suggest that the recent spate of lay-offs at GSK is an indictment of the 'centres of excellence' model. Most, however, agree that it is too early to tell whether the model is a success. Robert Huckman of Harvard Business School, who has studied the model, says that several years after it was implemented GSK saw an upturn in the number of early drug candidates from the centres.
Newsweek.com, 1 July 2008
In a study of the July phenomenon from which initial findings were released in 2005 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Harvard Business School health-care economists Robert Huckman and Jason Barro compared mortality rates in teaching and non-teaching hospitals around the country.
Health Executive, August 2007
When we think about innovation in healthcare, we usually think about advances in medical technology. Author and Harvard professor Robert Huckman says we might want to glance in another direction: organizational change.
Financial Times, 11 May 2007
Robert Huckman has spent a good portion of his career working to improve medical care in the US. As a consultant in the private sector, he advised healthcare companies on their merger and acquisition strategies. And as an academic, he has done groundbreaking work on the efficacy of surgeons and surgical teams.
"There's a lot we can do in terms of thinking about improving medical care that doesn't have to do with adding technology," says Prof Huckman. "We can organise existing practices more efficiently and more productively."
BusinessWeek, 9 October 2006
In fact, Medtronic, Conor Medsystems (CONR), and Abbott (ABT) are all readying new stent offerings in the U.S. Each argues that its products are safer--and cardiologists can jump quickly if they believe a new stent is superior, says Harvard Business School professor Robert Huckman.
Time, 1 May 2006
That was an extreme lesson in the value of experience; no one recommends seeking out doctors who are brand new on the job, and doctors admit to scheduling elective surgery--even planning childbirth--around the intern calendar. This is not paranoia: the average major teaching hospital typically sees a 4% jump in its risk-adjusted mortality rate in the summer, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Wall Street Journal, 7 November 2005
In the case of heart surgery, teamwork literally can be a matter of life and death. Robert Huckman and Gary Pisano of Harvard Business School analyzed the work of Pennsylvania heart surgeons who practice at more than one hospital. The professors found that the death rates from similar procedures performed by the same surgeon can vary as much as fivefold at different hospitals. Most of the time, patients did better in the hospital where their surgeon performed more operations.