20 Dec 2012

Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School Forum Focuses on Healthcare Innovation

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BOSTON—Faculty members of Harvard Business School (HBS) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) recently convened a forum on healthcare innovation on the HBS campus in Boston. Focusing on the topic “Healing Ourselves: Addressing Healthcare's Innovation Challenge,” the one-and-a–half–day conference brought together an invited group of industry experts, HBS and HMS faculty, and Harvard alumni to provide insights to help shape and guide the future of healthcare in the United States.

Welcoming remarks were made by Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, HBS Dean Nitin Nohria, and HMS Dean Jeffrey S. Flier, MD. Harvard University Provost Alan M. Garber, MD, and Donald Berwick, MD, former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, delivered keynote addresses.

The participants focused on understanding the innovation challenges and opportunities for action related to reducing employee healthcare costs; developing meaningful drugs, devices, and diagnostics; translating academic research into clinical use; and improving the patient experience and the value of care delivery.

As part of this effort, a collaborative HBS/HMS survey of executive sentiment in healthcare is underway, aiming to capture senior executive opinions about key trends in innovation, quality, and cost. A final report on the conference and survey will be published and made available in the early part of 2013.

"We want this forum to be the beginning of an ongoing series of high-level annual conferences that will bring together leaders in the field to discuss problems, prescribe solutions, and have a real impact on society," said Harvard Business School Professor Richard G. Hamermesh, co-head of the HBS Healthcare Initiative and a member of the Forum’s faculty organizing committee, which also included HBS Professor Robert S. Huckman (co-chair of the Healthcare Initiative) and HMS Professors William W. Chin, MD; Barbara J. McNeil, MD; and Joseph P. Newhouse.

The Harvard Business School Healthcare Initiative was launched in 2005 to bring together the extensive research, thought leadership, and interest in the business of healthcare that exists at HBS. With a focus on innovations and entrepreneurship, HBS seeks to be the place where current and future healthcare leaders come to be trained to help solve the problems related to the business of delivering and creating health services and technologies.

Contacts

Jim Aisner
617-495-6157
jaisner+hbs.edu

About Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 250 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and PhD degrees, as well as more than 175 Executive Education programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching, to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The School and its curriculum attract the boldest thinkers and the most collaborative learners who will go on to shape the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.