The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

Michael E. Porter; Sachin H. Jain

Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2008 (Revised April 2018)

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

Abstract

In 2006, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was an internationally leading institution for cancer care, education, and research. Since 1996, it had successfully reorganized itself from a cancer hospital that was physically organized around clinical specialties into one that was organized into disease-based integrated practice units called multidisciplinary care centers. These units were supported by a new construction project that had created new disease-specific facilities and a widely-supported administrative plan in which physicians reported both to leadership of specialty-based academic departments and disease-based clinical centers.

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Health Disorders; Organizational Structure; Medical Specialties; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Service Delivery; Research; Health Care and Treatment; Education Industry; Health Industry; Texas;

Language: English

Format: Print

29 pages

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Citation:

Porter, Michael E., and Sachin H. Jain. "The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care." Harvard Business School Case 708-487, May 2008. (Revised April 2018.)

As the diffusion of value-based health care efforts accelerates globally, the need for interoperable information technology systems that support value-based care is essential. Such systems are needed to facilitate dramatic improvements in patient outcomes and efficiency and, importantly, to end an era in which health IT has entrenched the status quo, perpetuated silos, and blocked reimbursement reform. A value-enabling IT platform must organize data around conditions and must enable integrated practice units to integrate care both within and across health systems. In addition, the electronic health record should be the sole source of costing information so that accurate costs for every encounter can be tracked, aggregated, shared, and used for improvement. This is the next generation of health care IT.

Since its establishment in 2005, Hamburg’s Martini Klinik had single mindedly focused on prostate cancer care with a commitment to measure long-term health outcomes for every patient. A wholly owned subsidiary of the University Hospital Hamburg, Martini Klinik was a “hospital in a hospital” in close proximity to other medical departments and services. By 2019, Martini Klinik had become the largest prostate cancer treatment program in the world with 8,000 outpatient cases and more than 2,500 surgical cases annually. Patients came from all over Germany and from around the world. A new and expanded facility was under construction to have the capacity to manage more patients with prostate cancer.

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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

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Faculty & Research

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

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