Medicine's Continuous Improvement Imperative

Robert S. Huckman; Ananth   Raman

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Article | JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association

Medicine's Continuous Improvement Imperative

by Robert S. Huckman and Ananth Raman

Abstract

Maintaining quality and spurring innovation have long been central objectives of the US health care system. Like other health care professionals, physicians are challenged to minimize the likelihood of errors that could harm patients while simultaneously making efforts to understand the causes of illnesses and develop better ways to prevent, treat, and cure them.

Keywords: medicine; continuous improvement; Toyota production system; Alcoa; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Improvement; Health Industry;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Huckman, Robert S., and Ananth Raman. "Medicine's Continuous Improvement Imperative." JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association 313, no. 18 (May 12, 2015): 1811–1812.

About the Authors

Robert S. Huckman

Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration
Chair, MBA Required Curriculum

Technology and Operations Management

View Profile »
View Publications »

Ananth Raman

UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics
Chair, OPM

Technology and Operations Management

View Profile »
View Publications »

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Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised April 2019)

The Brigham and Women's Hospital Innovation Hub: Driving Internal Innovation

Ariel D. Stern and Robert S. Huckman

Keywords: healthcare; innovation; hospital; health; health care;

Citation:
Stern, Ariel D., and Robert S. Huckman. "The Brigham and Women's Hospital Innovation Hub: Driving Internal Innovation." Harvard Business School Case 619-026, October 2018. (Revised April 2019.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2016 (Revised March 2019)

Carrum Health: Scaling Bundled Payments

Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta

Founded in 2014, Carrum Health helped self-insured employers located in three markets (San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco, California) save money on their employees’ planned surgeries. It did so by contracting directly with top-quality hospitals located within the area, and negotiating a set fee (known as a bundled payment) for each of five common surgical procedures: knee replacement, hip replacement, cervical spinal fusion, lumbar spinal fusion, and coronary bypass. By 2016, the company was growing steadily and saving its clients over 40% on average on these five procedures.
In September 2016, Sachin Jain, Carrum’s CEO, received an email from North Beach Apparel, a large retailer based in San Francisco with a growing presence near Chicago, Illinois and Columbus, Ohio. North Beach was ready to partner with Carrum, but the terms of the deal required Carrum to enter the Chicago and Columbus markets in order to serve all North Beach employees. The deal would significantly increase Carrum’s revenue and begin to move the entrepreneurial venture closer to profitability. However, by expanding to Chicago and Columbus, the young company ran the risk of spreading itself too thin, especially given the opportunity for growth in Carrum’s current three markets. But Jain knew that if he waited too long to expand geographically, Carrum might lose its first-mover advantage in several markets. With limited resources, Jain needed to decide how to scale his young company: should Carrum enter the Chicago and Columbus markets with a guaranteed initial client base and then focus on selling the existing five bundles to new customers there; or, should the company add new bundles to its product line through the existing provider networks in the three markets it currently served?

Keywords: health financing; health insurance; value-based healthcare reimbursements; bundled payments; innovation; Scale; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Industry; California; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle;

Citation:
Huckman, Robert S., and Sarah Mehta. "Carrum Health: Scaling Bundled Payments." Harvard Business School Case 617-017, October 2016. (Revised March 2019.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2018

David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics

Ananth Raman, John Masko and Aldo Sesia

In 2016, David Hysong, at age 27, found out he had a rare, incurable cancer. Rather than wait around to die, Hysong, a recent graduate of Harvard Divinity School, decided to launch a biotechnology company called Shepherd Therapeutics to development treatments for his and other rare cancers. Two years later, the company had several drugs in promising stages of development but were at least 3 to 5 years away from commercialization, if they made it through clinical trials successfully. Only about 4% of drugs that enter clinical trials receive U.S. FDA approval. It is October 2018, and Shepherd is running out of money. Hysong needs to raise $5 million to fund operations for 2019 and at least $20 million for the following few years. But the company is too early to attract the type of venture capital he needs. Even if he got financing, Hysong worried that the company’s mission could be compromised by investors more interested in a return on their investment than saving lives, and he worried about the scaling challenges ahead.

Keywords: cancer; therapeutics; drugs; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Product Development; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges;

Citation:
Raman, Ananth, John Masko, and Aldo Sesia. "David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics." Harvard Business School Case 619-012, November 2018. View Details

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Medicine's Continuous Improvement Imperative

Abstract

Citation:

About the Authors

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