Ariel D. Stern

Ariel Dora Stern is an Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School.  She co-teaches Transforming Health Care Delivery in the MBA elective curriculum. 

Ariel's research focuses on the management of innovation in health care, with a focus on the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Her projects seek to understand the drivers of innovation among firms and the determinants of how medical technologies are adopted and used in practice. Ariel is particularly interested in the intersection of the regulation, firm strategy, and economics of health care. She also researches the digital transformation of medical technology and health care delivery, investigating the policy and managerial questions raised by the growth of “digital health.” Her research has been cited by Bloomberg, The New York Times, and National Public Radio.

Professor Stern received her Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard, where she was a National Bureau of Economic Research Predoctoral Fellow in the Economics of Health and Aging and was honored with the Harvard Kennedy School Dean’s Award for excellence in student teaching. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Dartmouth College, where she was a Presidential Scholar and a two-time U.S. national collegiate figure skating champion. Before beginning her academic career, she worked as an economist on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the German Development Bank (KfW), and LeapFrog Investments, an impact investment fund. 

Ariel is currently a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Business School Health Care Initiative and Digital Initiative and a Research Associate at Ariadne Labs, a joint center between the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which focuses on scaling health care delivery innovation. 

Journal Articles

• Stern, Ariel Dora, Henrik Matthies, Julia Hagen, Jan B. Brönneke, and Jörg F. Debatin. "Want to See the Future of Digital Health Tools? Look to Germany." Harvard Business Review (website) (December 2, 2020). View Details
• Alon, Noy, Ariel Dora Stern, and John Torous. "Assessing the Food and Drug Administration's Risk-Based Framework for Software Precertification with Top Health Apps in the United States: Quality Improvement Study." JMIR mHealth and uHealth 8, no. 10 (October 2020). View Details
• Pian, Julia, Amitabh Chandra, and Ariel Dora Stern. "The Past, Present, and (Near) Future of Gene Therapy and Gene Editing." NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery 1, no. 5 (September–October 2020). View Details
• Gerke, Sara, Ariel D. Stern, and Timo Minssen. "Germany's Digital Health Reforms in the COVID-19 Era: Lessons and Opportunities for Other Countries." Art. 94. npj Digital Medicine 3 (2020). View Details
• Lauenroth, Victoria D., Aaron S. Kesselheim, Ameet Sarpatwari, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Lessons From The Impact of Price Regulation on The Pricing Of Anticancer Drugs in Germany." Health Affairs 39, no. 7 (July 2020): 1185–1193. View Details
• Sanders, Samantha F., Ariel Dora Stern, and William J. Gordon. "How to Make Remote Monitoring Tech Part of Everyday Health Care." Harvard Business Review (website) (July 2, 2020). View Details
• Marra, Caroline, Jacqueline L. Chen, Andrea Coravos, and Ariel D. Stern. "Quantifying the Use of Connected Digital Products in Clinical Research." Art. 50. npj Digital Medicine 3 (2020). View Details
• Lite, Samuel, William J. Gordon, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Association of the Meaningful Use Electronic Health Record Incentive Program with Health Information Technology Venture Capital Funding." JAMA Network Open 3, no. 3 (March 2020). View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora, and W Nicholson Price, II. "Regulatory Oversight, Causal Inference, and Safe and Effective Health Care Machine Learning." Biostatistics 21, no. 2 (April 2020): 363–367. View Details
• Monteleone, Peter P., Subhash Banerjee, Priya Kothapalli, Ariel Dora Stern, Daniel Fehder, Ron Ginor, Dominic Vollmar, Edward T. A. Fry, and Mark J. Pirwitz. "The Market Reacts Quickly: Changes in Paclitaxel Vascular Device Purchasing Within the Ascension Healthcare System." Journal of Invasive Cardiology 32, no. 1 (January 2020). View Details
• Sanders, Samantha F., Mats Terwiesch, William J. Gordon, and Ariel Dora Stern. "How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Health Care Delivery." NEJM Catalyst (October 17, 2019). View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora. "Managing the Use and Dissemination of Information about Biomarkers: The Importance of Incentive Structures." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 47, no. 3 (September 2019): 396–397. View Details
• Angus, Derek C., Brian M. Alexander, Scott Berry, Meredith Buxton, Roger Lewis, Melissa Paoloni, Steven A. R. Webb, Steven Arnold, Anna Barker, Donald A. Berry, Marc J. M. Bonten, Mary Brophy, Christopher Butler, Timothy F. Cloughesy, Lennie P. G. Derde, Laura J. Esserman, Ryan Ferguson, Louis Fiore, Sarah C. Gaffey, J. Michael Gaziano, Kathy Giusti, Herman Goossens, Stephane Heritier, Bradley Hyman, Michael Krams, Kay Larholt, Lisa M. LaVange, Philip Lavori, Andrew W. Lo, Alexander J. London, Victoria Manax, Colin McArthur, Genevieve O’Neill, Giovanni Parmigiani, Jane Perlmutter, Elizabeth A. Petzold, Craig Ritchie, Kathryn M. Rowan, Christopher W. Seymour, Nathan I. Shapiro, Diane M. Simeone, Bradley Smith, Bradley Spellberg, Ariel Dora Stern, Lorenzo Trippa, Mark Trusheim, Kert Viele, Patrick Y. Wen, and Janet Woodcock. "Adaptive Platform Trials: Definition, Design, Conduct and Reporting Considerations." Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery 18, no. 10 (October 2019): 797–807. View Details
• Gordon, William J., and Ariel Dora Stern. "Challenges and Opportunities in Software-Driven Medical Devices." Nature Biomedical Engineering 3, no. 7 (July 2019): 493–497. View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora, Felicitas Pietrulla, Annika Herr, Aaron S. Kesselheim, and Ameet Sarpatwari. "The Impact of Price Regulation on the Availability of New Drugs in Germany." Health Affairs 38, no. 7 (July 2019): 1182–1187. View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora, William J. Gordon, Adam B. Landman, and Daniel B. Kramer. "Cybersecurity Features of Digital Medical Devices: An Analysis of FDA Product Summaries." BMJ Open 9, no. 6 (June 2019). View Details
• Weitzman, Rachel E., Ariel Dora Stern, and Daniel B. Kramer. "Food and Drug Administration Guidance Documents and New Medical Devices: The Case of Breast Prostheses." American Journal of Therapeutics 28, no. 1 (January–February 2021). View Details
• Cutler, David, Jonathan Skinner, Ariel Dora Stern, and David Wennberg. "Physician Beliefs and Patient Preferences: A New Look at Regional Variation in Health Care Spending." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 11, no. 1 (February 2019): 192–221. View Details
• Bagley, Nicholas, Amitabh Chandra, Craig Garthwaite, and Ariel Dora Stern. "It's Time to Reform the Orphan Drug Act." NEJM Catalyst (December 19, 2018). View Details
• Scott Morton, Fiona M., Ariel Dora Stern, and Scott Stern. "The Impact of the Entry of Biosimilars: Evidence from Europe." Review of Industrial Organization 53, no. 1 (August 2018): 173–210. View Details
• Kaplan, Aaron V., and Ariel Dora Stern. "The Central and Unacknowledged Role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the Design and Execution of Medical Device Pivotal Trials." JAMA Cardiology 3, no. 1 (January 2018): 5–6. View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora, Brian M. Alexander, and Amitabh Chandra. "Innovation Incentives and Biomarkers." Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics 103, no. 1 (January 2018): 34–36. View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora, Brian M. Alexander, and Amitabh Chandra. "How Economics Can Shape Precision Medicines." Science 355, no. 6330 (March 17, 2017): 1131–1133. View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora, Daniel B. Kramer, Melissa Ouellet, and Aaron S. Kesselheim. "Review Times and Adverse Events for Cardiovascular Devices." Art. 0013. Nature Biomedical Engineering 1, no. 1 (January 2017). View Details
• Stern, Ariel Dora. "Innovation Under Regulatory Uncertainty: Evidence from Medical Technology." Journal of Public Economics 145 (January 2017): 181–200. View Details
• Lee, Malinda S., Brady T. Evans, Ariel Dora Stern, and Mark D. Hornstein. "Economic Implications of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Embryo Transfer Guidelines: Healthcare Dollars Saved by Reducing Iatrogenic Triplets." Fertility and Sterility 106, no. 1 (July 2016): 189–195.e3. View Details
• Feyrer, James, Bruce Sacerdote, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan? Understanding Fertility within Developed Nations." Journal of Economic Perspectives 22, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 3–22. View Details
• Hawkins, Summer Sherburne, Ariel Dora Stern, Christopher F. Baum, and Matthew W. Gillman. "Evaluating the Impact of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative on Breast-feeding Rates: A Multi-state Analysis." Public Health Nutrition 18, no. 2 (February 2015): 189–197. (Selected as Nutrition Society Paper of the Month, July 2014.) View Details
• Hyry, Hanna I., Ariel Dora Stern, Jonathan CP Roos, and Timothy M. Cox. "Limits on Use of Health Economic Assessments for Rare Diseases." hcu016. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine 107, no. 3 (March 2014): 241–245. View Details

Book Chapters

• Chandra, Amitabh, Craig Garthwaite, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Characterizing the Drug Development Pipeline for Precision Medicines." Chap. 5 in Economic Dimensions of Personalized and Precision Medicine, edited by Ernest R. Berndt, Dana P. Goldman, and John W. Rowe, 115–158. University of Chicago Press, 2019. View Details
• Bagley, Nicholas, Benjamin Berger, Amitabh Chandra, Craig Garthwaite, and Ariel Dora Stern. "The Orphan Drug Act at 35: Observations and an Outlook for the Twenty-First Century." Chap. 4 in Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 19, edited by Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, 97–137. University of Chicago Press, 2018. View Details

Working Papers

• Foroughi, Cirrus, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Who Drives Digital Innovation? Evidence from the U.S. Medical Device Industry." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-120, June 2019. View Details
• Fischer, Moritz, Joachim Henkel, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Pioneer (Dis-)advantages in Markets for Technology." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-043, October 2018. (Revised March 2020.) View Details
• Ball, George P., Jeffrey T. Macher, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Product Recalls and New Product Development: Own Firm Distractions and Competitor Firm Opportunities." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-028, September 2018. (Revised August 2020.) View Details

Cases and Teaching Materials

• Stern, Ariel D., and Daniela Beyersdorfer. "1928 Diagnostics: Fighting Antibiotics Resistance." Harvard Business School Case 621-025, August 2020. (Revised October 2020.) View Details
• Stern, Ariel D., and Sarah Mehta. "Maven Clinic: Women's Health in the Digital Age." Harvard Business School Case 620-035, March 2020. View Details
• Stern, Ariel D., and Sarah Mehta. "Ariadne Labs: Building Impactful Partnerships." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 620-002, February 2020. View Details
• Chandra, Amitabh, and Ariel Dora Stern. "Technical Note on Bayesian Statistics and Frequentist Power Calculations." Harvard Business School Technical Note 620-032, December 2019. View Details
• Stern, Ariel D., and Sarah Mehta. "Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future? (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 620-001, September 2019. View Details
• Stern, Ariel D., and Sarah Mehta. "Ariadne Labs: Building Impactful Partnerships." Harvard Business School Case 619-017, April 2019. (Revised June 2019.) View Details
• 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
• Huckman, Robert S., Ariel D. Stern, and Matthew G. Preble. "Twine Health." Harvard Business School Case 615-068, March 2015. View Details
• Huckman, Robert S., and Ariel D. Stern. "Twine Health." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 618-055, March 2018. View Details
• Stern, Ariel D., and Sarah Mehta. "Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?" Harvard Business School Case 618-025, September 2017. (Revised January 2018.) View Details
• Stern, Ariel D., and Sarah Mehta. "Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?" Harvard Business School Teaching Note 618-048, March 2018. View Details

Other Publications and Materials

• Huckman, Robert S., and Ariel Dora Stern. "Why Apps for Managing Chronic Disease Haven't Been Widely Used, and How to Fix It." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 4, 2018). View Details
• Coravos, Andy, Irene Chen, Ankit Gordhandas, and Ariel Dora Stern. "We Should Treat Algorithms like Prescription Drugs." Quartz (February 14, 2019). View Details

Research Summary

Overview

Teaching

Overview

2018 - present Harvard Business School, Transforming Health Care Delivery (MBA elective curriculum) 2014 - 2017 Harvard Business Schoool, Technology and Operations Management (first-year required MBA curriculum) Summer 2012 Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Quantitative Methods: mathematics, probability and statistics for incoming mid-career masters students, full instructor Fall 2011 Harvard College, US Health Care Policy: head teaching fellow Fall 2010 Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Quantitative Methods I (accelerated course): Masters level statistics, teaching fellow Spring 2010, 2011, 2012 Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Quantitative Methods II (accelerated course): Masters level econometrics, teaching fellow

Transforming Health Care Delivery - MBA Field Course

At the root of the transformation occurring in the health care industry-both in the United States and internationally-is the fundamental challenge of improving clinical outcomes while controlling costs. Addressing this challenge will require dramatic improvements in the processes by which care is delivered to patients. This will, in turn, involve changing the organization of delivery, developing new approaches to performance measurement, and reimagining the ways in which providers are paid. This course will equip students with the tools required to design and implement these improvements.

Related Link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/units/tom/Pages/curriculum.aspx

Additional Information

• CV

Affiliations

• Health Care Initiative
• Digital Initiative

Areas of Interest

• economics
• entrepreneurship
• health care quality
• innovation
• technology management