Impact Story

Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and the first to serve on many established and start up corporate health care /medical technology boards. All of her health care books have been best sellers in their categories, recognized for their innovative research. Money dubbed her the “Godmother” of consumer-driven health care. Her work was key to introducing consumer-driven health plans and “focused health factories”, such as centers for orthopedics, cardiology, or cancer care.  She is regularly named as one of the smartest people in health care by industry journals. 

She teaches two HBS MBA courses, Innovating in Health Care and Innovating Biomedical Technology, and two related Field Study courses. Based on that work, she is currently completing text and cases books on Innovating in Health Care for the life sciences, health insurance, and health care delivery. 

In 2014, she launched a Harvard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), on Innovating in Health Care; in 2013, a new  HBS Executive Education program “Business Innovations in Global Health Care”; and in 2012, a continuing series of conferences, “21st-Century Health Care Management Education: Confronting Challenges for Innovation with a Modern Curriculum”, sponsored by a nonprofit she formed, GENiE (Global Educators Network for Health Care Innovation Education), which has supported the many schools which have introduced courses/programs on Innovating in Health Care.