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Describes a firm that markets a laser for a fictional problem. Asks readers to evaluate Scopie's marketing and production strategy (it plans to start in India and then expand to the United States) and its long-term viability.

Provides a glossary of terms used in Harvard Business School's Innovating in Health Care, 2006, Course.

Health care in the United States--and in most other developed countries--is ailing. Medical treatment has made astonishing advances, but the packaging and delivery of health care are often inefficient, ineffective, and user unfriendly. Problems ranging from costs to medical errors beg for ingenious solutions--and, indeed, there have been enormous investments in innovation. But too many efforts fail. To find out why, it's necessary to break down the problem, look at the different types of innovation, and examine the forces that affect them. Three kinds of innovation can make health care better and cheaper: One changes the way in which consumers buy and use health care, another taps into technology, and the third generates new business models. However, the health care system erects an array of barriers to each type of innovation. More often than not, organizations can overcome the barriers by managing the six forces that have an impact on health care innovation: players--the friends and foes who can bolster or destroy; funding--the revenue-generation and capital-acquisition processes, which differ from those in other industries; policy--the regulations that pervade the industry; technology--the foundation for innovations that can make health care delivery more efficient and convenient; customers--the empowered and engaged consumers of health care; and accountability--the demand from consumers, payers, and regulators that innovations be safe, effective, and cost effective. The analytical framework the author describes can also be used to examine other industries.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Supplements the (A) case.

A new, minimally invasive medical device has achieved only one-third of its budget. Was the problem one of marketing strategy, sales, reimbursement, and/or clinical trials?

Supplements the (A) case.

A seasoned health services entrepreneur develops a business plan for a cardiovascular-focused factory. Will it work?

Many health care innovations appear successful; but fail. This is the first case in the Innovating Health Care course that investigates how to create successful health care innovations. It is part of the first module in the course. This module focuses on how to evaluate whether an innovation is likely to be successful. It introduces an analytic framework that asks the students to classify the type of innovation and its alignment with the Six Factors in the environment that determine success or failure. The specific case focuses on an innovative weight loss program that carries no known risks and appears to be clinically worthwhile; yet, success has proved elusive. The case describes the other treatments for morbid obesity-ranging from drugs and surgery to digital apps-and asks what the program's innovator, Dr. Fallon, can learn from their success or failure in ameliorating morbid obesity. While the market for weight loss regimens was large, consumer-facing firms such as Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and the digital app Noom had checkered success. Other business models, such as centers for bariatric surgery, diet drugs, and counseling by physicians and nutritionists were also not universally successful. What could Dr. Fallon learn that would help him to widely disseminate his innovation? A small clinical trial provided the accountability that Dr. Fallon's plan caused weight loss and improved heart disease and even reversed diabetes; some insurers were paying for it; and Dr. Fallon's books were best sellers. This case has an accompanying teaching note with PowerPoint slides that instructors can use for virtual teaching.

Delineates how a for-profit health services business was created. Focuses on sources of financing, the impact of Medicare reimbursement, and Stark laws against fraud and abuse.

This course describes the public and private sources of financing of the U.S. health-care sector,and identifies the characteristics of insurance policies, their costs, the structure of the insurance industry, and the role of consultants and brokers. The insurance characteristics include financial, premiums, risk, self-funding, individual U.S. group plans, the underwriting cycle, etc.

The head of sales and marketing in a large medical devices firm must decide how to assign his sales force. He compares selling in the pharma, specialty pharma, and device industries and analyzes the reasons for the differences.

Personalized medicine requires the identification of mutated genes. Schering-Plough's search for the one related to asthma requires finding families with the disease. Examines the industry that helps conduct such research, including contract research organizations.

Robert Walter, the founder and CEO of Cardinal Health, a pharmaceutical distributor, is contemplating the purchase of Medicine Shoppe, a chain of apothecaries. The purchase might be construed as competition against his own drugstore customers. But one of its many advantages is the window it provides on the turbulent outside environment, with consolidation of his customers and managed care pressure on the pharmaceutical industry.

MedCath is a horizontally integrated chain of heart hospitals that partners with local cardiologists. It claims that its focus leads to better and cheaper results than those of an everything-for-everybody general hospital. Community hospitals generally vehemently oppose their entry into a new area. What options does MedCath have?

How should WellSpace, a venture capital-backed purveyor of alternative health services, expand? Although it was nearing breakeven in its first location, the right business model remained unclear.

Businesses spend billions on health insurance. And what do they get for their money? A lot of unhappy employees. Workers fret about the quality of the care they receive, the burden of their out-of-pocket expenses, and the gaps in their coverage. For businesses, health care has become a lose-lose proposition: They pay way too much, and they get way too little. The problem is that the health care industry has been shielded from consumer pressure--by employers, insurers, and the government. As a result, costs have exploded even as choices have narrowed. But if companies embrace a new model of health coverage--one that places control over both costs and care directly into the hands of employees--the competitive forces that spur productivity and innovation in consumer markets can be loosed upon the inefficient, tradition-bound health care system. Moving to consumer-driven health care requires that companies revamp their health benefits in six ways: Give employees incentives to shop intelligently; offer a real choice of insurance plans; charge employees prices that accurately reflect the company's costs; let providers set their own prices; adjust payments for each enrollee based on need; and provide relevant information.

Dr. Stuart Weisman, CEO of ePhysician, creator of a hand-held device for entering prescriptions and capturing changes, wonders whether his marketing strategy is appropriate. Although everyone agrees that the product is excellent, the sales results are meager to date.

This case describes a "do good and do well" firm that enables individuals to buy health care services at discounted prices. It delineates the characteristics of the uninsured and others who are the primary targets for the firm. "HealthAllies (B)" provides information about subsequent events.