The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care

by Jerome H. Grossman, Clayton M. Christensen, Jason Hwang, et al.

Book Overview

A groundbreaking prescription for health care reform--from a legendaryleader in innovation . . .

Our health care system is in critical condition. Each year, fewer Americans can afford it, fewer businesses can provide it, and fewer government programs can promise it for future generations.

We need a cure, and we need it now.

Harvard Business School's Clayton M. Christensen--whose bestselling The Innovator's Dilemma...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071592083
• ISBN13: 9780071592086
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant analysis -- if only Washington would listen

Clayton Christensen, the groundbreaking thinker behind "The Innovator's Dilemma" turns his mind to the healthcare industry. If you know The Innovator's Dilemma you know that the focus is on disruptive innovation -- specifically on how little, initially imperfect technological solutions (think PCs) can disrupt big, rigid, expensive businesses (think mainframes). Is there any bigger, more rigid, more expensive business than healthcare? This exhaustive and extremely well researched analysis (done together with two doctors, the late Jerome Grossman and Jason Hwang) describes in a way that was clear to me for the first time, what's wrong with the health care industry. Basically, it's designed to pay for the wrong things. The Innovator's Prescription shows how health care businesses are of three types: "solution shops" that use clever people to solve problems, value-adding process businesses that do the same thing well over and over, and facilitated networks (like Alcoholics Anonymous). Because elements of the health care system (like hospitals) do all of these, they can't get good at any one, and they can't shift costs effectively. And the system, as it always does, reject changes that would allow healthcare to be more efficient. Let's be fair: this book is too long, partly because the health care system is too complex and the authors take on every single problem. But they have a proposed solution to all those problems. I wish the Obama administration would get a good look at this analysis, since it's not overtly liberal or conservative -- instead, it's the only way we could actually get past the cost and quality problems in the health system. If you've ever sat in a doctor's waiting room wondering "why is this system such a mess -- isn't there any way to make it better," this book is for you. Read it. Then tell your congressman to read it.

A Brilliant Analysis of the Fundamental Problems and Potential Solutions

US healthcare is extraordinarily complex, and some very good strategists and analysts have badly missed the mark when they turn their skills to healthcare. These authors have clearly done their homework, and they bring their subject matter expertise of healthcare to Christenson's formidable strategic and analytic skills. The combination is breathtaking in its scope and clarity. I have long since lost track of how many books and articles I have read, and how many conferences I have attended, over the past decade on the causes and proposed solutions for our healthcare mess. By the time I finished the introduction and Chapter 1 of The Innovator's Prescription, I recognized there is more truth and insight in those forty pages than in all of those books, articles, and conferences combined. The book presents an astonishing way of deconstructing and visualizing the fundamental business model problems- I have never seen it modeled this way before. Once Christenson demonstrates the similarities to other industries that have undergone disruptive innovation, the answer to our healthcare problem becomes obvious. Christenson's logical clarity in articulating the structural nature of the problem, accompanied by clear practical solutions for addressing them, makes this book a pleasure to read and serves as a call to action for those charged with making changes. The biggest disadvantage to reading this book is that you may despair over the solutions being proposed to address the symptoms that do not address the underlying problem of faulty business models. On the other hand, after a decade of hand-wringing over the intractable nature of our healthcare problems, it is exciting to see that there really is a clear path to building an affordable, high-quality, consumer-friendly healthcare system. This book is truly a pleasure!

Provocative Perspectives Worthwhile to Anyone Involved in the Health Care Debate

As the CEO of Walgreens, I'm involved in the health care debate every day. Clayton Christensen's fascinating book provided me with interesting insights on one of my favorite strategies: innovation. I've recommended that all of my senior management team read The Innovator's Prescription. Clayton's provocative perspectives and viewpoints should be of great interest to them as we take our company and its offerings to the next level.

Brilliant. Far and away the best book on health care reform.

The decade worth of research spent understanding, studying, and ultimately offering solutions to make the health care system more accessible, higher quality, and affordable is clear. Unlike other books, the authors avoid the traps the plague most other solutions by taking a completely different perspective by looking at other industries where products and services offered were "so complicated and expensive that only people with a lot of money can afford them, and only people with a lot of expertise can provide or use them." Yet convincingly through plenty of examples, it shows how telephones, computers, and airline travel moved from only accessible to those with the resources to become available and affordable to all. The book tackles every aspect of health care and asks how will those in health care be disrupted and subsequently surpassed by other providers which deliver care that is more convenient, higher quality, and lower cost. What will hospitals need to do as increasingly more surgical procedures are performed in high volume specialty hospitals? How will doctor practices sustain themselves as new diagnostic tools and research makes the identification and treatment of problems more precise that nurse practitioners with clear protocols can deliver care previously required by physicians? What mechanisms exist to streamline and integrate the various players of health care (doctors, hospitals, purchasers, insurers) so that all are focused on the benefit of wellness and outcomes of patient care rather than maximizing each of their own financials? (Hint: large employers will integrate health care and others will only purchase care delivered by integrated healthcare delivery systems). What should medical schools do to prepare the next generation of doctors as current training is steeped in tradition, relevant a century ago, but woefully inadequate for the future? How should pharmaceutical, medical device manufacturers, and diagnostic equipment makers position themselves for the inevitable changes that will affect them the same way previous leaders in other industries were overtaken by competitors and disruption? How must the reimbursement system and regulators adapt to foster the innovation to make these changes occur? If there is anything close to a crystal ball on what health care delivery will look like in the United States that will be increasingly affordable, higher quality, and accessible to all, this is it. The authors, respected Harvard Business School (HBS) professor, a doctor who also was the Director of Health Care Delivery Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, and another doctor and graduate of the MBA program at HBS have convincingly demonstrated the likely path as well as indicated why a single payer nationalized system will stifle the innovation needed to improve our health care system. Those who wish to succeed in the new world of health care as predicted by this comprehensive and thoughtful analysis wou

An Industry Insider's Review of Christensen's Prescription for a Cure

I have been an active participant in healthcare developing and commercializing over twenty medical technologies across nine medical specialties since the 1970's. I have also lectured on the medical industry as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Creighton University Medical Center and as a guest lecturer at Anderson School of Management (UCLA), Haas School of Business (University of California), and Graziadio Business School (Pepperdine University), and spent significant time in the 1990's on FDA reform. I have been privileged to have had a front-row seat observing the major changes that have shaped today's healthcare system - industry consolidation for both the supplier (pharma, med-tech, and diagnostic) and delivery (hospital, clinics, physician practice) segments; the move from unregulated fee-for-service to regulated fee-for-service; the growth of medical malpractice and its impact on the cost of healthcare; the use and misuse of technology; the draconian regulatory burden (FDA and CMS) associated with developing new life-improving or life-saving technologies; and, as a result, the growth of healthcare as a share of GDP from 6% to 16%. To this industry insider, healthcare is a system in critical condition and needs radical surgery. Clayton Christensen who authored one of the best books on innovation ("The Innovator's Dilemma") has now teamed up with Jerome Grossman, M.D. and Jason Hwang, M.D. to bring well-researched insights into a disruptive solution for effective value-added health care in "The Innovator's Prescription." Christensen and company outline the technological enablers of disruption then show us how various aspects of the healthcare system can be effectively disrupted to produce better, more cost-effective healthcare for all Americans. These include the hospital business model, the physician practice business model, the care of chronic disease, the reimbursement system, medical education, the development of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics and regulatory reform. The authors leave no stone unturned and provide an integrated plan to make it happen. "Innovator's Prescription" is a must read for all who participate directly in the funding and running of our healthcare system whether as members of the private sector or public sector, patients, or voters. Christensen and colleagues have done an extraordinary job in outlining the fundamental issues but more importantly, in providing a thoughtful way out of our current mess.