The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care 1st Edition
| Clayton M. Christensen (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
| Jason Hwang M.D. (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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A groundbreaking prescription for health care reform--from a legendary leader 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 revolutionized the business world―presents The Innovator’s Prescription, a comprehensive analysis of the strategies that will improve health care and make it affordable.
Christensen applies the principles of disruptive innovation to the broken health care system with two pioneers in the field―Dr. Jerome Grossman and Dr. Jason Hwang. Together, they examine a range of symptoms and offer proven solutions.
YOU’LL DISCOVER HOW
- “Precision medicine” reduces costs and makes good on the promise of personalized care
- Disruptive business models improve quality, accessibility, and affordability by changing the way hospitals and doctors work
- Patient networks enable better treatment of chronic diseases
- Employers can change the roles they play in health care to compete effectively in the era of globalization
- Insurance and regulatory reforms stimulate disruption in health care
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Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Clayton M. Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Christensen is also co-founder of Innosight, a management consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and Innosight Institute, a non-profit think tank. He is the author or coauthor of five books including the New York Times bestsellers The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution and most recently, Disrupting Class. He also serves as a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The late Jerome H. Grossman, M.D., was the Director of the Harvard/Kennedy School Health Care Delivery Policy Program. A nationally recognized health care policy expert and a pioneer in health informatics, his leadership spanned business and health care. He served as CEO of a major medical center, chaired the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and co-founded four successful companies.
Jason Hwang, M.D., is an internal medicine physician and senior strategist for the Healthcare Practice at Innosight LLC, an innovation and strategy consulting firm. He also co-founded and serves as the Executive Director of Healthcare at Innosight Institute, a non-profit social innovation think tank. Previously, Dr. Hwang was a chief resident and clinical instructor at the University of California, Irvine. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
From the Back Cover
MEET THE CURE TO AMERICA'S HEALTH CARE ILLS
"Clayton Christensen has done it again, writing yet another book full of valuable insights. The Innovator's Prescription might just mark the beginning of a new era in health care."
Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, New York City
"Clear, entertaining, and provocative, The Innovator's Prescription should be read by anyone who cares about improving the health and health care of all."
Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
"Comprehensive in its vision, astute in its diagnosis, and clear in its guidance, The Innovator's Prescription offers strong medicine for a health care system that is far from well."
Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, President, Institute of Medicine
"A wealth of insights--with new ideas and revelations in every chapter. Read it, and you will be armed with solid ideas for making health care better."
George Halvorson, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
"The Innovator's Prescription is a well researched, clearly organized road map to a sustainable health care system."
Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services
"The Innovator's Prescription is an important and timely contribution to the national debate on health system reform. We would do well to consider it carefully."
Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader and Distinguished Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
"Clayton Christensen has helped many businesses--including our own--find new growth opportunities through deeper insights into the future of health and the health care system. I can think of no one better equipped to lead this comprehensive global assessment."
Bill Weldon, Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson
Clayton M. Christensen's bestselling books are:
"REQUIRED READING."BusinessWeek
"ABSORBING."The New York Times
"THOUGHTFUL."Fortune
"BRILLIANT."Michael R. Bloomberg
"VISIONARY."Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Clayton M. Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Christensen is also co-founder of Innosight, a management consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and Innosight Institute, a non-profit think tank. He is the author or coauthor of five books including the New York Times bestsellers The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution and most recently, Disrupting Class. He also serves as a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The late Jerome H. Grossman, M.D., was the Director of the Harvard/Kennedy School Health Care Delivery Policy Program. A nationally recognized health care policy expert and a pioneer in health informatics, his leadership spanned business and health care. He served as CEO of a major medical center, chaired the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and co-founded four successful companies.
Jason Hwang, M.D., is an internal medicine physician and senior strategist for the Healthcare Practice at Innosight LLC, an innovation and strategy consulting firm. He also co-founded and serves as the Executive Director of Healthcare at Innosight Institute, a non-profit social innovation think tank. Previously, Dr. Hwang was a chief resident and clinical instructor at the University of California, Irvine. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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Product details
- Publisher : McGraw Hill; 1st edition (January 1, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 496 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0071592083
- ISBN-13 : 978-0071592086
- Item Weight : 1.83 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 1.43 x 9.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #430,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #61 in Health Policy (Books)
- #86 in Health Care Administration
- #178 in Service Industry (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In addition to his most recent book, Competing Against Luck, he is the author of nine books, including several New York Times bestsellers — The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, Disrupting Class, and and most recently How Will You Measure Your Life?. Christensen is the co-founder of Innosight, a growth-strategy consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Christensen Institute, a non-profit think tank. In 2011 and 2013, he was named the world’s most influential business thinker by Thinkers50.

Jason Hwang, M.D., M.B.A. is an internal medicine physician who, together with Professor Clayton M. Christensen of Harvard Business School and the late Jerome H. Grossman of Harvard Kennedy School of Government, co-authored The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care (McGraw-Hill, January 2009), the American College of Healthcare Executives 2010 Book of the Year and recipient of the 2011 Health Service Journal Circle Prize for Inspiring Innovation.
Dr. Hwang previously co-founded and was the Executive Director of Healthcare at Innosight Institute, a non-profit social innovation think tank. He also taught as chief resident and clinical instructor at the University of California, Irvine, where he received multiple recognitions for his clinical work. He has also served as a clinician with the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, California. Dr. Hwang received his B.S. and M.D. from the University of Michigan and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Customer reviews
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021
Top reviews from the United States
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1. Technology enablers
2. Business model innovation
3. Value networks
Anyone who has worked in healthcare realizes that the regulatory framework and reimbursement scheme often drives much of the behaviors and constraints that adversely impact access and affordability. The authors do a nice job of discussing the regulatory and reimbursement reforms needed to enable disruptive solutions for healthcare. In full disclosure, I'm a fan of Mr. Christensen. I've read many of his books and have seen him speak a number of times. This book is an excellent contribution to helping solve our healthcare crisis.
The proposed solution is to discard the current fee for healthcare service model, in which healthcare providers are systematically paid to treat illness without recompense for fostering welfare, and create a three-track system:
(1) Fee for service would continue to apply to diagnostic services, where - due to the nature of the patient's condition and the state of medical knowledge - there is a high need for intuitive investigation versus results-based treatment for conditions that are well understood. (The process described brings to mind episodes of House, a TV show in which a brilliant but irascible doctor challenges a team of colleagues to find the problem before the patient dies.)
(2) Fee for result would apply for treating conditions that are well understood and have a clearly defined solution -- colonoscopies, laser eye surgery, implantation of stents, etc.
(3) User networks for patients with chronic conditions/ unhealthy practices to learn how they can help themselves and be motivated to do so.
As is pointed out again and again, disruptive changes will be needed to get from A to B. Thus, hospitals must be redirected to focus on diagnostic services and cede provision of standardized care and wellness coordination to specialized clinics and other agencies. Primary care physicians (the traditional "family doctor") should concentrate on diagnostic services at a lower level rather than acting as "gatekeepers" for referrals to specialists. Enabling changes in reimbursement rules, health insurance arrangements, and medical record keeping are spelled out in detail.
When the dust settles, there will be fewer hospitals (with the survivors focused on enhanced diagnosis, like the Mayo Clinic), fewer medical specialists (who currently operate in narrow niches, often without a full grasp of a patient's situation), more primary care physicians and nurses with augmented responsibilities, a new model for pharmaceutical companies that focuses on targeted medications for precisely defined conditions versus the development and marketing of "blockbuster" drugs that only help a fraction of the users and require enormously expensive mass clinical trials, and a lot of medical work performed by less highly trained personnel with better diagnostic tools.
Andy Kessler presented an analogous vision in "The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor," Harper Collins (2006). His book is very entertaining, but this one covers the ground in a more disciplined and comprehensive manner. I would recommend "The Innovator's Prescription" for anyone who is seriously concerned about the current healthcare system.
Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers cannot make the needed changes on their own, because they do not control all the levers. Having the government take the lead is said to be problematic, for reasons that are dispassionately stated and I happen to agree with. The authors suggest that the best candidate entities for leading the transition to healthcare in the new mode might be employers that profit from the good health of their employees. Then there is the intriguing possibility of expanding the role of integrated healthcare providers,e.g., Kaiser Permanente.
Let's hope our country chooses the right path.
Top reviews from other countries
Overall, the book doesn't disappoint. In Christensen's logical, structured style the various points he makes are illustrated well with insightful case studies (both within healthcare and from other industries such as electronics that readers of the previous books will be familiar with) and a clear narrative flow. He carefully dissects the various issues and applying the various elements of disruption theory builds a framework for how to build a healthcare system that works on all levels.
I can't do it justice in a paragraph but his major argument is that having hospitals (which are structured to solve complex problems) as the main repository of care is very inefficient. Instead, various activities of hospitals such as routine dialysis or hip operations should be hived off into much more efficient external clinics that are more able to charge on a results-basis and drive down costs by using more skilled technicians rather than high cost doctors. However, there's much more in here as he gives extremely robust analysis of all elements of healthcare.
While his perspective and analysis is largely based on the US, he talks at a general level making his conclusions applicable to any country in the world.
If you've read previous Christensen books then it's a novel application of his theories (if a little repetitive). If you haven't read any of his previous work then he walks you through his argument (but not in the same detail as previous books) such that you can read this book on its own. However be warned, this is definitely towards the 'textbook' end of business books and it avoids a lot of the political debate that drags down other debates on healthcare (but which may potentially be more interesting). While still very readable it can become quite in depth and requires a lot of thought. Not really a book in the 'pop-business' mould but if you're interested in the subject a great read.
I really wish someone in the UK government would take a real good look at the conclusions.











