BUS5.1x 2015 Syllabus

BUS5.1x: Innovating in Health Care (IHC) provides a how-to framework and case studies of innovative healthcare ventures for those interested in entrepreneurial opportunities in health care delivery, technology, insurance, management, consulting, or investing.

This course is offered in two formats: an open, online experience and a smaller, team-based experience (assembled before the course or newly created online). In both experiences, participants will produce business plans, but in the smaller experience, these business plans will be evaluated by the Innovating in Health Care staff.

Regina Herzlinger, Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Lead Instructor

Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Phreesia case study instructor

Kevin Schulman, professor of medicine and the Gregory Mario and Jeremy Mario Professor of Business Administration at Duke University, School of Medicine, Brainlab case study instructor

Prerequisites

Identifying the Health Care Venture

You should demonstrate financial analysis skills by correctly identifying the health care ventures in the case study and analyzing their financial status. As background, you may view a tutorial on how to read the financial statements of healthcare organizations, taught by Professor Regina Herzlinger, inaugural winner of the HBS students’ Best Teacher award for her teaching of accounting.

To apply for the small private course (SPOC), participants should form teams of 3-6 people around a healthcare venture idea that they will develop into a business plan during the course. Teams can be composed of people you already know or those with complementary skills and experiences. Teams will be selected for the SPOC based on the composition of the team, commitment of the members to completing a business plan, and the initial business idea.

Problems with health care quality, access, and costs bedevil all countries. This course focuses on creating successful global business innovations in health care that simultaneously “do good” for society and “do well” for their creators. At its end, you should understand how to evaluate opportunities and the elements of viable business models for different kinds of health care innovations.

Course of study:

Innovating in Health Care (IHC) focuses on the tools that enable creating business models that attain alignment among an entrepreneurial health care venture and the six factors that critically affect new healthcare ventures - Financing, Structure, Public Policy, Consumers, Technology, and Accountability. Innovating in Health Care then enables you to refine the impact of these factors on business models for three different kinds of innovations: consumer-focused, technology-driven, and integrations which create scale. The course also enables participants to network with others who share their interests in improving healthcare.

You will learn:

How to distinguish successful innovations from those likely to fail
How to determine if an innovation is aligned with its environment
The elements of a viable competitive strategy for an innovative health care venture
How other elements combine to create a feasible business model for an innovative health care venture
How to create a business plan
Effective case method learning and group dynamics
How to create a business plan

The course is conducted through lectures about assessing and creating a business plan and with case studies that describe decisions facing real entrepreneurial health firms and requires you to analyze these potential decisions through the IHC framework. Participants are taught how to use the case method and how to evaluate business plans. In addition, these lessons are highlighted by insights from the top global healthcare innovators.

To enable preparation and participation, the case discussions will be preceded by quizzes about case facts and accompanied with queries about factual aspects of case discussions.

Grading

For the large, open course your grade will be based on

Your performance on the pre-case quizzes
Peer and self-grading on your business plan

For the small, private course, your grade will be based on

Your performance on the pre-case quizzes
Peer and self-grading of your business plan + feedback from the course staff

Schedule

	Case/Tutorial	Category	Details	Release Date	Due Date
Week 1	Information about open vs. private course; Information about team formation (modes of group communication)			May 5
Week 1	How to Work in Groups/Case Method			May 5
Week 1	Innovating in Health Care Framework		Lectures by Prof. Herzlinger about how to create innovative health care ventures	May 5
Week 1	Evaluating the Commercial Viability of New Health Care Technologies		Lecture by Professor Herzlinger about how to evaluate the commercial viability of a medical technology even if you are not a medical technology expert	May 5
Week 1	Groups apply for small private course				May 11
Week 2	Battle of the Bulge—Innovations in Obesity Treatment	Applying the IHC framework to solving the obesity epidemic	Identifying viable models for obesity treatment; analyzing their business models; and advising one entrepreneur about how to better disseminate his obesity innovation	May 13	May 18
Week 2	Elements of a successful business plan			May 13
Week 2	Groups accepted to small private course			May 13
Week 2	First business plan deliverable		More fully detail your idea and complete business plan component 1: Describe the business idea and how your group has responded to the caveats about the formation of a business plan	May 13	May 18
Week 3	Vitalia Franchise	Delivery, Financing	Advising an entrepreneur about how to finance the scale up of her chain of day centers for mildly cognitively impaired seniors in Spain	May 19	May 25
Week 3	Phreesia: The Patient Check-In Company	Healthcare information technology, Expansion strategy, Developing new markets	Advising the entrepreneur of this health IT platform about his distribution and marketing strategies	May 19	May 25
Week 4	The Vitality Group: Paying for Self-Care	Payer, Entering New Markets	Advising the entrepreneur of this South African health insurance firm about his distribution and marketing strategies in the U.S.	May 26	June 1
Week 4	Odontoprev	Payer, Horizontal Integration	Advising the entrepreneur of this Brazilian dental insurance firm about whether to expand further in Brazil or to enter other countries	May 26	June 1
Week 5	Reinventing Brainlab A and Reinventing Brainlab (B)	Technology, Vertical Integration	Advising the entrepreneur of this brain surgery software about whether he needs a hardware partner for his software and about his pricing strategy	June 2	June 8
Week 5	Second business plan deliverable		Complete business plan components 2-4: 2. Identify what type of health care venture describes your group’s idea; 3. describe the six factors alignment for the new venture; 4. delineate the competitive strategy of the new venture	June 2	June 8
Week 6	Hospital for Special Surgery (A); The Global Sight Initiative	Delivery, Horizontal integration, Scaling up for non-profits	Advising the CEO of this innovative healthcare delivery site about how to disseminate this innovation. Lessons to be learned from Seva’s eradication of smallpox and creation of a worldwide network of hospitals that cure blindness	June 9	June 15
Week 6	Philips-Visicu	Transforming the healthcare system through telemedicine, Entering new markets	Advising the CEO of this “Hospital to Home” telemedicine site about how to disseminate this innovation	June 9	June 15
Week 7	Third business plan deliverable		Complete business plan components 5-7: 5. Describe the venture’s financial viability; 6. conduct preliminary valuation analyses; 7. discuss sustainability	June 16	June 22
Week 8	Complete business plan		Complete business plan components 8-10: 8. Assess the fit of management to the type of opportunity; 9. describe the societal impact; 10. if applicable: assess the technological risks Upload business plan		July 3
Week 9	Business plan grading/Wrap up			July 7- 15

For application to the small, private course (500 words or less):

Identification of idea as consumer, technology, or integrator
Your business idea and why it is needed
Rough idea of strategy/competitive advantage
Rough plan for estimating market size (number of customers)
Rough plan for Six Factors alignment
Rough plan for researching financial viability
Team Composition*

Teams should have one or more team members with experience in:

Consumer/Retailing (if consumer idea), Health Information Technology (IT) (if Health IT), MedTech (if other technology), Financial Literacy (pass the Financial Analysis quiz)

NOTE: You should continue to work with your team even if you are not accepted into the small private course.