When Lawton Robert Burns, Wharton professor of health care systems, began teaching healthcare management to graduate students, he found a hole in the academic literature. There was plenty of material on physicians and hospitals, government regulations and insurance issues. But there was no single source of good information on a key component of the healthcare industry -- the producers of healthcare products.
Burns aims to fill that gap with his new book, The Business of Healthcare Innovation. The book focuses on four sectors -- pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and information technology -- and explores the challenges that each faces in bringing new products to the market.
The book was edited by Burns and includes contributions from him and other Wharton School faculty, as well as industry leaders. Its goal is to look at the internal and external factors at work in determining whether a new pill or new pacemaker ends up in the hands of patients and doctors.
Each of the sectors is involved in providing goods and services aimed at improving patients' health and even saving lives, but these products come with ever-increasing price tags. While focusing on the business of healthcare innovation, Burns' book can't help but raise a critical question: Will the health system continue to be able to pay for it all?
Burns says he hopes his book will be useful in both the classroom and the real world. Students in health administration need to be knowledgeable about the producer side of the healthcare equation, he notes, not just because of the growing reliance on medical technology but also because of the expense. "The fastest growing portion of hospital costs are these supplies," whether drugs or medical-surgical supplies, and hospital administrators should be savvy about the companies they deal with. "They need to take an active role.
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