Harvard's Michael "Healthcare" Porter in Israel

America's best in Israel ..

"No, No , No" exclaimed Michael Porter, chastising the Associate Director of a major medical center in Israel, "You have to raise your hand." Such blatant breaches of HBS etiquette were relatively frequent over the course of the week long IXP, which drew a wide range of participants, many of whom were unfamiliar with the peculiarities of the typical HBS classroom.

The Value-Based Health Care Delivery IXP, co-led by Professor's Porter, and Elizabeth Teisberg (formerly of HBS and currently a professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia), was a multi-disciplinary immersion program based on the framework presented in the book, Redifining Healthcare. The book, which diagnoses the problem of competition in the modern healthcare system, introduces a broad set of strategies which providers, payers, employers and the government can use to improve value. The immersion program was designed as an extension of the book, and involved case studies and subsequent discussions of companies and organizations who have implemented strategies that demonstrate the principles outlined by Porter and Teisberg.

Program participants came from all corners of the healthcare sector. In addition to 17 HBS MBA students with prior healthcare experience (10 of whom were MD MBA's), there were students from Harvard School of Public Health, Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Medical School. Participants also included many medical residents and practicing physicians, most of whom were affiliated with hospitals in the Boston area, including several heads of departments and several senior surgeons and administrators. Finally, there was also a significant international contingent, with participants flying in from Ireland, Israel, England, and Canada.