Health Care

A great starting place for research on the health care industry; this guide points to the best resources available to the HBS community.

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Overviews and Analysis

AHA Statistics and Studies
The American Hospital Association's Web site. Covers recent trends in health care and hospitals.

Frost & Sullivan
Includes market and technology reports on the health care sector.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
The Library includes Sage Handbook of Healthcare: Global Policies, Business Opportunities, Scientific Developments and general background on other health care related e-reference books. (Select the Medicine section.)

Globalization and Health
Provides articles on health care issues and challenges in specific countries and globally. Use BioMed for more articles on similar topic.

Health Affairs
A searchable e-journal and provides articles by topic collections and/or thematic issues from countries around the world.

Herzlinger, Reginia E. Consumer-driven Health care : Implications for Providers, Payers, and Policymakers San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 2004.
Check Harvard availability

Herzlinger, Reginia E. Market-driven Health care : Who Wins, Who Loses in the Transformation of America's Largest Service Industry Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub, 1997.
Check Harvard availability

Herzlinger, Reginia E. Who Killed Health Care? : America's $2 trillion Medical Problem -- and the Consumer-driven Cure New York.: McGraw Hill, 2007.
Check Harvard availability

ISI Emerging Markets
Provides current industry, company and country information from sources in Africa, Asia, Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

PubMed
Global database of articles related to medicine, including health care management.

ScienceDirect
Platform for ejournals from Elsevier including those related to health care, biotechnology, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Also includes articles on new business and technical issues, trends and developments in countries.

World Health Report
Published annually by the World Health Organization. Reports are international in scope and focus on specific health-related trends and issues.

Ethics

Bioethics Resources on the Web
Published by the National Institutes of Health. Lists of useful links to various resources.

BMC Medical Ethics
An open access, peer-reviewed journal.

See also Find articles for databases to search on the topic.

Finance

Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
Measures patient-level health data from local, state, and national data collection organizations (including hospitals, clinics, emergency departments and physician's offices.

International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics
Check Harvard availability
Academic articles on health care finance from an international perspective.

In Vivo: The Business & Medicine Report
Check Harvard availability
Covers new companies and deals in biotechnology. The table of contents for the past two months is available at the In Vivo Web site.

Journal of Health Care Finance
Check Harvard availability
Covers subjects such as the cost of group prenatal care, hospital efficiency and debt, and diversification.

See also the research guide on Venture Capital and Private Equity for more resources.

Health Care Delivery

Bohmer, Richard M.J. Designing Care: Aligning the Nature and Management of Health care Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press, 2009.
Check Harvard availability

ScienceDirect
Find articles from professional and acdemic journals on various health care delivery topics. Suggested search terms include: "health care AND delivery process". Limit terms to Abstract, Title, Keywords. Modify the search search accordingly.

PubMed
Find articles on health care delivery process and patient safety, process and error prevention, and more.

Health Business Fulltext Elite
Find articles from academic and industry journals covering vaious aspects of health care delivery including topics such as organizational dynamics in hospitals, and error prevention.

Health Care Payers (Insurance)

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS content includes reports, newsletters, data and publications relating to health care coverage in the U.S.

HMO/PPO Directory
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 413.5 .U5 H586 in the Stamps Reading Room
Profiles of U.S. managed health care organizations arranged by state.

Health Plan Facts, Trends and Data
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 413.5 .U5 M358 in the Stamps Reading Room
Includes a directory of plans by state.

Statehealthfacts.org
Published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Provides state-level health financing, health costs and budgets, and health coverage data.

TheStreet.com Ratings' Guide to Health Insurers
Check Harvard availability
Ref. HG 9395 .W45 in the Stamps Reading Room
Provides data on the financial stability of HMOs and health insurers as well as information about consumer complaints.

Health Care Providers

American Hospital Association
Provides extensive information about the industry and issues.

Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
Monitors the distribution and use of medical resources throughout the United States.

Health Care Analysis: an International Journal of Health Care Philosophy and Policy
Check Harvard availability
Publishes articles on health care education, health care professional practice, and all areas of health care systems and provisions.

Hospital Statistics
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 981.A2 A6234 in the Stamps Reading Room
Published by the American Hospital Association (AHA), a good comparative source for US hospital data, including a 5-year trends for most indicators. Also includes historical data (1946-2006) for some indicators.

Medical Group Management Association
Focuses on important topics in private practice management including business operations, quality care, and risk management.

Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S.
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 410.7 .P48 in the Stamps Reading Room
An extensive collection of data relating to U.S. physician demographics. Some data from 1965-present.

Plunkett's Health Care Industry Almanac
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 410.53.P56 in the Stamps Reading Room
Provides in-depth analysis of the health care sector as well as descriptions of the top 500 companies.

Practice Management Tools
The American Medical Association (AMA) Web site provides links to several practice management tools for use by physicians and office staff.

Profiles of U.S. Hospitals
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 977 .P7 in the Stamps Reading Room
This resource includes demographic, operational, financial, and clinical data relating to U.S. hospitals.

Policy and Regulation

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research; this organization provides access to data, for both researchers and consumers, about the U.S. health care system.

CQ HealthBeat
Tracks and reports on health care issues facing Congress and government agencies; provides texts, summaries and analyses of legislation and regulatory action; daily updates are supplemented by twice-daily newsletters.

Health Hippo
Links to sources of information on health care and insurance regulations

NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT)
Find information on policies, licensing, royalties, and process.

OECD Health Policies
Reports, working papers and data on international health policy issues. Use "physician" as a search term for quick access to the relevant publications.

Pan American Health Organization
Analysis of health care system and issues in Central and South American countries.

Careers, Associations and Events

Careers

HBS MBA students please see MBA Career & Professional Development.
HBS Alumni please see Alumni Career & Professional Development.

From MBA Career & Professional Development (HBS only):

Healthcare 101 Presentation

Healthcare 101 Video

Beyond the Job Bank Presentation

FierceHealthcare
Provides news, events, whitepapers, webinars, and jobs on health care industries.

Associations

American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)
An international professional society of more than 30,000 health care executives who lead hospitals, health care systems and other health care organizations.

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
National association representing nearly 1,300 member companies providing health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans.

American Hospital Association (AHA)
National organization of 37,000 individual members and approximately 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, and other providers.

Events

Congress on Healthcare Leadership
Annual conference seminars on many health care-related topics. An employment referral service is also available.

Statistics

Healthcare Business Market Research Handbook
Check Harvard availability
Ref. RA 410.53 .H424 in the Stamps Reading Room
Brings together from a variety of sources data on many medical conditions.

National Center for Health Statistics
Comprehensive U.S. health statistics. Go to FastStats on the site for statistics on diseases, medical conditions and significant public health topics. Health Data Interactive includes detailed tables of demographic health care statistics for the United States.

Roper Center for Public Opinion
Provides data and reports from public opinion surveys. Surveys include questions on how patients view their medical care, their health insurance coverage, and their views on the medical community. Strong U.S. focus, but does include a growing collection of international surveys.

SourceOECD: Health Data
Provides access to global comparative data about health expenditures and financing, and health care systems. Select "OECD Health Data" in the navigation area.

World Development Indicators
Includes international statistics relating to health care and public health.

World Health Organization (WHO)
A great starting place for locating data on international health care as well as analysis of global trends and issues.

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