business model for global health

A Business Model for Global Health

What can business teach public health experts--and everyone

else--about how to improve people's health around the world? One idea

that's gaining ground around Harvard (and elsewhere) is the use of

case studies--and not just the gold standard of scientifically

controlled clinical trials--to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Some days I wonder if I'm at the School of Public Health or the

Business School. Jim Kim--champion of the 3 x 5 initiative to get more

poor people on anti-AIDS therapies--is working with Mike

Porter--corporate strategy guru--on developing case studies of what

does and doesn't work in global health. They'll both be teaching

classes that tap into this approach in January.

Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, brought up the case-study method in a

keynote speech yesterday at, of all places, a symposium on "Meeting

Children's Needs in a World with HIV/AIDS." You still need controlled

trials, Piot was quick to point out when several journalists spoke

with him after his speech. But there may be some ways to use case

studies--to learn from past experience--to figure out how best to

deliver on the promise found in controlled research studies.

Case studies, for those of us who don't have MBAs, are well-researched

3 or 4 page summaries that lay out a particular real-world problem

that a real-world organization faced at some point and then ask the

group to put themselves in the place of the chief executive officers

or others and propose strategies for going forward.

Of course, case studies aren't going to tell you if a particular

antibiotic works or not. That's the realm of a scientifically

controlled clinical trial. But a case study may give insight into how

to introduce a new antibiotic into the developing world, or decide

between a couple of different choices of antibiotics as to which works

best in the poorest parts of the world, what kind of health-care

infrastructure is needed, what might happen when the antibiotic gets

out into the gray market, and whether, on balance, these factors sway

you towards one course of action or another.

But the use of case studies is just a piece of this business approach

to global health. A more critical look at the costs and benefits of

borrowing the business world's tools--which often includes a decidedly

anti-government bias (very convenient for academic researchers and

NGOs who are not in government)--is beyond the scope of one blog post.

But it's definitely something to keep an eye on.