Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 27, no. 5 (2008): 1328 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.5.1328 © 2008 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Innovation

PROLOGUE

Innovation: Disruptive & Constructive?

"Disruptive innovation," a concept popularized by Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen (right), has intuitive appeal to people who believe in markets and capitalism. We celebrate the fact that Japanese auto-makers’ emphasis on quality and lean production methods forced Detroit to build better cars; consumers clearly benefited, even if displaced American autoworkers did not. But what constitutes "disruptive innovation" in health care—and when is it desirable, not just for the owners of capital, but also for patients?

In the first of the Perspectives in this section, Christensen and his colleague, Jason Hwang, offer one framework—and point to specific examples of disruptive . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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