Mapping processes and value chains to understand strategy in care delivery


Value chain analysis is often applied to businesses. The approach takes the line of business or business unit as its focus–not the firm as a whole. And it looks at the overall industry, not just the slice of activities that a given organization undertakes. The idea is to understand how you go from, say, raw […] Continue Reading


Hello: can primary care deliver profits in Africa?


Hello, healthcare. We were lucky enough to talk to the inspiring York Zucchi, founder and CEO of Hello Healthcare, and his colleague Dr Fanie Hattingh, who called in to MIT today. Catch Zucchi on video here. Students had prepared a case study of the cooperative business that Zucchi and his colleagues operate in South Africa. […] Continue Reading





Clean water and surgery: Not “either” but “both”?


Is surgery beyond the reach of the world’s poor? And how do we reconcile the issues involved with increasing access to surgery with the widespread need for water and sanitation?     A case example inspired by Dr. Robert Riviello, trauma and acute care general surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, gave us some big […] Continue Reading


Reframing rationality: Reflections on human-centered design approaches


Shaped by the interaction of supply and demand, scarcity determines our decisions, as any neoclassical economist will tell you. But economics has gone beyond the neoclassical. Arguing for a more widespread behavioral view, a 2011 paper published by the Center for Global Development adds previously-overlooked psychic factors to better explain how we make decisions. At […] Continue Reading






Notes from the classroom: Exploring the role of energy infrastructure in health care delivery


Dateline: mid-March 2012 Location: MIT Sloan By: MIT Sloan ghdLAB students What would your life be like without a refrigerator, or a stovetop, or somewhere to charge your cell phone? Sitting in Cambridge, Massachusetts it is practically impossible to imagine. While talk of an energy crisis peppers our discussions, our electrified homes and gadgets are […] Continue Reading


Notes from the classroom: Thoughts on my upcoming ghdLAB trip and the role of electronic medical records in rural clinics


Dateline: mid-March 2012 Location: MIT Sloan by David Hilliard In less than a week, I leave to work on a project in a rural health center in Kenya!!  My teammate, Pipe, and I are extremely excited to touch ground next week and put our research to work.  We are visiting three host sites over the […] Continue Reading


Evaluating a microenterprise project linked to healthcare in Uganda


Dateline: Mid-March 2012 Location: MIT Sloan by Marisa Gerla & Mary Anito Our ghdLab project has officially kicked-off and we’re starting to get a better idea of what we will be focusing on.  This semester we will we working with the Sustainable Housing Initiative Project, or SHIP, in Mbarara, Uganda, which is a partnership with […] Continue Reading


PIH’s Ophelia Dahl lends some advice to our team of MBAs


Dateline: February 2012 Location: MIT Sloan By: ghdLAB students Last week, MIT’s ghdLAB Special Projects team had the great opportunity to chat with Ophelia Dahl, the Executive Director of Partners in Health.  The Partners in Health organization was started by Ophelia and the legendary Paul Farmer and as of today has 15,000 employees in 20 […] Continue Reading