CERGAS Seminar Joint with the Department of Social and Political Sciences "The “Amazoning” of Health Care: What it Means for Patient Care and Physician Work"

On the 17th of April in Room 3 B3 SR01, from 12.45 to 14.15 CERGAS and the Department of Social and Political Sciences organize the Seminar "The “Amazoning” of Health Care: What it Means for Patient Care and Physician Work", speaker Timothy Hoff, Northeastern University

Disruptive forces have descended on the U.S. health care system in the past decade, transforming not only the way we think about health care services but also how and where those services are delivered.  These forces are also now found in other international health systems.  Retail thinking rooted in creating more efficient and accessible forms of care delivery that focus on using work redesign, lower-skilled labor, and technology to increase service volume and lower prices is making its way into health care led by non-health care companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google that have used similar tactics in their other business lines.  Some see this disruption in the primary care sphere as “fast-food”, i.e. a cheapened form of care that lowers relational excellence and overall quality in the health system.  Others view it as a needed correction to the physician- and hospital-controlled service provision typified by high costs, poor access, and lower care quality.  Physician work has come under greater scrutiny from these trends, and stands to be transformed in the process.  This seminar will analyze these developments and their implications for patient care and the physician workforce. 

Timothy Hoff, Professor of Management, Health Care Systems, and Health Policy at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and Visiting Associate Fellow and Associate Scholar at The University of Oxford, will present.  He is also the author of the 2017 book, Next in Line:  Lowered Care Expectations in the Age of Retail- and Value-Based Health (Oxford University Press).