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Lawton Robert Burns, Ph.D., MBA, is the James Joo-Jin Kim Professor, Professor of Healthcare Management, and Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is also Co-Director of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management. He received his doctorate in sociology and his MBA in health administration from the University of Chicago. Dr. Burns taught previously in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago and the College of Business Administration at the University of Arizona. Dr. Burns teaches courses on healthcare strategy, strategic change, strategic implementation, organization and management, managed care, and integrated delivery networks. He has analyzed many different sectors of the healthcare industry. He has written two books on the healthcare systems in other countries: India’s Healthcare Industry (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and China’s Healthcare System and Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He published Managing Discovery: Harnessing Creativity to Drive Biomedical Innovation (Cambridge University Press, 2018) as well as Big Med: How Megaproviders Hurt American Health Care and What to Do About It. (University of Chicago Press) and The U.S. Healthcare Ecosystem (McGraw-Hill) in 2021. He recently completed a book on supply chain management in the healthcare industry, The Healthcare Value Chain: Demystifying the Roles of GPOs and PBMs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). He is also the lead editor of the major text Healthcare Management: Organization Design and Behavior (Delmar, 2019).
Senate Testimony - “Pharmacy Benefit Managers and the Prescription Drug Supply Chain” March 30, 2023
2023 Books and Articles
Dark Territory: Lifting The Veil On GPOs And PBMs (In Vivo)
Big Med’s Spread (Milbank Quarterly, forthcoming)
2022 Books
The Healthcare Value Chain: Demystifying the Roles of GPOs and PBMs
Seemed Like a Good Idea: Alchemy versus Evidence-Based Approaches to Healthcare Management Innovation. Edited by Mark Pauly, David Asch, Lawton R. Burns, et al
2021 Books
The U.S. Healthcare Ecosystem: Payers, Providers, Producers
Big Med: Megaproviders and the High Cost of Healthcare in America (with David Dranove)
2020 Books
The Business of Healthcare Innovation – 3rd Edition
2014-2018 Books
Managing Discovery: Harnessing Creativity to Drive Biomedical Innovation. Edited by Philip Rea, Mark V. Pauly, and Lawton R. Burns
China's Healthcare System and Reform. Edited by Lawton Robert Burns and Gordon G. Liu
New Article about the Chinese Healthcare book:
Inside China's Health Care Reform Effort
Wharton Professor's Book Takes a Deep Dive in a Very Complicated Market
http://ldi.upenn.edu/news/inside-chinas-health-care-reform-effort
Interview with Knowledge at Wharton
The Iron Triangle and China’s Health Care Dilemma, March 16, 2017
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/chinas-health-care-dilemma/
Book Review
Reviewed by Howard A. Doughty