Massively Better Healthcare by Halle Tecco

MASSIVELY BETTER HEALTHCARE by Halle Tecco is self-described as “The Innovator's Guide to Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges.” Tecco, the founder of the venture fund Rock Health and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, has been a healthcare innovator herself, supporting and investing in numerous digital health companies. Her text is well-written and accessible and delivered in a logical manner. She begins with a section that describes US Healthcare, its costs and availability relative to other countries around the world, as well as describing the numerous stakeholders. This provides a strong basis for subsequent sections which deal with pathways to innovation and a checklist for evaluating new opportunities, and the four big lessons (“Work from the inside out, not the outside in; Align the margin and the mission; Be a good steward of health data; and Invest in evidence”) that she has learned from others in the field. Throughout, Tecco provides facts (“If the US healthcare system were a country, it would be the fourth-largest economy in the world.”), her own experiences (pricing for a prescription dermatological cream that went from $275 to $25 thanks to a pharmacist’s intervention), and tons of case studies (see graphic here).  Although MASSIVELY BETTER HEALTHCARE focuses on a particular sector, much of her framework could apply to innovators in other businesses.