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Alumni

How a Network of Nonprofits and a Habit of Generosity Powers the U.S. Blood Supply

Curt Bailey ’99, CEO of Bloodworks Northwest, explains how the generosity of blood donors enables a uniquely American model for managing a crucial corner of healthcare.

A blood donation center
  • How can we fund innovation?

    In searching for opportunities to invest in healthcare, venture capitalists must consider not only which new technologies and ideas are likely to develop into successful businesses, but which are poised to transform medicine — and which can make a difference in people’s lives.

  • What is the return on a life saved?

    Ed Kaplan and David Paltiel have known each other for 20 years, sometimes collaborating on research projects or coauthoring papers. They argue that when the tools of a business education are applied to the problems of healthcare, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the result can be better decisions about how to use scarce resources.

  • Eliminating medical errors

    Michael Apkon is using techniques from manufacturing to improve the efficiency and safety of medication delivery at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and he’s finding some solutions can be very simple.

  • Making healthcare accountable

    Sostena Romano sees herself as responsible for producing results for both stakeholders and shareholders in the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS initiative.

  • Would you rather be treated as a patient or a customer?

  • How do you face the unknown?

    Nature abhors a vacuum. Air invades emptiness. Water floods open space. What happens when a wall is breached and markets are allowed to enter countries where they’d previously been banned? In the 1990s, Rosemary Ripley participated in the infusion of private enterprise into former command economies.

  • What moves markets?

    Markets bend to forces on the immense scale of macroeconomics. But they’re also nudged, poked, and even redirected by the individuals who work in them. In a 20-plus-year career, Teresa Barger has hit nearly every financial sector and every continent.

  • How do markets work in your industry?

  • Can markets help the poor?

    A loan might allow you to buy a bike to commute to a new job or to nurse your business through an unexpected setback. But billions of people around the world have little or no access to financial markets. Microfinance is one potential solution to this dilemma.

  • What is trust worth?

    Steve LaVoie founded Arrowstream to improve supply-chain management in the restaurant business. He discovered that the benefits of trust in markets have been overlooked, in part because of an overemphasis on individual actors as opposed to relationships. He also learned that building and maintaining trust is hard work.