Lawton R. Burns

About

Lawton R. Burns is the James Joo-Jin Kim Professor of Health Care Management and Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in sociology, an MBA in health administration, and an MA from the University of Chicago, and a BA from Haverford College. His research interests include formal organizations, health care management, hospital-physician relationships, integrated health care, physician networks, physician practice management firms, strategic change, and supply chain management. Dr. Burns has analyzed various sectors of the healthcare industry and has authored multiple books on healthcare systems, innovation, and organizational strategies, including works on the institutional supply chain, healthcare innovation, hospital consolidation, and the U.S. healthcare ecosystem. He has also contributed to understanding healthcare in India and China. As a faculty member at Wharton since 1994, he has served as Chairperson of the Health Care Systems Department and as Director of the Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics. His professional work includes consulting on pharmaceutical outsourcing, antitrust implications of provider organizations, and development of integrated delivery systems. Dr. Burns is recognized for his contributions to health services research and healthcare management education.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Business
• Economics
• Mathematics
• Law
• Public relations
• Statistics
• Knowledge management
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• Integrating network theory into the study of integrated healthcare

  Social Science & Medicine · 2021 · 60 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• The Healthcare Value Chain

  Springer eBooks · 2022 · 33 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• History and Health Policy in the United States

  Rutgers University Press eBooks · 2020 · 20 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  In our rapidly advancing scientific and technological world, many take great pride and comfort in believing that we are on the threshold of new ways of thinking, living, and understanding ourselves. But despite dramatic discoveries that appear in every way to herald the future, legacies still carry great weight. Even in swiftly developing fields such as health and medicine, most systems and policies embody a sequence of earlier ideas and preexisting patterns. In History and Health Policy in the…

  DOI

• Big Med's Spread

  Milbank Quarterly · 2023-03-29 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Policy Points Hospital executives posit a number of rationales for system mergers which lack any basis in academic evidence. Decades of academic research question whether system combinations confer public benefits. Antitrust authorities need to continue to closely scrutinize these transactions. Recently, mergers of hospital systems that span different geographic markets are on the rise. Economists have alerted policymakers about the potential impacts such cross‐market mergers may have on hospita…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• It's the Healthcare Production Function Dummy… (And Still the Prices Stupid)!

  Health Services Research · 2025-03-25 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  What is known on this topic Consolidation in health care markets has led to higher prices paid by consumers and increased market power by health systems, providers, and insurers. Price setting is an important policy tool used by the federal and state governments in Medicare, Medicaid, and in antitrust regulation, often based on benchmarks that are supposed to reflect costs and efficient production. What this study adds While healthcare transaction prices get significant attention, policy, and re…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HS009237

  NIH · $264k · 1998

Frequent coauthors

• Katherine Baicker

  81 shared

• James Joo

  University of Chicago

  81 shared

• Heidi Allen

  Stanford University

  81 shared

• Julia Adler‐Milstein

  University of California, San Francisco

  81 shared

• Michelle M. Mello

  Stanford University

  81 shared

• Jin Kim

  College of Saint Rose

  81 shared

• Jeffrey A. Alexander

  Mayo Clinic in Arizona

  46 shared

• Ronald Andersen

  33 shared

Awards & honors

• Board of Institute of Medicine, Health Services Research Sec…
• Arthur Anderson Distinguished Visitor, University of Cambrid…
• Teacher of the Year, Administrative Medicine Program, School…
• Edwin Crosby Memorial Fellowship, Hospital Research and Educ…
• Udall Fellowship, Udall Center for Public Policy (1990-91)

Similar researchers at University of Pennsylvania

• Andrew B. Abelh-60
• Raffi Amith-58
• Eric T Bradlowh-53