Grossman Combined Medicine and Policy

The Harvard community, and the Boston healthcare community, lost an energetic leader April 1 with the death of Dr. Jerome Grossman.

Grossman—remembered in a Boston Globe obituary last weekend—directed the healthcare-delivery policy program at the Harvard Kennedy School, taught at the Tufts University School of Medicine, and was CEO of New England Medical Center (now known as Tufts Medical Center). His books included the forthcoming The Innovator’s Prescription, co-written with Clayton M. Christensen, Cizik professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and Jason Hwang, M.B.A. ’06.

Grossman’s colleagues said he was particularly adept at reconciling medical knowledge and policy concerns. And, Gordon Vineyard, M.D. ’63, told the Globe, Grossman “had more ideas and a clearer thought process than anyone I ever encountered.” Of talking with Grossman, he said, “The ideas came out so fast. Sometimes you’d like to go to the water fountain and have a sip. This was a fire hose.”