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Senior Advisor, Founder, and former CEO
Management Sciences for Health
Cambridge, Mass.
Ron O’Connor's life changed profoundly after his first year in medical school, when he visited Nepal. There he met Dr. Noboru Iwamura, a Hiroshima survivor, who was delivering health care in remote areas while helping communities take that responsibility into their own hands.
As O’Connor completed his medical education, he spent more time in Asia, concentrating on issues of reproductive health, population, and family planning.
The outcome of this experience was Management Sciences for Health, a private nonprofit educational and scientific organization that has worked with leaders and communities in more than 140 countries to solve pressing health problems and gain self-sufficiency.
After more than three decades leading the organization, which now has a staff of 1,200, O’Connor transitioned from CEO to an advisory role during 2004.
While working at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control after becoming a doctor, O’Connor realized that the leverage for health impact resided in public health rather than clinical care.
As public health schools at the time were not addressing management issues intensively, he began to look at business programs. He liked the attitude at MIT Sloan and enrolled as an MIT Sloan Fellow — one of the first three physicians, all in his class, to do so.
“There's a balanced humanity at MIT Sloan, an open atmosphere, and a genuine interest in the problems of others. There was no education that could have made more sense for me,” he says.
Not only did O’Connor gain management skills at MIT Sloan, he literally started Management Sciences for Health (MSH) there. In 1971, when O’Connor graduated from MIT Sloan, MIT Sloan Dean Emeritus William Pounds arranged temporary office space for MSH, and O’Connor worked part–time as a research associate for Professor Glen Urban, who was then studying family planning services.
The MIT Sloan–MSH bond continues today; Pounds chairs MSH's board, which also includes Senior Associate Dean Alan White, and Sloanies are well represented on the staff.
Much of MSH's initial work was in Afghanistan, working with that country's Ministry of Health to bring what O’Connor calls the world's experience” to village life. For example, MSH trained local midwives to recognize high–risk problems in mothers and babies. Decades later, after the virtual destruction of the state–run health system, these same midwives are still providing front–line services.
“The most exciting thing is seeing illiterate women become energized and valued and make a difference as a community helps itself,” says O’Connor. “In Afghanistan and elsewhere, the most useful work often responds to the concerns and ideas of local people.”
He points out that the structure of MSH has evolved out of those experiences. One example is the organization's Center for Pharmaceutical Management, which helps improve access to essential medicines and medical products.
Reflecting on MSH's nearly 35 years of work, O’Connor notes that the organization has met a very specific purpose by filling the gap between what is known about solving important public health challenges and what is actually applied at the community level.
The greatest tragedies are the unnecessary ones, where the knowledge and resources exist, but are not organized and delivered. Over time, MSH will need to adapt to new needs and new geopolitical realities, he says. O’Connor now is helping to lay the groundwork for that process.
© 2009 MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT