Lawton Burns

Lawton R. Burns (born ca 1950) is an American business theorist, Professor of Management and the Chairperson of the Health Care Management Department of The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Burns received BA in sociology and anthropology in 1971 from Haverford College, his MA in sociology in 1976, his PhD in Sociology in 1981 and his MBA in Health Administration in 1984 all three from the University of Chicago.

Burns started his academic career at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago, and moved to the College of Business Administration of the University of Arizona. He was Visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin. Since 1994 he is chairman of the Health Care Systems Department of Wharton, and since 2008 James Joo-Jin Kim Professor. Since 1999 he is also director of the Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics.

In 1999, he received an Investigator Award in Health Research Policy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Outside of his duties as professor, he performs consulting and speaking engagements.

Burns is known for having analyzed the bankruptcy of the Allegheny Health Education & Research Foundation, which owned the first medical school ever to go bankrupt. He has testified to the Federal Trade Commission about clinical integration and served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission in its case against Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Medical Group.

Publications, a selection:

• 2002. The Health Care Value Chain: Producers, Purchasers, and Providers
• 2005. The Business of Healthcare Innovation
• 2006. History & Health Policy in the United States