Healthcare is one of the largest industries globally, with billions of dollars spent on treatments and associated research. There are typically significant interests at stake in related negotiations, which are made all the more complex by the presence of both public and private sector actors, many with extensive training and highly-valued skills. The fact that life and death is an issue in many health/medical/pharmacological negotiations makes the stakes even higher.

Role-play exercises available through the Clearinghouse reflect the breadth and depth of the important negotiations that take place in the healthcare sector. Medical malpractice and liability is a major issue. In Sue or Settle, two surgeons and their lawyers explore whether or not they can resolve who is more at fault in a liability suit they jointly lost, or if they must return to the courts. In the Texflex Products exercise, two pharmaceutical firms are at odds over the delivery of a necessary ingredient so meet in the presence of representatives from consumer groups. Healthcare-related disputes are not restricted to the hospital or research lab. In Drug Testing in the Workplace, a truck driver, personnel director and Employee Assistance Program Center representative meet to discuss what to do about a test the driver falsely failed. Medical disputes can extent quite deeply into people’s personal lives. In the DONS Negotiation, two former sexual partners and their lawyers negotiate because one knowingly infected the other with a deadly virus.

Part II of the Negotiation Pedagogy Video Series uses the Texflex Products exercise to illustrate the mutual gains approach to dealing with an angry public. The Renegotiating Health Care book outlines how negotiation and conflict resolution might be applied to the major challenges facing the sector.