NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the
first day of American Heart Month, the American Heart Association
(AHA) announced plans to develop a first of its kind workplace
health solution that leverages the cognitive computing power of IBM
Watson. In the first application of Watson to cardiovascular disease, AHA, IBM
(NYSE: IBM), and Welltok will create a new offering that combines
AHA's science-based metrics and health assessments with cognitive
analytics, delivered on Welltok's health optimization platform. The
effort is intended to help alleviate the burden of cardiovascular
diseases, which affect more than 85 million Americans today.
The program will help assess both the employer's workplace
health environment, as well as employee health based on AHA
metrics. Core to the offering is a new Workplace Health Achievement
Index, which AHA also launched today. The Index uses best practices
to measure and rank corporate health initiatives, assessing
companies on their workplace health culture. The Index is a result
of efforts by the AHA's CEO Roundtable, an organization of some of
America's largest employers dedicated to workplace health. They
have served as a learning laboratory to develop, test and refine
the Index. In the new offering being developed, Watson will uncover cognitive insights by
analyzing data from the Index to provide guidance on how an
employer can support employee health, such as informing how
corporations design, tailor and deliver health benefits and health
promotion programs that maximize the health of the workforce.
Using Welltok's platform online or via mobile, an individual
employee could opt to complete AHA's My
Life Check questionnaire, which measures Life's Simple 7,
the key cardiovascular health indicators—not smoking, eating
healthy, being physically active, achieving and maintaining a
healthy weight, managing blood pressure, controlling cholesterol,
and reducing blood sugar. Welltok leverages consumer insights
gained from the questionnaire and data collected via wearable
fitness trackers, wireless-enabled scales and blood pressure cuffs
to provide personalized recommendations to help the individual make
healthy choices that could reduce their risk of cardiovascular
disease.
"With Life's Simple 7 and the Workplace Health Achievement
Index, we've presented a science-based blueprint for healthy living
and corporate well-being," said Eduardo
Sanchez, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer for Prevention,
American Heart Association. "With this program, individuals and
their employers will be able to benefit from a personalized,
cognitive solution designed to help improve heart health and reduce
healthcare costs. Our hope is that we can set a new standard for
continuous quality improvement in workplace health."
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is a member
of the AHA CEO Roundtable and IBM will integrate the offering into
the company's employee wellness strategy. The offering will tap
Watson's natural language
processing, deep question and answer capability and similarity
analytics, and Watson will be
trained on evidence-based heart health goals and measures in order
to recommend specific ways employers can create heart healthy
environments and engage with their employees.
"The new era of cognitive computing has the potential to help
transform personal health and well-being, and that's why we are
eager to see this offering in action to support the health and
wellness of the workforce," said Kyu
Rhee, MD, MPP, Chief Health Officer, IBM Watson Health.
"This is the first time Watson is
taking on heart health, and we look forward to working with more
members of the AHA CEO Roundtable who serve as models for best in
class corporate heart health initiatives."
The global burden of heart disease threatens a multinational
workforce, accounting for 1 in 3 deaths and more than $312.6 billion in annual health spending and lost
productivity. Poor diet, lack of regular physical activity and
other major risk factors for heart disease and stroke are
responsible for at least 25 percent of employers' healthcare
costs.
A new study by AHA and Nielsen found that employees who feel
encouraged by senior leadership to participate in workplace health
programs are approximately twice as likely to eat healthy, and 69
percent report that workplace health initiatives have a strong
impact on job satisfaction.
AHA research has shown that attaining a high Life's Simple 7
score can help reduce risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer and
many other health problems. People who reach ideal health for all
seven metrics ("ideal cardiovascular health") by age 50 may have
significantly lower lifetime risk of heart disease and stroke.
"By putting this innovative program in the hands of consumers,
we are guiding them at a personal level to maintain, and even
improve their health status," said Jeff
Margolis, chairman and CEO of Welltok. "We look forward to
working with IBM and AHA, as well as the nation's largest
employers, to optimize the health of employees across the U.S. and
proactively address the human and financial toll of heart
disease."
Welltok provides a HIPAA-compliant platform that allows
employees to participate in health-related activities while
protecting their privacy. Data from the Workplace Health
Achievement Index and the application for Life's Simple 7 will be
de-identified and stored in the Watson Health Cloud.
For more information on the AHA's continuous quality improvement
in the workplace and many additional resources, visit
www.heart.org/workplacehealth.
Media Contacts:
American Heart Association: Jennifer
Pratt, (716) 432-3307, Jennifer.pratt@heart.org
IBM Watson Health: Christine
Douglass, (415) 535-4479, cgdouglass@us.ibm.com
Welltok: Erica Morgenstern, (720)
390-6373, erica.morgenstern@welltok.com
About the AHA's CEO Roundtable
Americans
overestimate their own health, and this puts them at greater risk
for heart disease and other serious illness. Right now, the U.S.
spends more on health care than any other country, yet we are not a
healthy nation. Prevention is important to changing this dynamic.
America's employers can help. That's why 26 CEOs from some of
America's largest corporations and organizations have formed the
CEO Roundtable, dedicated to creating a workplace culture in which
healthy choices are the default choices.
The AHA's CEO Roundtable members include co-chairmen
Henry Kravis, KKR, and Terry Lundgren, Macy's, Inc.; and Nancy Brown, American Heart Association;
Mitch Barns, Nielsen; Bruce Broussard, Humana; David Calhoun, Blackstone; Cathy Engelbert, Deloitte LLP; Eric J. Foss, Aramark; Ken Frazier, Merck; James P. Gorman, Morgan Stanley; Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson; Milton Johnson, HCA; Andrew Liveris, The Dow Chemical Company;
Mike Mahoney, Boston Scientific;
Larry Merlo, CVS Health;
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America;
George Paz, Express Scripts;
Stefano Pessina, Walgreens Boots
Alliance; Ginni Rometty, IBM;
Horacio D. Rozanski, Booz Allen Hamilton; Pietro Satriano, US Foods; Randall Stephenson, AT&T; Bernard J. Tyson, Kaiser Permanente;
Al Walker, Anadarko; David West, Big Heart Pet Brands; and
Eric C. Wiseman, VF Corporation.
About the American Heart Association
The American
Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease
and stroke – America's No. 1 and No. 5 killers. We team
with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for
stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and
information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's
oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting
heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call
1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our
offices around the country. Follow us
on Facebook and Twitter.
About IBM Watson Health
Watson is the first commercially available
cognitive computing capability representing a new era in computing.
The system, delivered through the cloud, analyzes high volumes of
data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and
proposes evidence-based answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value
and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. In
April 2015, the company launched IBM
Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. The new unit
will help improve the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers
to innovate by surfacing insights from the massive amount of
personal health data being created and shared daily. The Watson
Health Cloud allows this information to be de-identified, shared
and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing aggregated view
of clinical, research and social health data. For more information
on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson. For more information on IBM
Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth.
Check out the IBM Watson press kit at:
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss. Join the
conversation at #ibmwatson and #watsonhealth. Follow Watson on
Facebook and see Watson on YouTube
and Flickr.
About Welltok
Welltok Inc., developer of the
healthcare industry's first consumer enterprise platform, is
transforming the way population health managers guide and
incentivize consumers to optimize their health. The CaféWell Health
Optimization Platform organizes the growing spectrum of health
improvement and condition management resources, obtains
unparalleled consumer insights through advanced analytics, and
leverages cognitive computing to create personalized, adaptive
health itineraries. Health plans and other sponsors now have an
efficient and effective way to engage, activate and reward
consumers, which drives greater healthcare value across all types
of populations, from kids to seniors.
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SOURCE IBM