Author Description

The health assessment is the gateway to comprehensive population health management. More than 83 percent of companies say they're using a health assessment in 2008 to measure health status in employees, according to a recent survey conducted by Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health an 18 percent increase over 2007. The aggregate data gleaned from the health assessment provides a roadmap for employers and health plans to deliver health promotion and disease management interventions to targeted individuals with the goal of improving clinical and financial outcomes. In Health Assessments for Reduced Risk and Real ROI: Innovations, Interventions and Incentives, industry experts describe the rudiments of a well-executed health risk assessment (HRA) program one that is science-based, accompanied by an assessment of participant motivation and followed by a broad spectrum of health promotion and wellness programs. This 40-page report is based on contributions from Wes Alles, Ph.D., director of the Stanford University Prevention Research Center; Yann Meunier, M.D., health improvement manager, Stanford School of Medicine Health Improvement Program and Gary Smithson, M.D., M.B.A., WorldDoc. The experts at Stanford University the birthplace of the Stanford Health and Lifestyle Assessment (SHALA) examine current trends and business beliefs surrounding HRAs. Dr. Alles, whose 20-year research career has been focused on health promotion, preventive medicine and behavior modification, describes the evolution of HRAs. Stanford colleague Dr. Meunier, who applies Prevention Research Center findings to health promotion offerings for Stanford University employees, describes the motivation and change assessments that set the stage for an effective HRA program and proposes interventions to round out the HRA effort and generate real ROI. From WorldDoc, Dr. Smithson describes new sources of data inputs for HRAs from the realms of biometrics and telemedicine and the enhanced