Wellinformed Health Care is a diversified health and wellbeing brand, offering a range of web properties, information and wellness services.

We are pleased to talk to you about Vital Step, our Employee Wellbeing Enhancement Program for Employers

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According to a definition by the World Health Organization, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
 
This definition was first established by the WHO in 1948. It has not been changed since as it is still very relevant.

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Wikipedia's entry for Workplace Wellness states
"The workplace wellness program is offered by some employers as a combination of educational, organizational, and environmental activities designed to support behavior conducive to the health of employees in a business and their families. It consists of health education, screening, and interventions designed to change employees' behavior in order to achieve better health and reduce the associated health risks.
 
While the stated goal of workplace wellness programs is to improve employee health, many U.S. employers have turned to them to help alleviate the impact of enormous increases in health insurance premiums[1] experienced over the last decade. Some employers have also begun varying the amount paid by their employees for health insurance based on participation in these programs[2]."
 
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Our Founder & President, Nimish R Parekh has defined the Vital Step program as
"A program that consistently engages employees in an actionable dialogue on relevant health and wellness themes, urging them to take positive steps to improve their health."
 
I will describe the program in much more detail over the next several slides.
 
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We designed the program based on 3 tenets
Constant and consistent communication
Extreme relevance to our audience, your employees
Solutions that are simple and easy to implement

Employee engagement is possible through constant and consistent communication across a multiplicty of media

Live lectures on site
Demonstrations and workshops
Dynamic video libary (for large employers)
Web portal
Vital Step micro site
Email newsletters
Online assessment tools
On site interventions
Giveaways

Capture the employee's attention and imagination by discussing topics of relevance is essential.
Without this, we would effectively be spamming the employee and would lose her interest very quickly!
We have an array of topics that we cover, that are relevant to today's employee.
 
Description of the Calendar and Topics on next slide

Our goal is to make the user experience as simple as possible.
Each communication property is designed with the employee in mind and should give the employee access to information in the simplest possible manner
The multiplicity of media also ensures that employees can access the information in the format that they enjoy most.
 
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Monthly themes form the foundation of the program. 
Communication, across multiple media, follow the thematic flow.
Websites, email newsletters, lectures, live demonstrations all follow the topic of the month.
 Some of the topics we cover are (read only a few...not all!)
Infertility
Skin Care
Weight Loss
Back pain
Stress Management
maternity & Infant care
Cosmetic surgery
Relationships
Managing Health Care Emergencies
Diabetes and its Management
Managing High Blood Pressure
Ergonomics
Yoga
Ayurveda Homeopathy
Healthy Eating
Fitness and Exercise
Women's Health
Sexual Health

We offer employees access to two websites:
The Vital Step micro site
The Wellinformed Health Portal
 
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Here's a screenshot of the Vital Step micro site home page. 
Since September is "Healthy Eating" month, the site features the first issue of "Healthy Eating".
This home page and underlying content will track with the monthly themes

The site offers short and helpful information in a catchy, contemporary style that would be appealing to most of your employees
Healthy Eating covers recipes, food facts, tips on cooking, celebrity and other short useful information
The colors and style are designed to attract your employees' attention
Every topic will be covered with a similar approach
Content is dynamic and spread over 1-2 episodes per month
An email newsletter, with links to the site is sent out with every episode and at least twice a month to your employee's mailbox
The newsletter is rich with graphics and vibrant with color to engage your employee
We hope to have interactive Web 2.0 functionality in the micro site over the next 90 days

Your employees also have access to the Wellinformed Health Portal
This comprehensive health portal will provide your employees with access to
Detailed health information from credible authors such as the Mayo Clinic and Reuters Health
Detailed information on medical providers such as doctors, hospitals, diagnostic centers
A monthly health magazine
...And the ability to avail deep discounts on diagnostic tests online!
The portal is secured by Thawte
Wellinformed subscribes to HIPAA and the architecture is developed using the highly secure HL7 data architecture standards

Live lectures conducted by local experts on the theme of the month conducted at your location
Demonstrations, workshops, clinics commensurate with the monthly theme are also conducted on site
Typically an hour for each lecture or demo, the format is designed to engage your employees as well
Many events provide free giveaways to your employees
We can also arrange celebrity lectures and demos when required
e.g. Sanjeev Kapoor for cooking or Nawaz Modi for fitness

Using the different media and applying contemporary styling to the tonality and visual nature of our communications, we hope that we will be able to engage your employees to begin to think about health care in a proactive and positive light
We believe that if we are able to achieve excellence in engagement with your employees, their ability to adopt healthier lifestyles and behaviors supporting good health will be that much easier for you.

The Wellinformed Wellbeing Assessment Tool is designed to help each of your employees to measure the state of their general health and wellbeing
The 20 minute questionnaire can be administered online and filled in securely and confidentially by each employee.
The questionnaire is designed specifically to take into account the Indian diaspora
Environmental factors that are typical of India have been taken into account
Also, the Indian predisposition to diabetes and hypertension have also been factored into the scoring engine
This is the first of its kind for India and provides a significantly more accurate representation of risk for Indians than most other Health Risk Assessment programs.
The Assessment is completed at the end of the questionnnaire and a confidential report is generated (as a PDF file) and sent to the employee's email ID.
Its important to note that no user identifiable health information is available to us or you, the employer

The individual report, given to each respondent at the end of the questionnaire.
The report contains multiple sections and is individualized to provide specific actionable recommendations to each employee. 
The report compliments the employee on behavior that is supportive of good health and provides recommendations for behaviors that are unhealthy.
The report covers areas such as
General health
Safety
Environmental factors
Habits
Past history
Family history
Mental health
Willingness to change
The report is most accurate if respondents are armed with some basic information related to lipid profile such as cholesterol and blood sugar

A summary report, that aggregates all the individual employee health data, is provided to you, the employer
The summary report is designed to help you develop or modify your health strategy to mitigate the maximum number of long term health risks
The summary report also provides invaluable information such as
Risk Categorization - a list of areas of risk and the number of employees that fall into each
Readiness to Change - how many of your high risk employees are willing to change their behavior and support reduction in risks 
Our health care consultant/s will work with you to better understand the report and help you strategize for the future

Pre assessment blood testing can be arranged for your employees on site at your office locations.
The Wellbeing Assessment tool provides a higher level of accuracy when certain blood parameters like cholesterol and blood sugar are provided
Of course, if respondents do not have the necessary parameters, they may still continue to do the assessment

Wellinformed has developed a series of lifestyle management and disease management programs to help your employees reduce their risk for catastrophic illness and to better manage existing ailments
Our lifestyle management programs currently cover
Weight management
Smoking cessation
Stress Management
Our disease management programs are currently available for
Diabetes (Type II)
Hypertension
Your employees can individually purchase these programs directly from us based on recommendations from the Wellbeing Assessment report and their physician
As an employer, you may choose to provide an incentive for individuals to participate in these programs
We can help you design the right incentive program to ensure maximum participation

57% of Indian men and 11% of Indian women use some form of tobacco (NFHS-3)
32.7% of men and 1.4% of women between the age of 15-49 smoke cigarettes or bidis
Percentage of men (15-49) who smoke cigarettes in select states
32% in AP 
28% in Karnataka 
40% in Haryana, 
27% in Delhi
18% in Maharashtra
Tobacco related deaths are a well known fact and their impact on chronic ailments like heart disease are commonly understood.
Wellinformed's Stub-It Pfizer program offers a 6 month solution to this problem, using Pfizer's revolutionary new drug, Champix.

Stress is a growing cause for concern for most employers.
Often, stress leads to increased absenteeism and presenteeism and sometimes to more severe consequences in the form of chronic diseases such as hypertension.
The productivity losses associated with stress related disorders is significant
Employers are also recognizing that even their youngest employees, are beginning to show symptoms of the high stress working culture in India.
Wellinformed's Stress Management program called Mind It, is the most appropriate solution to identifying and then bringing in sustainable stress management workshops for your employees.

Diabetes is reaching epidemic status in our country.
Estimated at approx. 35 million people in 2000, the WHO estimates that there will be 100 million diabetics in India by the year 2020
The National Family Health Survey 2005-06 estimated that 
almost 3% of men and between ages 15-49 had diabetes
The long term impact of untreated diabetes is severe and can lead to significant hardship and expense
Wellinformed's Diabetes Check, diabetes management program is available in 3 variants
Ranging from a 52-week program to two 26-week programs, Diabetes Check provides Type II diabetics with a consistent ability to manage their diabetes and reduce the risk of complications

Hypertension is now prevalent among men aged between 30 and 40 years, many of whom don't even realise they have it
Obesity exacerbates the condition even further
High sodium intake and lack of exercise tend to take this condition to its limit
Wellinformed's Cardiac Response program for Hypertension is the ideal solution for people with diagnosed hypertension
The program brings in a regimen of diet, exercise and emotional counseling to help hypertensive employees to begin to manage this condition better.

Only 57% of men and 52% of women are at ideal weight, as per the National Family Health Survey 2005-06 (NFHS-3)
According to the survey report, Obesity...is a substantial problem among women in India.
Particularly urban, well-educated women from households with a high standard of living, and among Sikhs. 
Fifteen percent of ever-married women are
overweight or obese. 
Obesity is particularly prevalent for both men and women in Delhi, Kerala, and Punjab.
Obesity is known to play a significant role in the propagation of Type II Diabetes in India
Wellinformed's Lose It weight loss programs can be made available to your employees to help them lose weight effectively and maintain a more optimal body weight.

The health and well being journey can start right at your cafeteria
We can conduct a comprehensive review of your cafeteria menu, providing you with a complete evaluation of your cafeteria and its nutritional impact on your employees
The review even covers environmental factors such as food storage, hygeine, sourcing etc.
The deliverables for the review are:
comprehensive nutrition report
suggested menus
recommendations

The Vital Step program can play an important role in changing the culture of your organization to include health and well being as a way of life for all employees
The promotion of health ideals and behavior conducive to healthy living is the corner stone of the program
The approach we are taking is more intelligent than many wellness programs take due to our focus on relevancy to the employee and his state of mind
Our program is dynamic and we will continuously improve by bringing in new features and approaches based on our collective observations and regular feedback from engaged employees!
We look forward to the opportunity to create a healthier future for your organization!

Prior to closing the presentation, I would like to start the Q&A session with a few questions that employers commonly ask
We can open up for live Q & A after these few questions

Health positive behavior is a cultural issue
Your corporate culture can help in setting the right tone for all employees, regardless of their age and longevity in the organization
Our goal with Vital Step, is to help you create and propagate a culture of healthy living and health positive behavior
The investment that you make is not so much a tactical iniative as it is setting up the medium-to-long term objectives of reduced health risk in your employee population
Once the culture has set in, it can even be an effective retention mechanism for an organization as the employees' who perceive value from it will tend to stay with longer with the organization

Employees today are inundated with information of every type and across a variety of media
The Vital Step program's 3 tenets
Communication
Relevance
Simplicity
provide the right foundation to ensure that your employees are engaged and able to receive the information in the manner that they find most conducive to their mindsets
The Vital Step micro site carries articles that are colorful, short, simple and engaging
The email newsletters that are sent out at least twice a month, provide colorful and easy links to the articles on the micro site so they can simply click on an article of their choosing and be able to read it in seconds.
The Wellinformed Portal ensures that your employees have access to information quickly and at the time that they most need it, as well as provide a financial incentive in the purchase of services at a discount
We have also designed the lectures and demonstrations to be short yet engaging rather than school-like
Giveaways at many of the live events will also ensure that employees have a small incentive to attend.

Employees today are inundated with information of every type and across a variety of media
The Vital Step program's 3 tenets
Communication
Relevance
Simplicity
provide the right foundation to ensure that your employees are engaged and able to receive the information in the manner that they find most conducive to their mindsets
The Vital Step micro site carries articles that are colorful, short, simple and engaging
The email newsletters that are sent out at least twice a month, provide colorful and easy links to the articles on the micro site so they can simply click on an article of their choosing and be able to read it in seconds.
The Wellinformed Portal ensures that your employees have access to information quickly and at the time that they most need it, as well as provide a financial incentive in the purchase of services at a discount
We have also designed the lectures and demonstrations to be short yet engaging rather than school-like
Giveaways at many of the live events will also ensure that employees have a small incentive to attend.

For little more than a part of your employee entertainment budget, Vital Step is designed to cost the organization as little as possible
There are two versions of the program:
Employers with less than 5000 employees and 5 locations
Large Employers with more than 5000 employees and/or more than 5 locations
Both programs are designed to cost the organization as little as possible and is often less expensive than the sundry/welfare expenditure for employees
Most of our risk mitigation programs are set up as individual purchase programs for puchase by employees directly
You may, of course, choose to provide a financial incentive to employees by paying partially or fully for these programs but you are not required to.

Health insurance is an essential part of an employer's benefits program
It is most relevant, however, once an illness has already set in.
Wellbeing programs are primarily focussed on the reduction of long-term health risk
Wellbeing programs can play a significant role in reduction of your long-term health care costs and therefore your health insurance premium

Thank you very much for your attention.
I would like to open the live Q&A session now.