Award Applications

Optum My Wellbeing

HEALTHCARE COSTS ARE EXPLODING!
There is a sea change occurring in health care, driven by the inarguable fact that current health care models are unsustainable. Cost increases, growing complexity, regulatory uncertainty, and aging populations are among the factors that have undermined the old health care status quo.
Beneath the financial and regulatory challenges, however, is a larger issue that is the primary cause of a growing health care crisis worldwide. That is, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, many of which are largely preventable through lifestyle modification.
Statistics from health authorities bear this out. According to the World Health Organization 75 percent of chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, are caused by people’s poor lifestyle choices. Those poor choices include tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and harmful use of alcohol.
That’s why finding a way to encourage people to make better lifestyle choices, and to stick with them, is such an important part of any solution to the health care crisis. The question is, how to affect this change? What steps can be taken to encourage people to embrace and adhere to healthier lifestyles?
It is clear that data will be a critical part of any viable solution. New solutions will require more real-time information that can be used to generate accurate, resent assessments that in turn lend themselves to predictive analyses of future health outcomes. With analytics that show people where their health will be headed if they persist with their current lifestyle choice, some of them perhaps many of them, will be motivated to make positive changes.

IF WE CAN MEASURE HEALTH, WE CAN MANAGE IT!
That is what the Health Score delivers – data, information and insights delivered by a user-friendly and engaging system with a proactive orientation. It’s a new, universal personal health index that all industry participants can use as a foundation for positive change.
Our innovative new tool – the Optum My Wellbeing Health Score – leverages mobile and digital technologies and in-depth science to produce an assessment of an individual’s health. The Health Score is a multi-faceted evaluation rolled up into a single number that ranks a person’s health relative to that of the general population. The Health Score gives people an engaging tool for measuring their relative health. A big part of its value stems from its ability to help people determine whether their current lifestyles are making them more or less healthy.
The Health Score is more than just a number, however. Behind the number is a platform with easy and engaging ways for people to focus more on their health and to view their health as an asset, and to make better investment decisions, the Health Score helps guide them towards better health.
Fundamentally, the Health Score is based on who you are (body), how you feel (mind) and how you live (lifestyle). It is a scientifically calculated number from 1 (low) to 1,000 (high) and it moves up or down in real-time, depending on how your body, emotional wellbeing or lifestyle data changes. It is based on over 300 million person-years of clinical data.
The My Wellbeing app is available only to Optum My Wellbeing members and is intended for international members who live outside of the United States.

MY WELLBEING FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Dynamic health tracking with the Health Score
My Wellbeing scientifically calculates participants' Health Score based on current biometrics, mental well-being and lifestyle activities. Tracked over time, this score offers a directional indicator of how an individual's health and well-being is evolving.

Challenges and goal setting
Individuals can compete in a variety of activity challenges as individuals or in teams. These challenges can be open to all users or to specific groups such as corporations.
They can also participate in different social, nutrition or multi-level activity programs. Individuals can set their own personal goals or the digital health coach may invite them to join goal-specific programs.

Social interaction
Participants can friend each other and comment on activities and achievements of their friends, colleagues and/or family members. They can also share their own activities and achievements via networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Activity tracking
Individuals can track more than 115 indoor and outdoor activities through My Wellbeing. They can also connect directly to other third-party devices and tracking apps like smart watches, weight scales, activity trackers, heart rate bands and blood pressure monitors.

Digital health coaching
The automated coach understands each participant's health and personal goals and provides personalized lifestyle feedback. Participants get information, reminders and encouragement to keep them engaged and on target. Content includes:
• Notifications
• Reminders
• Tips
• Personalized lifestyle advice