Dow-Corning, General Mills, Intel, Lucent Technologies and Texas Instruments among first that will deploy the service
ROCHESTER, MINN. -- Mayo Clinic HealthQuest announced today that its new online program has begun service and will provide employees at companies throughout the U.S., with a daily updated health information resource. Mayo Clinic HealthQuest is a corporate health promotion program designed to increase the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs.
Among the first companies to deploy this new service will be Dow-Corning, General Mills, Intel, Lucent Technologies and Texas Instruments.
"We anticipate that Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online will be an effective means to re-engineer the delivery of health promotion services to our employees," says Marti Maxwell, manager, Health Promotion, Dow-Corning. "It will provide 24-hour access to health information and provide consistency in our wellness programs at multiple sites."
"A major component of our corporate health strategy is to provide our employees with the absolute best in health and wellness information. Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online is vital to this strategy and will allow us to demonstrate our deep commitment to help employees optimize their mental and physical health," says Lawrence G. Shoner, M.D., Health Services vice president, Lucent Technologies.
The value of Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online for employers comes from five unique components: health-risk assessment tools, behavior change and disease management programs, self-care, and wellness and prevention.
The Web site's behavioral change component includes interactive programs that educate and empower people to make healthy lifestyle changes. Through these interactive modules, users learn what their health risks are and what to do about those risks.
The health risk assessment includes a "Personal Health Scorecard" which helps individuals identify areas of health risk and provides immediate feedback, direction and scores to track their progress in making lifestyle changes. This assessment tool includes a series of questions about a person's lifestyle, which takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online analyzes the answers and confidentially identifies the user's greatest health risks. It also directs the user to more information about these risks on the site.
Users can then work toward reducing these health risks through behavior change. "Healthy Lifestyle Planners" help individuals with lifestyle changes such as weight control, exercise, stress management and nutrition. Each program lets users assess their readiness for change, set goals, and receive personalized feedback and direction on achieving better health and tracking their progress.
The site also contains another group of behavior change programs called "Disease Management Planners," which help people with chronic conditions such as asthma, headaches, back pain and depression better understand and manage their illness. Each planner contains assessments, goal-setting tools, and logs to track progress.
Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online offers tracking and measurement capabilities to provide insight and results. This client report includes real-time reports that summarize health risks among their users of the site such as the percentage of those who smoke, according to the aggregate statistics compiled from the interactive programs on the site. These reports also reveal how well employees are progressing toward lifestyle changes and health goals. In addition, the reports indicate if users with specific illnesses such as asthma or headaches are better managing their conditions and if they have a better understanding of their illness. This client report also shows employee usage of the site.
Employees may personalize Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online so that they receive information of most interest to them, such as their personal health scorecard, progress toward health goals and new articles on topics they select.
Besides behavior change and disease management, Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Online also provides companies with a "Company Health News" section with information that pertains to their own organization's employee health benefits and wellness programs. The site is updated daily and also covers psychosocial issues that affect health such as how to handle a sick child when you have a demanding job, how to be a better listener and how to prepare nutritious and tasty meals in a hurry.
"More and more people are turning to their PC for information and answers," says Dr. Phil Hagen, medical director of Mayo Clinic HealthQuest. "Visionary companies are recognizing both the importance of being proactive in helping their employees better manage their health and the tremendous potential that online services have for accomplishing their health and productivity goals."
The Mayo Clinic HealthQuest program began in mid-1997 with a monthly employee wellness newsletter and a soft-cover book, Mayo Clinic HealthQuest Guide to Self-Care. It also offers Mayo Clinic Health Connection nurseline, a 24-hour telephone service providing answers to individual concerns and questions from Mayo Clinic's registered nurses.
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Contact: Suzanne Leaf-Brock 507-284-1114 (days) 507-284-2511 (evenings) [email protected]
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