Dive Brief:
- Heart-related disease has an undeniable impact in the U.S., as 85 million Americans suffer from its effects. But there will soon be an "app for that," according to Human Resource Executive.
- The American Heart Association (AHA), IBM Watson Health and Welltok Inc. are combining the AHA's science-based metrics and ongoing health assessments with IBM Watson's computing power to improve worker cardiovascular health, HRE reports.
- Those two entities will utilize a "health optimization platform" from Welltok to create the app, which hopes to boost cardio disease prevention by taking a big data approach towards the daily health habits of employees.
Dive Insight:
By getting employees to use the new app, Kyu Rhee, the chief health officer of IBM Watson Health, told HRE the idea is to translate "big data into big insights so that the right people get the right information at the right time to make the right health decisions." The app will be introduced to the market in the second half of 2016.
It's too soon to tell if the idea will work. But Anja Weinberg of Thrive from Home, a wellness expert, told HRE that while the idea has potential, it could turn out to be just another tech-based workplace health solution that doesn't get long-term traction. It also carries the stigma, even if undeserved, of being an invasive solution.
"It sounds kind of great and it sounds kind of scary at the same time," she told HRE, noting that some employees, older workers in particular, are not keen on wearable tech and continuous monitoring.
On the privacy front, the Welltok platform is HIPAA-compliant and only involves anonymous, aggregate data, not an individual worker's information, according to the company.
