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Chronic Disease Prevention And Health Promotion

The profile of diseases contributing most heavily to death, illness, and disability among Americans changed dramatically during the last century. Today, chronic diseases—such as cardiovascular disease (primarily heart disease and stroke), cancer, and diabetes—are among the most prevalent, costly, and preventable of all health problems. Seven of every 10 Americans who die each year, or more than 1.7 million people, die of a chronic disease. The prolonged course of illness and disability from such chronic diseases as diabetes and arthritis results in extended pain and suffering and decreased quality of life for millions of Americans. Chronic, disabling conditions cause major limitations in activity for more than one of every 10 Americans, or 25 million people.

Our Business Model

Business Model

What is the problem?

Although the U.S. spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, its citizens are not the healthiest. The World Health Organization’s comparative analysis of the health of the world’s nations ranks the U.S. in the bottom quartile in all of the internationally accepted and recognized measures of population health. Additionally, health care spending is becoming an increasing burden on the U.S. economy even though it is estimated that almost 80% of all health care costs are the product of preventable illnesses. Total health care spending jumped 230% from $696 billion in 1990 to nearly

$2.3 trillion in 2006. It is estimated that this number could reach $4.0 trillion or 20% of U.S. GDP by 2020. Similarly, our neighbors in Canada are suffering from an almost identical burden as a percentage of total health care expenditures.

However, the problem of escalating health care costs is largely preventable. Evidence based medicine has demonstrated that much of the chronic disease onset is preventable. Some 75%-80% of the monies spent on health care are allocated to treating – not curing or preventing – diseases that are largely preventable such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, and diabetes. Furthermore, The Centers for Disease Control have identified that eliminating poor nutrition, inactivity, and smoking can reduce the onset of CVD, CAD, stroke, and Type-2 diabetes by 80% and cancers by 40%. Such insight into to the prevention of common diseases has led to increased supply of health and wellness programs provided by employers or through insurance plans and increasing demand from plan participants.

A Business Model to Solve the Problem

There are approximately 200 million U.S. citizens covered by employer sponsored health insurance. Preventive Medicine intends to take advantage of the growing use of the Internet as an effective way to reach millions of families who make up the U.S. workforce and who are covered by the health insurance sector with special focus on the non-profit providers. Preventive Medicine plans to focus initially on the almost 200 million Americans that make up the private sector “covered” population. In addition, the entire population of Canada - comprised of approximately 33 million people - is covered by a national program which is administered and controlled at the provincial level of government. Of this total, nearly 160 million lives are

covered by the Top 50 carriers while 39 million of the 200 million are covered by 17 non-profit BlueCross BlueShield insurance carriers in their local markets.

Preventive Medicine will reach this market through employee benefit programs and the carriers and health care services sector companies that administer these programs in the U.S. and through relationships with the appropriate health care systems and provincial ministries in Canada. Preventive Medicine intends to utilize a combination of medical, lifestyle, behavioral, and information technology capabilities to deliver its services to the insured population through “private labeling” and wholesale distribution.

Unlike other health and wellness programs, Preventive Medicine focuses on true primary prevention of chronic disease and the risk factors that lead to these diseases. The unique approach of the Preventive Medicine – Allen Behavioral Change Model, supported by visual and graphic information technology and methodologies, provide a distinct competitive advantage. Preventive Medicine believes that the implementation of its technology will help correct unsustainable trends in health care spending, contribute to a healthier population, and improve on any existing solution in the marketplace today.

About Technology

Advances promoting and supporting human behavioral change and its application via the Internet are the key instruments to the delivery of individual and actionable prevention plans at a fraction of the cost of current programs. For this reason, Preventive Medicine spent literally scores of person years in its initial year of existence co-authoring its proprietary behavioral change model with Dr. Michael Allen. The proliferation of the Internet, broadband access gains in the U.S. (Canada already has 81% household broadband access), has created an unparalleled opportunity to bring technological innovation to the health care industry.

Key trends in technology that will drive the adoption of Preventive Medicine’s service model include:

An increased level of IT sophistication employed by carriers and other companies that administer these benefits will help facilitate the adoption of new programs
63% of adults and 81% of teenagers in the U.S. are online accessing the Internet for a variety of reasons, including a majority who use the Internet’s resources for health and medical purposes (Pew Internet and American Life Project)
40% increase in “at home” broadband penetration/adoption from 2006 to 2007; 140 million Americans now have high speed connectivity (Pew)
81% penetration of broadband in Canadian households
The development of e-learning technology and its successful application for performance enhancement across diverse sectors of the population

For Companies and Government

Marketing Strategy

Many health care plan managers have begun to tackle long-term health care and benefits costs by integrating health and wellness programs into the health benefit plans offered to their beneficiaries. Overall, 81% of companies in the U.S. with 50 or more employees now have some form of health promotion program. The Ontario government initiated province-wide health promotion programs for smoking cessation and “inactivity” in 2006. These programs are “passive” in nature and will be effective counterparts for Preventive Medicine’s “push” technology.

Emerging trends in health care programs within companies and governments include:

Adopting approaches to prevention and wellness
Using emerging technology, Intranets, and the Internet as a way of reaching large numbers of employees
Encouraging employees to take active roles in their health care with prevention as a focus and creating incentives to reinforce accountability
Emphasizing behavior change programs to support healthy lifestyles
Using assessment tools to identify employees who are “at risk”

For Consumers

Marketing Strategy

With more than 125 million Americans and 17 million Canadians suffering from chronic disease and conditions, a growing number of organizations and their employees are seeking innovative self-service solutions in the health care arena. However, consumer choices are limited and limiting. They often only have access to information member portals provided by their employers or insurance carriers. These are typically designed for disease management or at-risk individuals, which leaves little value for people outside these cohorts seeking to manage their health.

Increased awareness and demand for Preventive Medicine options among consumers is being driven by:

A well-established employer and government-funded and enabled employee health benefits marketplace.
A growing level of personal awareness as to the importance of individual and family health and well being.
An increasing body of medical science which affirms that the primary prevention of chronic disease development can be achieved through lifestyle change modalities.