Verizon has been trialing WebMD’s digital health coaching tool on 1,100 of its employees, and the program turned a success, with 73 percent of (800) participants reporting a weight loss.
The pilot was open to employees who had a BMI over 30 or a blood glucose level above a certain threshold. It included one-on-one coaching over the phone and digital coaching via an app, which allowed employees to set goals and work toward them through various baby steps. And now that it demonstrated results, the program will be expanded to other Verizon employees, according to Employee Benefit News (EBN).
“We never do a one-and-done [program],” Audrietta Izlar, manager of global health and wellness at Verizon, told EBN. “We piloted this program with the intention of identifying those success markers so that we could expand it to the rest of the population. …The pilot for us was a success for WebMD to demonstrate the coaching philosophy as well as the supporting tools and experts that they brought to the table.”
Beyond weight management, Verizon may also be looking to expand the use of this sort of digital health program into other areas such as stress management and solutions for resilience.
[Via: mobihealthnews]