Elevating Whole Health: The Power of the Whole Health Index and HealthBegins
Health encompasses more than just what can be treated in a clinic. While this may seem self-evident, it hasn't always been recognized by the healthcare system. Elevance Health, driven by our purpose to improve the health of humanity, adopts a comprehensive approach that considers all aspects of well-being.
Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, Elevance Health chief health officer, and Monica Schmude, Virginia commercial health plan president, recently discussed two new efforts that help bring our whole-health approach to life. Knowing that 80% of health stems from factors outside a traditional healthcare setting, Elevance Health’s Whole Health Index (WHI) uses more than 90 data points in the categories of physical, behavioral, and social health to assess the whole health of a person or community of people. The WHI identifies the pain points, and the Social Needs Investment Lab highlights what may work best to alleviate them. For example, the WHI might find a community experiences food insecurity, diabetes, and loneliness. The Social Needs Investment Lab then shows what interventions may work best to address these factors.
The Whole Health Index
Created by Elevance Health physicians, data scientists, and researchers, the Whole Health Index is a first-of-its kind assessment of individual health. Using a scale of 0 to 100, the WHI can evaluate a person or group’s relative health over time and assess the physical, behavioral, and social factors that influence it.
“We knew we needed a way to measure whole health,” Agrawal said. “There hasn’t been a good measure out there to assess health this way until now.”
Agrawal stressed the importance of data: “Historically, we have collected a lot of data on physical health needs. We have to bring the same data and technology-driven approach to assessing people’s social and behavioral health to pull it all together.”
He said existing quality measures tend to break down health into systems and conditions. “We talk about the quality of cardiology care or the quality of diabetes care, but we are not looking at whole health in a quality framework. So we created this index that captures physical, behavioral and social health needs at an individual level.”
The Social Needs Investment Lab
Elevance Health and HealthBegins created the Social Needs Investment Lab partnership to supply evidence assessments that help healthcare systems, managed care plans, and community-based organizations apply insights that improve the health of the people and communities they serve through solutions that are personalized and improve affordability.
The lab will highlight the strengths of each assessment that can mitigate social, institutional, or structural causes of poorer health outcomes and health disparities. For example, sufficient evidence was found that engaging with community health workers increases the consumption of healthy foods, reduces caregiver stress, decreases food insecurity, and helps people connect with food benefit programs.
“It provides actionable insights to reduce gaps in care and advance health equity, and it is there for anyone in the public to access,” Agrawal said.
Widely Available Data
These are publicly available, non-proprietary tools and their insights can be helpful for a variety of organizations.
“From community medical centers, local nonprofits, and food banks, to care providers specializing in substance use disorder, maternal health, and food as medicine, we think this data could be helpful,” Agrawal said
Taking Action
In Virginia, employers and community organizations work together in partnership with Elevance Health to address the differences in health from one region to the next.
Monica Schmude, president of the Elevance Health-affiliated commercial plan in Virginia, said a coalition of public and private organizations in Shenandoah County have used the WHI data to address substance use disorder in children and adolescents with a $750,000 grant from the Elevance Health Foundation.
“The WHI helps us to work holistically with communities, and pair solutions one person at a time,” she said. “The work we did in Shenandoah county is an example of how we worked together with the local court system, the public schools, and nonprofits to help the community improve overall health through programs that support recovery.”
Agrawal noted that while the WHI provides the data, and the evidence from HealthBegins sheds light on different solutions, the power comes from the partnerships.
Watch the conversation now.
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