In collaboration with Dr. Christiani and HSPH’s Office for Resource Development, Dr. Kales has envisioned the development of a Productivity & Health Management (PHM) initiative housed within the OEMR. Dr. Sam Forman, HSPH Visiting Scientist and HSPH OEMR alumnus, was selected by our program to jumpstart the development of this new initiative. In 2011, Dr. Philip Parks HMS Instructor in Medicine and HSPH OEMR alumnus, was recruited to join Drs. Kales and Forman on the PHM leadership team. The unique career trajectories and skill sets in health-related business strategy, chronic disease management and clinical quality improvement of Drs. Forman and Parks bring added value to our traditional faculty bridging academic and corporate environments.
This program fits within the structure of the existing training agenda. It provides a forum for academics pursuing work within the field from HSPH, HMS, HBS and elsewhere in the University; companies, worker organizations, insurers, specialized service ventures, pharma, and authorities from other academic institutions. We envision teaching opportunities, directed research, and colloquia to bring academia and practice together.
Productivity and Health management seeks to maximize the health of the workforce and its dependents for the mutual benefit of employees and their employers. The emerging field recognizes the interrelation of employees’ health and well-being with employee satisfaction and an enterprise’s health care costs affected by all of the following: healthcare expenses, absenteeism, disability, turnover and productivity. Clinical as well as financial outcomes are of interest. PHM typically includes employees themselves as well as spouses, children, and others obtaining health insurance by way of employment status. Chronic illnesses such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes are approached by way of employment based health insurance benefits structures and targeted health interventions. Such interventions supplement traditional environmental health concerns caused or worsened by the working environment. Increasingly environmental health leaders are called on to lead and carry out such programs, or to synergize with those who do. Business leaders are vitally concerned with the costs and structure of health care benefits and programs.
We have achieved our initial goal by offering a two-day, world-class executive education program during 2010 featuring innovative content and the most promising approaches addressing Productivity and Health Management issues from the perspectives of both health outcomes and healthcare costs. Please see pages 6-9 of the OEMR SYNAPSE 2010 Annual Report to read more about the 2010 PHM conference. Click here for upcoming details and to register for our next international colloquium to be held September 27-28, 2012 on Sleep and Shift Work: Optimizing Productivity and Health Management in the 24/7 Global Economy.
