The Health Movement develops innovative systems to reward healthy choices – incentivising employers to support employees in leading healthier lifestyles, and incentivising organisations with an investment model to financially reward better health outcomes.

Origins

As Europe’s population ages, the burden on the healthcare system is increasing. Meanwhile, 80% of chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and 40% of all cancer, can be linked to unhealthy lifestyles, according to WHO. These diseases could be prevented or reverted with healthy lifestyle choices, but how do you encourage people to choose and sustain a healthy lifestyle? RISE and Partners set out to solve this problem.

Team

The team is spearheading the effort to pay for and consumerise better health outcomes with experts in outcomes design (RISE), business modelling (IESE), clinical trials and medicine (Karolinska), financial instruments (Stockholm County Country) and well-being (The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences). The team will also seek to spread their improvements to three other European locations: Rotterdam (The City of Rotterdam), Budapest (Semmelweis University) and Birmingham (WMAHSN).
The project

The Health Movement helps employees to choose and sustain lifestyle changes more easily by subscribing to a Health-as-a-Service platform called Health Integrator. The project is also developing a health outcomes contract (impact bond) model to commission services for better health outcomes. For the Health Integrator, RISE and partners created an ecosystem of evidence-based and personalised services around the individual by measuring well-being, preferences and the need to achieve lifestyle changes.

The lifestyle changes of individuals result in optimised financial return for the payers – including the employer, insurance companies and the public sector. The platform also improved employer attractiveness and citizens’ well-being. Using health economics analysis, the project proves the financial returns of the effort, in order to encourage payers and users to invest in the platform.

For the health outcomes contract, Stockholm County Council (SCC) and partners are innovating on the outcomes contract model, seeking to involve the regular investor market in a structured bond that pays for good health outcomes. The bond, which would return a percentage of healthcare savings realised to investors, would be a first in the financial markets, and would be much more scalable than other impact bonds. European partners probed and investigated regional dynamics for introducing a pay-for-outcomes model for a Health-as-a-Service type intervention.

Impact

The project promises to improve the health of individuals, and the financial situation of employers and payers.

Already specific outcomes of the Health-as-a-Service start-up are:

• a 99% retention rate in a randomised control trial;
• 50% better health outcomes indicated (confirmed by final analysis end of 2018).

Scalable impact investing with a structured bond for health outcomes is set to launch in the beginning of 2019.

Why this is an EIT Health project

This project is in keeping with EIT Health’s goals because it takes an innovative approach to managing healthcare on both a macro and micro level. The Health-as-a-Service start-up is in keeping with the EIT Health Focus Area of “Fostering Healthy Lives by Introducing Behavioural Change” and the structured bond is in keeping with the Focus Area of “Creating the Enabling Environment for Healthcare Transformation”.

External Partners

• The Swedish School of Sport and Health
• Prosper
• The City of Rotterdam
• Social Finance, Israel and UK