Just as the medical home has morphed into the medical neighborhood, a new initiative seeks to take the concept of population health to the national and international levels.
Organizers of the World Wide Wellbeing group are holding a launch event April 30 at Georgetown University in Washington. Their goal is to create a “global movement for well-being” using tools such as the HeroX website, which combines crowdsourcing, competition and collaboration.
Corporations in the effort will leverage their products and services to support regional and national well-being, creating international for-profit and not-for-profit partnerships and developing sustainable funding strategies. The organizers want to measure the success of these efforts using the Gallup Global Wellbeing poll and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Better Life Index.
World Wide Wellbeing co-founder Jon Comola, CEO of the Wye River Group on Healthcare, said a focus on healthcare services alone has not been effective, and greater attention needs to be paid to people's overall wellbeing. Business and academic leaders have made a 14-month commitment to create the business structure, strategy and plan for the movement.
Other leaders include Chris McSwain, chief strategy officer for Aasonn, a provider of cloud-based programs for human resources and technology; Bill Novelli of Georgetown University's Global Social Enterprise Initiative; and Dr. Valentine Douala-Mouteng, CEO of the Pan African Business Coalition on HIV Health. Representatives from GE Healthcare, Healthways, Aetna and Pitney Bowes also are expected to attend.