Research Update

By, Bill Whitmer, MBA & Co-Founder of HERO

The HERO effort to be a leader in employee health management (EHM) research continues to flourish.  Since the last issue of the HERO On Health, two new research projects have been published or accepted for publication. Here is a synopsis of these two projects. 

Toward Employee Health Management Research Agenda.  What Are The Research Priorities?

This study is based on input from 34 HERO member EHM experts and thought leaders who met in August, 2010, to create a research agenda for the organization.  This all day meeting was devoted to several key questions:

Why are you here? 

What research is most important for your organization? 

And which of these projects should have the highest priority?

The top priority identified was to further study how to create a culture of health in employer organizations.

This study will be published in the Art of Health Promotion section of the America Journal of Health Promotion. 

A Review of the Knowledge Base On Healthy Work Culture

This study, which was funded by Kaiser Permanente, describes what we know, don’t know and need to know about creating a corporate culture of health. As noted above, at our gathering in 2010, this topic was identified as our top priority for research. As part of that effort, this study provides some of the information needed to help health management professionals become more knowledgeable about the characteristics of organizations that develop strong cultures of health. This study has been published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 

HERO Research Activities to Date

As we look forward at new HERO research activities, we need to revisit our objectives, which are to first define the industry and organizational needs, then conduct research that matches that need. We have begun this process through the study and publication of much-needed information.

The HERO research activities to date include three research studies published, two more accepted for future publication, one project ready for submission and two additional projects in design stage. That is a total of eight research projects undertaken in the last two years.

The HERO Research Partners Update

The last issue of the HERO On Health introduced the HERO Research Partners (HRP). Funding research can be challenging. Through HRP, we intend to develop a mechanism to increase the amount of funding available for research projects and spread the cost among several participating organizations. We are excited to announce that we are very near the launch of our first $100,000 HRP research project.  Our goal is to gain commitments from HERO Research Partners to share the cost of this research project. 

Following are the current HERO Research Partners Charter Members: 

· Alere

· Healthways

· HealthFitness

· Kaiser Permanente

· Prudential Financial

· StayWell Health Management

· University of Pittsburg Medical Center

· Plus One Health Management 

We need only three more Charter Members to get this ground-breaking project started.  We would like to add these new Charter Members within the next month. 

Interested participation or fundeing a research project? Have questions? Or require more information? Contact jerry.noyce@the-hero.org