Research Update

The HERO II Study has been released
The original HERO Study, “The Relationship Between Modifiable Health Risks and Health Care Expenditures”, published in October, 1998, has been a foundational study in this field for many years.
Recently, that study has been updated with a larger pool of employees from multiple companies and with current medical claims and health risk assessment data. The updated study has just been published in the
November issue of  Health Affairs. This updated research, funded by HERO Think Tank member American Specialty Health and performed by Ron Goetzel, PhD, and his team from Truven Health Analytics (also a HERO members) provides important new data for companies desiring to estimate the potential medical cost savings that could be realized in improving the health of their employees.

Our congratulations and thank you to all involved in this important research effort to enhance the evidence for the adoption of a comprehensive employee health management program.

HERO White Paper on Presenteeism
As mentioned in our opening article, a white paper based on the research that HERO and Brigham Young University performed on the subject of the relationship between presenteeism and health status and health habits is now on the website.

HERO Study on Absenteeism Accepted for Publication
The sister study to the aforementioned work on presenteeism has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. Release date has not yet been announced.

HERO Scorecard Predictive Validity Study Begins
A new study, funded by the contributions of the HERO Research Partners (HRP), is underway. This project will test whether companies that score high on the Scorecard also have better than average experience in terms of health care cost trends and employee health risk profiles. Ron Goetzel will serve as principal investigator on this study, in collaboration with the HERO Research Study Subcommittee. It is anticipated the work will be completed for publication by late March 2013.
Our deep appreciation goes to the members of the HERO Research Partners who made this possible: Alere, HealthFitness, Healthways, Kaiser Permanente, Plus One Health Management, Prudential Financial, StayWell Health Management, and the University of Pittsburg Medical Center.
We are now launching fundraising efforts for our next HRP research project. Please email jerry.noyce@the-hero.org for more information.

HERO Research Agenda Updated
Each year, HERO members gather at the HERO Research Meeting to review completed research, discuss work in progress and update the HERO Research Agenda. This listing reflects the collective thinking of our member organizations and the many outstanding researchers who are part of those organizations.

Once those thoughts are gathered, our umbrella research subcommittee, the HERO Research Advisory Group, convenes to finalize this agenda for the next twelve months. This work has been completed and our agenda going forward includes:

• The role of culture in workforce health improvement
• Developing a better understanding of employee engagement
• Building a business case for Employee Health Management
• Employer-community partnerships in improving the health of the community
• Health and performance
• Program Sustainability
• Incentives
• Best practices in building effective EHM programs as identified by the HERO Scorecard

Several research questions have been identified within each of these broad categories. We welcome your feedback and thoughts for additional research questions that you believe are important to move the science of the field forward. Email us at info@the-hero.org.

Our next group of HERO Research Partners will help us address these important topics.