WELLNESS INITIATIVE: WORLD HEART FEDERATION ASSUMES PROMINENT ROLE
The World Economic Forum's "Working Toward Wellness" initiative advanced with the holding of a closed high-level workshop at the organization's recent annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The World Heart Federation plays a leadership role in the initiative, the goal of which is to bring together employers, health professionals and policy-makers to reduce the risk factors that increase employees' vulnerability to cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.
The World Heart Federation's Chief Executive Officer Janet Voûte is a member of the initiative's Steering Board. The World Heart Federation's Foundations Advisory Board Chairman Srinath Reddy and its Science Advisory Board Chairman Sidney Smith are members of the World Economic Forum's Wellness Initiative Advisory Board.
Participating in the 90-minute workshop were Ms Voûte and representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), the government of the United Kingdom, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Oxford Health Alliance and a broad range of corporate leaders.
At the workshop, the World Heart Federation was given the lead both in forming a global network of more than 200 experts in the field of wellness and in identifying 100 potential local partners. It expects to recruit heavily from among its nearly 200 member organizations. The World Health Organization and the Oxford Health Alliance were tasked to participate in the effort.
"There was a consensus that working on wellness in the workplace makes sense from a business point of view and a health point of view," said Ms Voûte. "All of the participants were asking how, not if, to improve the health of employees worldwide."
The initiative's priorities for the current year will be to:
- Learn from the health experts about the most effective interventions for employees, through a technical meeting involving the World Economic Forum, WHO, the World Heart Federation and many others.
- Organize regional "Working Toward Wellness" workshops in Chile, South Africa, China and India.
- Find out what employers may already be doing effectively to preserve the health of their employees.
- Determine how to extend the initiative to small employers.
"Working Toward Wellness" workshops have already been held in New York, London and New Delhi.
"It's in the interest of global businesses to protect the health and well-being of their employees," Ms Voûte said. "Workplace health interventions can lead to larger gains in worker productivity, reduced absenteeism and cost savings. Making workplaces smoke-free and providing healthier food options are good places to start. In addition, employee health screenings raise awareness and can galvanize individual and collective action. The much more expensive course lies in failing to act."
The initiative marks a big departure for the World Economic Forum from its traditional emphasis on the prevention and control of such communicable diseases as HIV/AIDS and malaria. It comes through a realization that cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and the other chronic diseases are the world's biggest killers, accounting for 60% of all deaths in 2005 and claiming 80% of their victims in low- and middle-income countries.
