The four letter word that gets the most out of your organization’s wellness offerings.

“Data is a four-letter word... and the third window into humanity.”

That’s what John Nosta, Google Health Advisory Board Member and founding member of WHO Roster of Digital Health Experts, had to say about data—and why data and analytics can play such a powerful role in managing our health and wellness when we apply them in smart and innovative ways.

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of speaking with John, alongside my MOBE colleagues Chris Cronin, CEO, and Denise Vance-Rodrigues, Chief Commercial Officer - Employer, as part of a webinar exploring how big data can transform employers’ health and wellness approaches. Through that energizing conversation, we distilled three crucial insights:

1) The path to prevention is through technology.

Data, big data, analytics, and AI—whatever you may call it, these powerful information sources represent the key path to prevention. As John Nosta pointed out, data is the third fundamental window into humanity.

When we think of prevention, it’s often a reactive response: exercising more, or increasing your healthy greens intake as your doctor advised. However, true prevention is avoiding negative outcomes altogether. When data analytics enable us to identify potential health problems earlier and earlier in their development, we can begin to share a border with prevention.

At MOBE, advances in technologies and machine learning offer us the opportunity to identify people who may need support reaching their health goals, sooner. Over multiple years and millions of data points, we’ve detected the key indicators and predictors for individuals who may be struggling with health issues – beyond the siloed disease-state information that informs most wellness programs. We believe data holds the key to a whole-person approach and enables us to get the right people engaged at the right time.

2) Data analytics capture insight beyond the numbers, especially when it comes to the whole population.

Data science and technology allow us to identify members that need support the most. By stacking multiple data models and applying machine learning to stratify an employee population, MOBE can determine who would benefit most from lifestyle and medication guidance—and that includes people who are high-risk, with multiple chronic conditions, as well as those who, on the surface, are among the lowest-risk, with no chronic conditions—yet whose engagement with the health system reveals underlying concerns.

MOBE’s recent 2021 Workplace Wellness Action Index confirmed that employees need and want wellness support focused on the foundation of their overall health: exercise, nutrition, sleep, and maintaining a healthy weight. That’s exactly the approach our MOBE Guides take. By using deep data science to identify people who need support—whether high or low-risk and looking at a combination of factors that goes far beyond “disease management” for individual conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol—we are able to help participants make progress on their path to better health.

3) Data needs a partner—the “human” element.

Data is a window into humanity, but without a way to connect insight with action, the wealth of information we uncover can’t be put to use. Many employers miss this crucial component of success for a wellness program: implementing a human connection.

At MOBE, we combine deep data science with digital health and one-to-one personalized approach to create a value-based wellness solution. This means participants build a relationship with a Guide who is taking the time to get to know them, listen to what is important to them, and develop a wellness plan based on all aspects of their lives that helps achieve their health goals. Employers get deeper insights into their population, measurable results, and the tools to help make real change for their employees.

Data represents so much more than a readout of numbers—and with the right analysis and application, its insights can create significant change for individual, community, and global health. By engaging and supporting employees to achieve healthier and happier lives without—any additional cost to the health system, employers or insurers—MOBE is bringing to life our mission of helping people live healthier, happier lives.

As we look toward the year ahead, we expect more employers to prioritize employee health and wellness offerings. Big data and analytics will continue to be essential for gathering accurate, in-depth information that can make a true impact without creating additional costs.

To learn more about how big data can transform employers’ health and wellness approaches, watch the webinar on-demand.