Introduction: About Wellsource
Wellsource, Inc., a leader in the health management and prevention industry for more than 22 years, provides a portfolio of tools to help organizations develop successful health management systems. Our primary business and strength is the development of health risk assessments (HRAs). In 1978 Dr. Don Hall, founder of Wellsource, created one of the first HRA programs for desktop computer. Online HRA systems followed in 1999. Through years of use by thousands of health professionals in hospitals, corporations, governmental agencies, insurance companies and universities, our national award winning assessment systems remain the most comprehensive, powerful, and thoroughly field-tested wellness tools in the industry.
All Wellsource products are based on achieving optimum health, and not based just on predicted morbidity as are most HRAs. We also provide a variety of follow-up programs and tracking systems for promoting change and documenting progress in wellness. Our assessments work both on desktop computers and the Web, and data can be combined from both sources. We have a staff of programmers and technical support providers on site if additional assistance or customisation is needed. Wellsource does not accept advertising or sponsorship from outside sources, so there are no professional conflicts of interest. The purpose at Wellsource has remained the same over the years: to provide the best wellness information and motivation necessary to encourage individuals and organizations to achieve optimal health.
Our Mission
To promote health, prevent disease, and enhance quality of life. This is accomplished by developing quality health promotion tools needed by health professionals to efficiently and effectively manage the health of targeted populations, including:
- Health and lifestyle assessments to identify individual and group health needs.
- User friendly database management systems to provide proactive health care by:
- Identifying and targeting high-risk population groups
- Referring high risk individuals for needed care
- Enrolling people in appropriate interventions for risk reduction and health promotion
- Tracking individual and group progress
- Measuring outcomes.
- Wellness guides and health information systems, including online centres, to help people make wise and appropriate lifestyle changes.
- Resource material for health educators to use in health enhancement and risk reduction programs.
- Training organizations to effectively use these systems in corporate and health care settings.
We Believe
- Health is a vital resource for everyday living. It is more than the absence of disease. It is realizing a person’s full potential physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually.
- Good health is one of the most valuable assets of any company. It provides the basis for all intellectual, creative, and productive accomplishment.
- Creating good health deserves high priority in any workplace.
- In maintaining scientifically sound and up-to-date health information in all our products.
- In providing quality products and reliable, prompt service to our clients.
Product Development
Don Hall, DrPH, is recognized as a pioneer in the HRA field. He has a doctorate in Preventive Health Care from Loma Linda University, a master’s degree in nutrition, and has been certified by the American Dietetic Association as a registered dietitian, by the American College of Sports Medicine as an exercise test technologist, and is a certified health education specialist (CHES).
Dr. Hall not only wrote one of the first health assessment software programs for personal computers, but was also a pioneer in the wellness assessment concept. He has been developing health assessment software for the past 25 years. His fundamentally unique approach uses optimal health as the benchmark for guidelines and recommendations rather than just the individual’s risk of dying. Looking at the assessment from this perspective led Don to incorporate quality of life factors previously ignored by the traditional HRA. Wellsource was the first to add fitness test data for strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity to the health assessment. Wellsource was also the first to include mental health factors such as stress and coping and the first to include extensive eating habits questions as well.
The Wellsource development team of health professionals and software design experts continuously review the latest research for opportunities to improve the HRA systems, updating the programs as frequently as guidelines change or new research is available. Our development and review team includes: exercise specialists, dietitians, psychologists, physicians specializing in preventive medicine, and health educators.
Risk assessment algorithms and health enhancement recommendations are derived from guidelines and research published in peer reviewed medical journals, and from leading health organizations including the following: the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, Canadian Government, Department of Health and Human Services, Health Outcomes Institute, JAMA, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, The Lancet, National Centre for Health Statistics, National Committee for Quality Assurance, National Mental Health Association, National Research Council, New England Journal of Medicine, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan, World Health Organization, and others.
Science
The science underlying all Wellsource products is based on guidelines and research from government agencies and professional organizations including the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Medicine, American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, the Centres for Disease Control, and recognized medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and The New England Journal of Medicine.
We look for those organizations that are recognized as the top authorities in their special area of health and use their guidelines when available.
We base our questions on established, published research that already shows a significant relationship to a risk or health factor. For example, we constantly update HRAs to incorporate new information on cholesterol and blood pressure. The validity of asking these questions is based on the published research that shows people with high blood pressure are linked to high risk of stroke and heart disease. The validity of all our questions are based on actual research published in the health journals, linking them to health outcomes. We don’t try to estimate a risk, we simply ask “Do you smoke?” or “Do you exercise?” Research links people who exercise to lower risks of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. All our questions are based on these research outcomes that are much more valid than any questions we could try to come up with to estimate health status and then do a “validity study.”
We also take into account recommendations by national health standards and guidelines. For example, people who live the longest have a BMI less than 25, so we use this NIH standard to determine obesity. Some of our questions relate to these well-documented and recognized standards.
Since more than 1000 health professionals regularly use our products, they are under constant surveillance and updating. Our users continuously provide us with feedback and ideas for additions and changes. We are very careful to keep all of our input and guidelines current and up to date.
Validity
The Personal Wellness Profile TM (PWP) assessment tool is used by approximately 100 universities, and has been reviewed and assessed by Loma Linda University, Duke University, and Vanderbilt University. The validity has also been assessed by Juli Daniels, who is a doctoral (PhD) student at the University of South Florida, using a panel of five experts (a dietitian, exercise physiologist, advanced RN practitioner, health educator, and physician). The group completed a content validity index (CVI) on every PWP question. As a whole, the CVI score was 0.90, indicating, “the instrument has strong validity characteristics.”