MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday 27 April 2023
Added Health backs IPPR calls for radical action on poor health
Dr Michael Stein, CEO of Added Health - the first doctor-led personal health and wellness coaching app to be CQC-regulated for screening and diagnostic services - has welcomes a call by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) for the government to take radical steps to improve the nation's health.
In a first interim report, the IPPR's Health and Prosperity Commission has concluded that lost earnings due to long-term sickness, in 2021 alone, cost the UK £43billion, equivalent of 2% of gross domestic product.
The commission wants the government to pass a new Health and Prosperity Act - modelled on the Climate Change Act that enshrines the UK's commitment to meet its net zero by 2050 targets - to tackle the problem.
Its co-chair, Professor Dame Sally Davies, the former chief medical officer for England, said radical and innovative action was needed to"hardwire health across all we do".
Added Health's life-enhancing health coaching app is led by world-class doctors. It is uniquely designed to work across the five pillars of health and wellbeing - nutrition, exercise, sleep, wellbeing, and relationships. Coaches support users to make evidence-based behaviour changes to improve their health before issues spiral out of control.
Dr Stein said Added Health shared the IPPR's vision for the need for a radical reset of the way healthcare is delivered, with far greater emphasis placed on preventative health strategies.
He added: "It's time to make a pre-emptive strike on poor health. The IPPR Health and Prosperity Commission has, rightly, identified that we cannot carry on down our current path. We need a radical and urgent shift of emphasis.
"It needs concerted action. The IPPR has set the bar at the right level in terms of the urgency of the health crisis we face, backed by the need for innovation in healthcare delivery, as described by Prof Sally Davies.
"That is precisely what Added Health is here to do. We are combining ground-breaking approaches to looking at health and wellbeing in the round, with an equally innovative digital platform that includes machine learning to continuously develop our service and allow it to be delivered at scale.
"That means, if the NHS wants to ask us to help make the radical changes envisaged by the IPPR's report, we are ready to do so, whether that involves primary legislation or not.
"What's critical is that we pivot to pre-emptive health approaches now, to create a paradigm shift in the nation's health. We know it's often not easy for people to be healthier; we need a cost effective, personalised solution offering long-term support."
The IPPR's report says households with working adults experiencing a physical health condition, mental illness, or long-term physical illness were associated with a drop in annual earnings of at least £1,200.
Dame Sally Davies said: "We now know that the UK does worse on health than most other comparable countries - and that this has a tremendous human and economic cost.
"We need a radical increase in our national ambition - equivalent to the Victorian efforts to transform sanitation and clear slums. Why shouldn't Britain be the healthiest country in the world?"
The IPPR is calling for a singlepiece of primary legislation with commitments to make the UK the healthiest country in the world by the end of a set 30-year period and to increase healthy life expectancy to at least the UK state retirement age across all regions.
Ends
Media contacts
Andy Comber: 07889 630440 |andy@matm.co.uk
Alanna Clear, Added Health Chief Marketing Officer:alanna.@addedhealth.com
More About Added Health
The Added Health app was launched in 2020, in Oxford. It has been co-founded by Michael Stein andProfessor Chris Butler,Professor of Primary Care at Oxford University and Director of the university's clinical trials unit.
Its services are rigorously science and evidence based. They aredelivered by caring, well-trained and highly experienced coaches, supported by qualified doctors, who review and sign off personal health and wellbeing plans.
Coachesuse Motivational Interviewing (MI), a behaviour change technique - proven by many peer-reviewed studies, and used widely in the NHS - to enhance motivation and achieve goals.
MI was developed by psychologists Professor Steve Rollnick and Professor William Miller, and Chris Butler. Steve Rollnick is Added Health's Head Coach and a member of our advisory board.
Added Health is also building a global brains trust of experts, likeMicrosoft's Worldwide General Manager of Health, Neil Jordan, and Mayo Clinic cardiologist Charles Cannan, to help guide its development.
About Dr Michael Stein
Dr Michael Stein MB ChB, BSc (hons) (UCT), D Phil (Oxon) is a health entrepreneur who has been developing new ways to deliver healthcare for more than 25 years. He also practised medicine in the NHS and carried out research and lectures inimmunology and pathology at Oxford University.
Web links
Website home page:https://addedhealth.com/
About Added Health:https://addedhealth.com/about-us/
Service reviews:https://addedhealth.com/reviews/