A Look Back at the Health of our Country in 2021
In a year where health has been a constant topic of discussion, the pandemic has altered our perception of what it means to be “in good health” and how we achieve it. As Higi’s role in the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, and as we foster partnerships with leading healthcare organizations to support education and health literacy, identification of risk factors, and enablement of access to appropriate care and community resources, we’ve enhanced – and will continue to build upon - our platform capabilities to deliver additional value to both consumers and healthcare stakeholders looking to build health engagement. This year, Higi found new ways to foster “good health” by helping consumers to not only learn about and identify risk but also to better manage their health through:
Our on-station Guided Experience, which helps consumers better understand their results and take the best next step for their health
Our Heart Guide program, which incentivizes regular screening and drives education around key health topic areas
Care Everyday, a clinician-led Remote Patient Monitoring platform that pairs easy-to-use, cellular-enabled home health devices with dedicated care managers for high-touch, coordinated care, centered around the high-risk consumer living with chronic conditions. To date, we’ve seen 97% engagement among Care Everyday and partnership patients, with 93% care plan adherence, resulting in
5% average reduction in blood pressure
9.9% weight loss among patients with obesity
14.9% reduction of average blood sugar readings in patients living with Diabetes
Despite all the changes we experienced, what has remained constant are the fundamentals – the underlying factors that impede our population’s ability to achieve good health, and the challenges many people face in accessing the care they need to mitigate their personal risk. Foundational to our work at Higi has been to educate and inform consumers across the country, regardless of means and access to the traditional healthcare system. As the year and our understanding of Covid-19 progressed, we were able to work with our partners to ensure that while all necessary safety precautions were in place, we were able to prioritize access to preventive screening and education by enabling access to our station network in the places people visit in their day-to-day lives.
Since the start of 2021, even with limited access to some of our stations for part of the year, with the support of our retail, health system, and corporate partners, the Higi network has hosted:
11 million sessions where consumers took a moment to better understand their health
August was the month with the highest number of sessions
The most frequently test takers feel into the 50–59-year-old cohort
At 2.4 million sessions, Florida was the state with the highest session count
But Hawaii, where there are far fewer stations overall, had the highest usage per station across the state
Those sessions included 10.2 million blood pressure measurements, 64% of which registered in the hypertensive range
And 3.3 million weight tests, 71% of which registered in the overweight or obese range
Both hypertension and obesity are contributing factors for the increased severity of Covid-19, as well as leading indicators of common and costly chronic illnesses, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. At Higi, we believe in the power of education and preventive screening to drive health literacy and empower the consumer. In service of this belief, our platform helps consumers understand their personal risks and guides them to take the steps needed to address or manage their conditions. Across our platform, we saw consumers complete:
354 Thousand type 2 Diabetes Risk Tests, launched in partnership with the American Diabetes Association in November of last year, with 41% resulting in High Risk
58% of Diabetes Risk Test takers were male, and 47% of them had a High-Risk result
239 Thousand Heart Health Risk Tests, launched in partnership with the American College of Cardiology in March of this year and made widely available in July. Depending on the age of the test taker, participants receive either a 10-year or lifetime risk score
Of those who received a 10-year risk score, 42% scored Intermediate Risk or higher
Of those who received a lifetime score, 47% scored Elevated Risk or higher
In addition to our scored assessments, consumers can participate in educational quizzes called Higi Health Basics. 2021 saw participation in 1.2 Million Health Basics quizzes, which covered key health topic areas important to our platform users and near and dear to our partners, including heart disease, diabetes, sleep, mental health, and more.
To further build up the knowledge of our platform users, we delivered over 26.1 Million Health Basics newsletters, offering healthy tips and curated content to educate and empower.
These results underscore the need for action – for our healthcare providers to holistically address the underlying contributors that lead to the development of these risk factors at such scale, the mitigation of which can help consumers lead healthier, happier lives and reduce the extreme cost burden of healthcare on our citizen and the US economy.
Cheers to good health in 2022!