(Image source: dacadoo.)
Swiss InsurTech dacadoo (Zurich) has launched its next-generation digital health engagement platform including Wheel of Life, which it characterizes as “the ultimate lifestyle navigator.” The Zurich-based company develops and operates a mobile-first digital health engagement platform that helps people live healthier and more active lives through a combination of motivational techniques from behavioral science, gamification principles and social networking, as well as artificial intelligence and automated coaching.
Peter Ohnemus, CEO, dacadoo.
dacadoo calls Wheel of Life the biggest product transformation within its Digital Health Engagement Platform (DHEP) to date with a focus on improved user experience and a simpler user interface, designed to improve the user engagement and guidance towards leading healthier lifestyles.
The company cites research showing that lifestyle choices alone can affect an individual’s overall health outcome by over 40 percent, making the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle a paramount consideration. Globally, non-communicable diseases remain the leading causes of death are continue, most of which are the consequence of behavior or lifestyle components, such as smoking or harmful alcohol intake, lack of exercise, or a poor diet.
While Covid-19 is itself a communicable disease, it has underscored the importance of avoiding poor lifestyle choices that lead to the prevalence of NCDs or preventable chronic health conditions. Deaths from COVID-19 overwhelmingly involve underlying conditions that weaken patients, including obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes. The vendor reports that a recent industry survey it conducted found that 81 percent of life and health insurers are considering attaching a health and wellbeing proposition to their product offering as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Seven Areas of Measurement
dacadoo reports that its Digital Health Engagement Platform including Wheel of Life will be available for insurers and corporate health providers in early 2021. Encompassing seven different areas, users of Wheel of Life will be able to measure and quantify their physical and mental health, the quality of their sleep and nutrition, their mindfulness, their physical activity and even their smoking habits or alcohol intake; resulting in a single number from 0 (poor) to 1,000 (excellent) which is their Health Score. The vendor says the Health Score is a scientific, tangible solution to measuring holistic health, based on over 300 million people years of clinical studies.
Wheel of Life graphic. Source: dacadoo.
By giving users a better understanding of their current health status, they are better equipped to make any advisable changes to their behavior, dacadoo says. The Wheel of Life DHEP offers various functionalities to motivate users to remain active and engaged on the platform, including an AI-based digital coach which is available 24/7 and works as the user’s private health coach in their pockets, offering personalized health and wellbeing advice and guidance. The platform also includes a range of pre-set goals, challenges, and expert-curated content to motivate its users into making the right health-driven decisions.
“The Wheel of Life makes digital health engagement easier than ever,” comments Peter Ohnemus, President and CEO, dacadoo. “I am very excited to have released this pioneering solution at a time when incorporating healthier habits and leading better lifestyles is so crucial.”
“Additionally, life and health insurers now have a tangible solution to both keeping their insured members healthy, focusing on prevention of lifestyle-derived health conditions, but also a way to incorporate a #wecare strategy, which is at the peak of importance in the new normal of the stakeholder economy,” Ohnemus adds.
Through such a strategy, dacadoo says the DHEP allows for life and health insurers to establish a closer relationship with their policyholders, customizing their product offering and tailoring their services for members in a relevant manner. Enhancing cross-selling and up-selling their product offering is another bonus to implementing the platform, according to the vendor.