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Healthwise is a non-profit company founded in 1975 that develops health content and patient education for the health insurance companies, care management companies, hospitals, and consumer health web sites.
| Industry | Healthcare |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Health Systems Incorporated |
| Founded | 1975 in Boise, Idaho |
| Founder | Don Kemper |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | United States |
Key people |
|
| Revenue | US$ 39,000,000[1] (2015) |
Number of employees | 270[1] |
| Website | healthwise |
Healthwise was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1975 by Don Kemper, based on his previous work at Health Systems Incorporated (HSI), a project of the National Center for Health Services Research.[2][3] In 2014, the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation was taken over by Healthwise and became a subsidiary.[1] In 2016, Kemper retired from Healthwise and Bob Kyte took over as CEO.[1] In Fall of 2018, Healthwise named then Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adam Husney as CEO.[4]
In the beginning, Healthwise offered printed decision-support and self-care materials for patients. It also publishes the Healthwise Handbook, a handbook with plain-language information and prevention tips on 190 common health problems, which is periodically updated and contains physician-approved guidelines on if and when to call a doctor for the problems it covers.[2][5] The guidebook was distributed for free with the help of a $2.1m grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to 125,000 households in Idaho; as a result, 39% of recipients reported that the handbook helped them avoid a visit to a doctor.[5] Additionally, according to the Blue Cross of Idaho visits to the emergency room by owners of the guide went down by 18%.[5]
Parts of the Healthwise Handbook were replicated in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa; in British Columbia, the handbook was distributed to all households.[5] The handbook was also translated into Spanish and a specialized version for older adults has been released as well.[5]
According to a study by the Partners Health Initiative in Anderson, South Carolina, which had supplied 154,000 families with Healthwise information, 23% reported that it saved them an unnecessary trip to the doctor and 13% reported that it prevented an unnecessary trip to the emergency room, with underinsured and uninsured families being the most avid users.[6]
In the mid-1990s, the company created an online resource for health information, the Healthwise Knowledgebase.[7] The Knowledgebase features interactive health content and decision support tools and Healthwise requires that all content is evidence-based and reviewed by experts before publication.[3] Content of the Knowledgebase is used for self-diagnostic services such as WebMD as well as websites of hospitals and health-plan providers.[2]
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