Healthtrac Inc. 

Evaluation Documentation

Baldwin, D., Fries, J.F., Baldwin, P., Fries, S.T., Olson, C.B., Richardson, N.R., (1996). Reduction in Number of Low Birth Weight Babies Associated with a Prenatal Self-Management Health Education Program. Submitted for publication. A prenatal health education program designed to improve pregnancy outcomes has high benefit to cost ratio, as specifically measured by the low birth weight rate. A 50% reduction in the low birth weight rate was observed.

Fries, J.F., Olson, C.B., McShane, D.J., (1996). Evaluation of a Health Education Program Directed at Improving Health Risk Status and Reducing Medical Costs in High Risk Patients. Submitted for publication. High benefit-to-cost ratio found for a program which uses a simple health assessment instrument to identify high risk/cost patients and channel them into intensive health education programs designed to improve self-management and self-efficacy.

Fries, J.F., Singh, G., (1996). Prediction of Medical Costs for the Following Year. Pending publication. A series of algorithms uses health risk and cost data captured with a simple health assessment instrument to accurately predict which individuals in a population will use the majority of medical resources in the next year.

Gail, F., Kirk, J., Davis R. (1994). Patient Education and Self-Management: Randomized Study of Effects on Health Status of Mail-Delivered Program. Arthritis and Rheumatism; 37:S197. Doctor visits decreased from 7.1/year to 4.8 in intervention group. Significant improvements in function and pain scores were noted.

Montgomery, E.B., Lieberman, A., Singh, G., Fries, J.F., (1994). Patient Education and Health Promotion Can Be Effective in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial, The American Journal of Medicine. The Propath study was the first randomized trial of health education in Parkinson's Disease and resulted in significant improvement in function and reduction of cost.

Fries, J.F., Harrington, H., Edwards, R., Kent, L., Richardson, N., (1994). Randomized Controlled Trial of Cost Savings from a low-cost health education program: The California Public Employee's Retirement System (PERS), American Journal of Health Promotion, 8(3):216-223. Randomized control study of Healthtrac and Senior Healthtrac in 59,000 subjects. Cost savings approximated 20 percent over 12 months and were confirmed by claims data.

Fries, J.F., Bloch, D.A., Harrington, H., Richardson, N., and Beck, R., (1993). Two-Year Results of a Randomized Controlled Trail of a Health Promotion Program in a Retiree Population: The Bank of America Study, The American Journal of Medicine; 94:455-462. Two year results of the Bank of America study of the Healthtrac Program, including data on positive effects on claims data and continued improvement of health risk scores.

Leigh, J.P., Richardson, N., Beck, R., Kerr, C., Harrington, H., Parcell, C.L., Fries, J.F., (1992). Randomized Controlled Study of a Retiree Health Promotion Program: The Bank of America Study, Arch Int Med; 152:1201-1206. One year results of the Bank of America study of the Healthtrac Program. 

Fries, J.F., (1990). The Compression of Morbidity: Progress and Potential, J Insurance Med.; 22:93-97. Study linking theory and practice, introducing Healthtrac data from the Bank of American study on cost reduction and health risk reduction.

Fries, J.F., Fries, S.T., Parcell, C.L., and Harrington, H., (1992). Health Risk Changes with a Low-Cost Individualized Health Promotion Program: Effects at up to 30 Months, Amer. J. Health Promotion; 6(5):364-371. Study of 103,937 consecutive Healthtrac program participants showing continued improvement over periods up to 30 months, with similar results in different and education groups.

Leigh, J.P., Fries, J.F., (1992). Health Habits, Health Care Use, and Costs in a Sample of Retirees, Inquiry; 29;44-54. Strong associations between self-reported health risk appraisal data and costs are documented from Healthtrac data. 

Fries, J.F., Green, L.W., Levine, S., (1989). Health Promotion and the Compression of Morbidity, Lancet; 481-483. Conceptual paper setting the theoretical basis for health promotion emphasis upon improvement of health rather than upon extension of life.

Lorig, K., Kraines, R.G., Brown, B.W., Richardson, N., (1988). A Workplace Health Education Program that Reduces Outpatient Visits, Medical Care,; 26:580-588. Important reductions in outpatient visits in a program built around Take Care of Yourself, the self-management resource guide used in Healthtrac programs.