Validic Selected As Digital Health Technology Provider For National On The Move Wellness Challenge

News provided by

Sep 16, 2015, 07:58 ET

DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Validic, the healthcare industry's leading digital health platform, announced today its selection by WELCOA, the Wellness Council of America, to power the National On The Move Wellness Challenge. The On The Move competition is focused on fueling national corporate health initiatives to combat physical inactivity and initiate behavior change.

Are you ready to move more, sit less, and FEEL better? Become a more active YOU! Take the pledge: onthemove.welcoa.org/#section_pledges

On The Move is a completely turnkey, 12-week challenge designed to engage employees in physical activity, help better manage their stress levels, and make long-term behavior changes. The On The Move Challenge provides a corporate wellness platform for all employees to access complete with educational resources, behavior change incentives, physical activity tracking and social support functionality. Validic is powering the platform's digital health data connection to enable participants to connect almost any brand of fitness device and application.

Registration for the challenge is now open, with company onboarding taking place in February of 2016, and the challenge kicking off April 4, 2016. Companies will be awarded points based on participants' involvement and engagement with the program. In June 2016, the Top 100 Most Active Companies will be announced.

"We are excited to be the key technology provider for WELCOA's On The Move Challenge and help make this a great initiative," Validic CEO and Co-Founder Ryan Beckland said. "Employee wellness challenges and programs are more important than ever to help combat the rise in obesity and chronic diseases in the workplace. Validic will deliver verified, actionable participant health data to help power this cause and make On The Move a great success."

There is an increasing need for wellness challenges in the workplace as sedentary jobs have increased 83% in the last 70 years, according the American Heart Association. Not only are there more desk jobs, but the average American is spending more time at his or her desk. The average work week is about 400 hours longer a year meaning a person who spends the majority of their day at a desk experiences around 18 hours a day of physical inactivity.

It is not just employee health and well-being that is a concern for employers - employee productivity, absenteeism, attrition and morale are all ultimately tied to the employee's lifestyle and health. Gallup estimates that the cost of lost employee productivity, due to employee absenteeism related to chronic condition or obesity, is expected to reach $153.4 billion this year alone. Wellness programs and challenges, like On The Move, can help combat these issues and costs.

"We are thrilled for the launch of this national health challenge and working with Validic to offer companies and employees an easy means to track their fitness and health," WELCOA President Ryan Picarella said. "Building all of these connections to digital health devices and applications takes months, even years to complete. But, this is where a solution, like Validic, comes in. They offer us a frictionless delivery of meaningful health data into our wellness platform and will help fuel On the Move."

WELCOA is also partnering with internationally renowned author, exercise physiologist and speaker, Sean Foy, MA, to help design and execute the On The Move Challenge. The On The Move model, previously used on a smaller scale by WELCOA, incites long-term behavior change with more than 80% of participants committing to continuing physical activities post-challenge. Employees participating in the program were also 130% more active each day.

For companies interested in learning more about or participating in the On the Move Challenge, please visit http://onthemove.welcoa.org.

About Validic

Validic is the healthcare industry's leading cloud-based, digital health platform. Validic provides convenient and quick access to patient data from in-home clinical devices, wearables and patient healthcare applications. By connecting its growing base of customers—that includes providers, pharmaceutical companies, payers, wellness companies and health IT vendors—to the continuously expanding list of digital health technologies, Validic enables healthcare companies to better coordinate care across their communities, improve their patient engagement strategies and more efficiently manage their patient populations.

Validic's innovative, scalable and FDA Class I MDDS technology delivers actionable, standardized and HIPAA-compliant consumer health data from the best in-class mobile health devices and applications. Validic was recognized for healthcare innovation by Gartner and received Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices and Best Value in Healthcare Information Interoperability award, as well as Top Ten Healthcare Disruptor award. Validic's leading global digital health ecosystem reaches over 160 million lives in 47 countries and continues to grow daily. To learn more about Validic, follow Validic on Twitter at @validic or visit www.validic.com.

About WELCOA

WELCOA (The Wellness Council of America) is one of the nation's most-respected resources for building high-performing, healthy workplaces. Over its 25+ year history, WELCOA has perfected its patented Well Workplace protocol which is the key to developing, delivering, and sustaining a healthy corporate culture. Whether you are a workplace wellness practitioner, human resources professional, business leader, or consultant/broker, WELCOA's tools, training, and resources will help you better promote organizational well-being and, at the same time, contain escalating health care costs.

With more than 5,000 corporate members, WELCOA has an impeccable reputation for helping business and health professionals improve employee well-being and create healthier organizational cultures. By translating powerful, evidence-based science into strategic business practices, WELCOA offers everything you'll need to build and sustain a results-oriented workplace wellness program.

About Sean Foy

Sean Foy, MA, is an internationally renowned authority on fitness, weight management, and healthy living. As an award-winning author, exercise physiologist, behavioral coach, and speaker, Sean has earned the reputation as "America's Fast Fitness Expert." With an upbeat, positive and sensible approach to making fitness happen, even with the busiest of schedules, he has taken his message of "simple moves" fitness all over the world. Sean has partnered with WELCOA to design and deliver WELCOA's On The Move Company Challenge, a national turnkey corporate fitness solution for challenging, coaching and empowering employees to reach their very best in health, fitness and life.