Project pairs health data, preventive care

Kalispell Regional Medical Center has begun a pilot project that connects preventive wellness technology with health coaches, physicians and insurers. 

The hospital and the Summit Medical Fitness Center are pairing with Bio Wellness Inc. — a biotechnology company — to create a new model for primary disease prevention and risk reversal in the Flathead. 

The collaboration was announced this week. 

Bio Wellness developed a cloud-based Personal Health Management System that connects individuals and families with coaches, physicians, insurers and communities in a real-time health network. 

Mark Prete, the chief medical officer for Bio Wellness, said the system sets up a way to offer personalized medicine at general insurance rates.

“[The program] will show how advanced diagnostics can significantly support better health outcomes that lower health-care costs,” Prete said.

The cloud-based program uses an individual’s body information to spot disease risks, such as type 2 diabetes or cancer. 

It then narrows down recommendations for medical intervention. 

Prete said the pilot project is the first step in demonstrating how the Bio Wellness evidence-based clinical and financial analytics can be used to predict health risks at lower costs.

Users of the technology will have four physician office visits and four diagnostic blood tests to determine their lifestyle plan with appropriate medical management and coaching. Bio Wellness will track and analyze all implemented recommendations and results. 

Brad Roy, executive director of The Summit, said the program helps medical professionals identify an individual’s disease risk to quickly work to reduce his or her chance of facing that illness down the road. 

He said the pilot program will integrate with The Summit’s Journey to Wellness program. 

The current wellness program focuses on individuals at moderate cardiovascular risk. The new collaboration will allow the program to expand to provide any individual or family with a high-level physician-managed lifestyle program., Roy said. 

“We expect to offer the resulting program to The Summit’s members and to make this a cornerstone for improving health for the people of Montana,” Roy said. 

Michael Willy, chief executive officer and chief developer of Bio Wellness Inc., said the combined effort could become a template for community health management programs across the nation to fight chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. 

“Our pilot projects ...  removes the cognitive, cost and time constraints that prevent whole body information from being used in research, medicine and daily life — without busting budgets or exceeding encounter times,” he said. 

He said the program will enable Montanans to receive low-cost health care regardless of their income.

 Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.