Corporate wellness, as I always say, is inseparable from personal wellness. The latter begets the former, which is why companies need to do a better job of promoting the benefits of a healthy workforce, in general, and the need to address Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), in particular. I mention this condition because, according to the American Heart Association, millions of our fellow citizens do not even know they have this disease.
Absent a diagnosis, and with no reason to believe their lives are in jeopardy, these people maintain some very unhealthy habits: They do not exercise. They do not watch what they eat. They do not schedule checkups with their respective doctors. They do not make their own safety the priority it should be. They do nothing to ease their stress, either by getting a massage or having someone relieve their muscle aches and pains.
There is, however, some good news. Diagnosing Peripheral Artery Disease is now fast, reliable and easy, thanks to the QuantaFlo System from Semler Scientific. This FDA-approved digital device is a screening tool that helps better diagnose patients who may have or be on the threshold of developing Peripheral Artery Disease. Again, I mention this fact for the good of everyone.
For no business can succeed - and no group of employees can flourish - in an environment where illness abounds. If companies allow Peripheral Artery Disease to proliferate, they risk sacrificing the one thing more valuable than all the sales they may generate, all the inventory they may ship, all the name recognition that may achieve, all the loyalty they may accumulate from customers worldwide.
They risk losing their intellectual capital - their workers, each of whom is irreplaceable - because of their failure to create (and certify) an atmosphere of corporate wellness. Let PAD, then, also be an acronym for Preventing and Arresting Disease. That philosophy, strengthened by a tool to detect PAD, is proactive in every sense of the word.
It transforms a mostly passive and reactive corporate mindset by refusing to pad the facts, so to speak; by refusing to deny or dismiss the seriousness of PAD; by refusing to preserve the status quo; by refusing to abet, through acts of omission, the ongoing commission (by employees) of an unhealthy - and ultimately fatal - lifestyle.
Companies have no reason to overlook PAD, not when a device is available to better clarify the potential severity of this situation vis-a-vis one workplace versus another. With support from doctors, nutritionists and personal trainers, among others, companies can go from unintentionally furthering the risk of PAD to eliminating this risk altogether.
Employers must, therefore, educate their employees about this subject. They must invest in the equipment to measure the likelihood that this subject may be a clear and present danger. They must do everything they can to stop this threat. These steps are a way to increase individual health and collective wellness for the betterment of society and the good of the economy as a whole. Those steps are our pathway to reducing PAD.
About the Author
Lewis Fein writes about a variety of health and wellness issues, in addition to pieces about technology, business, and management. Based in Southern California, you may email him at feinlewis@gmail.com
