Why Fall Is a Great Time to Start a New Fitness Program

Have you been promising yourself you’ll start exercising more any day now? Planning on getting in better shape, but just can’t seem to find the time? We’ve got some good news for you: Fall is here, and it’s the perfect time to start a new fitness routine! Whether you’re making plans with your coworkers to improve worksite wellness or going it alone, here’s a list of reasons why there’s no better time to start exercising than right now.

• The weather is mild – In most places in the world, the weather in fall is some of the mildest and most agreeable of the whole year. That means it’s the perfect time to go outside and start running, walking, or jogging before winter arrives and the cold adds one more reason to your list of reasons to put off exercising.
• Get in shape for the holidays – The arrival of fall also means that the winter holidays are just around the corner. For most people, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is a time for indulging in rich foods and taking a break from normal routines. In other words, it’s not a time of year when most people are thinking about exercise. By starting a new fitness routine in the fall, you’ll be able to shed some extra pounds ahead of the winter holidays.
• You’ll already have your New Year’s resolution – For all the people who swear every New Year’s Eve that next year will be the year they get in shape, not many people actually follow through on their commitment. If you start getting in shape now, however, you’ll already have a head start on next year’s weight-loss goal.

For more great health tips for fall and the rest of the year, contact Wellsource today at 800-533-9355.

5 Employee Health Tips for Fall

Fall is here, which means it’s out with the heat, and in with the turning leaves and cool breezes. In honor of the passing of the seasons, we thought we’d pass along some staff wellness tips to help keep you and your coworkers healthy and happy this fall.

• Get a flu shot – Worried you might end up having to take time off work when you inevitably come down with the flu? There’s an easy solution to this problem – get a flu shot! Going to your doctor for an annual flu shot is the best possible way to avoid falling sick this flu season. You’ll be doing yourself and your coworkers a favor.
• Drink lots of water – “But what about the common cold?” you might be asking. It’s true that the flu shot doesn’t protect against the cold, but there are ways that you can guard yourself against it. Drinking water boosts the immune system, helping the body fight off invading germs.
• Have some pumpkin  – As everyone who loves Halloween will tell you, fall is pumpkin season, and, since pumpkins are full of vitamins A and C, enjoying everyone’s favorite squash can also boost your immune system and help you get the right amount of nutrients into your body.
• Enjoy the weather – If the summer heat kept you indoors for the last few months, then autumn is the perfect opportunity to make up for lost time outdoors. Take advantage of the moderate weather to get in some running or walking before the winter cold arrives.

Interested in learning more about worksite wellness? Contact Wellsource today at 800-533-9355 for more information on our corporate health programs.

Why Keeping Your Work Area Clean Is So Important

Look around your work station right now. How clean is it? Are there a couple of crumbs from your most recent snack on your desk? Is the floor a little dirtier than it should be? When was the last time you wiped down your work station with clean wipes? We may not think of cleaning up our work stations as a high priority task when we have so much else to do, but cleanliness in the workplace isn’t just about appearances; it’s an important part of maintaining overall staff wellness.

Part Work Desk, Part Dining Table

According to the American Dietetic Association, a huge number of Americans eat at their desks at some point during the day. As determined by their research:

• 62% of American workers eat lunch at their desks
• 50% eat one or more snacks at their desks
• 27% eat breakfast at their desks1

While there’s nothing wrong with eating at your desk, in theory, the unfortunate fact is that many work stations are secret breeding grounds for many kinds of bacteria. In fact, past research has shown that your keyboard and mouse are likely to be home to unpleasant microbes, such as e coli and staph, and likely have more germs on them than a toilet seat!2

If the thought of eating on a surface dirtier than your toilet doesn’t sound very appetizing to you, then you understand the importance of keeping your work station clean. Even if you don’t eat at your desk, unclean work stations lead to more germs circulating around the office, increasing your likelihood of getting sick at work. In other words: Keeping your desk clean is good for your health.

Contact Wellsource today at 800-533-9355 for more information on improving workplace health.

Sources

1. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ways-stay-healthy-work/story?id=14363408#7
2. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Germs/story?id=4774746&page=1

FHIR Connectathon 10: Atlanta

The DHIT team made the trip to Atlanta last weekend for FHIR Connectathon 10. As the Connectathon series moves into double digits, there is a sense of building momentum in the project. The knowledge base for this diverse group of participants continues to grow with each event.

A quick review: FHIR is a set of clinical interoperability resources based on common web standards, including XML and JSON, with a RESTful protocol in which each FHIR resource has knowable URL. FHIR aims to provide the tools necessary for interoperability with enough flexibility to adapt to a wide variety of use cases.

Connectathon 10 took place October 3-4 and featured 6 themes (or tracks) around which real-world scenarios were built for participants to implement against a FHIR server:

1. Basic patient management
2. Terminology Services
3.  Financial Resources
4.  EHR record lifecycle architecture
5. Structured Data Capture
6. Scheduling

The tracking allowed participants to collaborate more easily by identifying finding complementary skills and experience. DHIT’s involvement centered on themes 1, 2, 4 and 6.

Theme 1, which deals with basic patient search and management, is designed for those new to FHIR. Theme 2involves terminology services and is slightly more advanced, consisting of searching value sets, validating codes against a value set such as LOINC, SNOMED CT, or a FHIR value set. Theme 4 is EHR record lifecycle architecture. This theme is dedicated to auditing lifecycle events such as Patient Create or Update, Appointment Create, etc. Theme 6 concerns the scheduling of appointments using the FHIR protocol: available “slots” can be created for appointments to fill.

The DHIT team’s overarching goal during the Connectathon was to make Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) work with FHIR. We laid the groundwork for CQM calculation by matching the HL7 Health Quality Measures Format (HQMF) templates to FHIR resources. The FHIR server was then used to populate patient demographics data, encounters and procedures.

In our CQMsolution software, we created a quality measure report using a patient search against the FHIR server to grab the necessary patient data. To retrieve the necessary codes used by the measures, we performed a validation before measure calculation for sections retrieved on each patient. After code validation passed, the calculation was completed and the results were displayed on screen. 

The FHIR mantra: button spotted at Connectathon 10
in Atlanta, GA

One of the primary benefits – and most enjoyable aspects – of a FHIR Connectathon is the opportunity for vendors to meet and test out connections among themselves. Each new touchpoint is an opportunity to break new ground in interoperability. The Connectathon environment creates a multiplier effect as these connections take place, through the testing of code and sharing of ideas.

DHIT has the chance to team up with several groups, including collaboration on patient search with Cerner and appointments with Mirth. We also had the chance to meet and discuss future development goals with leading ‘FHIR Chiefs’ Graham Grieve, David Haye and Ewout Kramer. Our discussion focused on the evolution of FHIR servers to facilitate efficient CQM calculation.

By providing this chance to share ideas with FHIR leadership and solve problems collaboratively with other implementers, FHIR Connectathons capture the spirit of interoperability as well as any event today.

We look forward to expanding the role of FHIR in our product development.  

Why Work Breaks Are Important to Employee Health

How seriously do you and your coworkers take their 10 minute breaks? For most people, their breaks are just a formality, a chance to waste time and run down the clock until it’s time to punch back in and go back to work. What many people don’t realize, however, is that how employees spend those 10 minutes can have a profound effect on work performance and overall worksite wellness.

Directed vs. Involuntary Attention

According to researchers, people’s attention spans can be separated into two different classifications: directed attention and involuntary attention. Directed attention is when we consciously focus on a task and choose to spend mental energy on it; involuntary attention is when our brains subconsciously become engaged by something we’ve observed.

When we’re at work, we use most of our mental capacity on paying directed attention to the tasks at hand. Unlike involuntary attention, directed attention is a finite resource that can be depleted; when that happens, mental fatigue sets in, leading to a dramatic drop in memory, energy, and an ability to get work done.

How Breaks Recharge Directed Attention

You’ve probably noticed that after relaxing for even a short period of time, your brain feels recharged immediately afterward. Activities like relaxing, going for a nature walk, or even just looking at pictures of nature all stimulate our involuntary attention, rather than using up directed attention. According to Dr. Marc Berman of the Rotman Research Institute of Toronto, stimulating indirect attention has been shown to also recharge directed attention, increasing working memory by up to 20%.

With this in mind, Berman suggests that workers spend even their 10 minute breaks taking a “true” break – not browsing the internet or chatting with coworkers, but instead taking the time to relax, go for a walk, or perform other activities that stimulate indirect attention, and thus recharge directed attention as well.

For more helpful tips on improving the health of your workplace, contact Wellsource today at 800-533-9355.

Sources

1. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ways-stay-healthy-work/story?id=14363408#1