For David Wright, MD, the guiding principles for both his medical practice and the ultimate creation of his health management company, Adventia, started to form in 1979 and took years to come to fruition.
Today, Adventia provides software, training and education to corporate and clinical clients. The software for corporate clients was created in 2013, and in 2014 for clinic settings. Wright closed his practice in 2014 as his focus shifted to Adventia.
Back in 1979, while Wright was in Memphis for his residency in internal medicine at Baptist Hospital, his father had a heart attack back home in Florida. He was 52.
Wright realized heart problems could not only affect him but his children. After finishing residency in 1982 and a stint in the Air Force, Wright returned to Memphis in 1985 to practice internal medicine, focusing on patients dealing with heart attacks, stroke and diabetes.
His frustration built while watching patients continue to have events even as medicine advanced. Wright implemented prevention as part of his treatment, and patients began improving. But it’s more than just advising patients to lose weight, eat better and get more exercise.
“It requires the person to do things,” Wright said. “That’s one of the challenges in medicine. How do you engage the person in the changes they need to make? We need to find a better way to have people get engaged. That was from the science of motivational interviewing that was developed in the drug and alcohol treatment world. Researchers in that field said if we ask questions differently, we can improve the likelihood they will change.
“We try to create those ‘ah ha’ moments. People really are nutritionally illiterate and activity illiterate. What we do is use better information to reveal better what their risks are. And, if they are heading toward a heart attack, stroke or diabetes, get them on that road to change.”
Clinical providers, hospital systems, physician practices and providers can use Adventia’s software to help patients create a plan that gives them a better chance to prevent health problems years before they need to be treated. Employees can use the corporate model to take control of their wellness in much the same way.
Wright points to Varsity Brands, a Memphis-based company that first used the software in 2011. He said 20 percent of the company’s employees lost more than 2.5 inches on their waistline.
Among 650 participating employees, 28 percent lowered total cholesterol an average of 20 points, more than 30 percent lowered blood pressure an average of 10 points, 31 percent lost an average of 8.5 pounds, 34 percent lowered bad cholesterol an average of 17 points and 44 percent raised good cholesterol an average of nine points.
“This is without drugs,” Wright said. “It’s having better information to help them make decisions. Lots of folks made dramatic changes just by having this information.”
Adventia’s model isn’t smoking cessation or weight loss programs. But what it does provide is tailored information that helps people create individual plans that naturally lead to better lifestyle choices.
The first part of the process is a health risk assessment. Clients learn levels of risk based on factors they can’t change such as age or gender as well as factors they can change.
The next step is a lab report that goes into detail on waist measurement, blood pressure and levels of triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and glucose and what the specific risk levels are for each.
An examination of the carotid arteries is next to determine levels of plaque buildup. The artery age can help determine the lifetime risk for heart attack and stroke.
Finally, a personalized treatment plan goes beyond instructions to eat healthier; it now includes specifics on diet. People with higher risks also receive health coaching.
The next step for Adventia is getting the software in more physician practices and corporate settings so more people can prevent heart episodes.
“Prevention evidence has exploded in the last decade, but doctors are busy taking care of sick people,” Wright said. “Keeping people healthy isn’t in the front of our minds. We’re taking care of urgent problems in front of us. … It struck me I know how to do this. I’ve refined it just to take care of my patients. The software is a clinical decision tool. It simplifies the doctor’s practice.”
It makes sense to start in Memphis, a city with many health problems among its residents. But one of the first expansions of the software’s use was in Alabama, a state that is 50th in diabetes and strokes, 49th in cardiovascular disease deaths and 47th in heart attack deaths. In August, Ivy Creek Healthcare opened three Alabama Wellness and Prevention Centers in communities outside Montgomery. Adventia’s software, training and education are at the heart of these clinics.
Wright said he wants the direct-to-consumer model to expand. The first opportunity comes this month with the opening of the Wellness and Prevention Center Memphis on Brookfield Road in East Memphis. The clinic is staffed by a nurse practitioner who worked with Wright in private practice, and one of his former residents now in private practice will be supervising physician.
The stand-alone clinic is one of two ways Adventia’s technology is used in a consumer setting. The other way is to have doctors open clinics that are part of an existing private practice.
The first is in the works in North Carolina. Adventia will go on site to train a doctor’s staff on how to use the software. The physician will refer his patients to the clinic.
“Our strategy is to link arms with primary care doctors,” Wright said. “We don’t want to take the place of primary care doctors. We are there to link arms to extend the reach of the primary care doctor. We do what they don’t have time to do. They don’t have time to coach lifestyle.”
RELATED LINKS:
Alabama Wellness and Prevention Center, www.awpcenter.com