Ludwigsburg, 16 February 2022. For some years now, employers have been required to prioritise the health and well-being of their employees in order to maintain the long-term competitiveness and future viability of their company. In the past year, which was once again influenced by the coronavirus pandemic and presented many employers in all sectors with a variety of challenges, health protection issues are of particular importance. Regardless of the size of the company - on the management boards of both large corporations and SMEs - there is a consensus that occupational health management is particularly important in times of crisis in order to ensure the success of one's own organisation.
However, the professional establishment or further development of occupational health management is not easy and raises many questions for both those experienced in occupational health management and those new to it. Many health service providers have already recognised this need and flooded the market with the unfiltered promise of accompanying companies on their way. However, the consequences of this oversupply are always time-consuming research and quality analyses on the part of company health managers and other responsible functionaries in OHM in order to find the right service provider for the implementation of strategies and upcoming measures.
"The healthcare market is constantly and rapidly evolving, with new providers and services emerging all the time. This creativity is of course to be welcomed," says Katja Kleebank, Head of Top Brand at EUPD Research. "However, overview and quality assurance are easily neglected. The Top Brand Corporate Health certification brings light into the darkness and helps companies to find reliable service providers and thus guarantee binding standards."
The award, presented by EUPD Research, is based on the one hand on practice-oriented nominations of the responsible OHM experts from Germany's best employers with their own company health management, who were able to demonstrate their expertise in dealing with providers in BGF and BGM as part of the Corporate Health Awards. The nominations are complemented by the Top Brand Expert Advisory Board, which is made up of Germany's leading experts from science, health insurance companies, the healthcare sector and associations. All healthcare providers were assessed in the following five model dimensions: "Quality of service", "Quality of employees", "Cost structure", "Reliability" and "Likelihood of recommendation". A subsequent audit by BDO Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft AG under the direction of Prof Dr Volker Nürnberg enabled the nominated healthcare providers to have their status as a top brand verified.
Company representatives can now be sure that the service providers recognised as Top Brand Corporate Health are high-quality providers that have been explicitly recommended by practitioners. "We are proud of the transparency that we can create with our quality standard," explains Steffen Klink, Director Corporate Health Department at EUPD Research. "The nomination by demonstrably successful companies and healthcare experts fulfils the important requirement of reflecting and evaluating the market in a practical way."
Deep Care was also able to stand out from thousands of service providers and was awarded the Top Brand Corporate Health 2022 quality mark. Steffen Klink congratulates: "We are delighted to welcome the service provider Deep Care with its digital health coach award. The "Intelligent Sitting Behaviour Assistant" offers innovative and low-threshold support for a healthy daily routine and represents a showcase project for the implementation of artificial intelligence in health management. The Top Brand Corporate Health award is therefore a great opportunity to emphasise the future importance of technology in the field of health promotion."
Deep Care is an award-winning "high-tech startup" in the healthcare industry and combines the possibilities of artificial intelligence with health applications in the workplace. The founding team of the start-up, which was founded in 2020, has always pursued a vision of "Valuing life by making the Health prove themselves". Unlike most occupational health management solutions, Deep Care starts with the development of health risks in the workplace. Founder and Managing Director Dr Milad Geravand explains: "It is important to us that everyone has the opportunity not only to compensate for unhealthy behaviour at work, but also to avoid it as far as possible. To this end, we have developed a digital health coach that gives employees low-threshold access to more exercise, better ergonomics and optimised drinking habits - while at work and without distractions."
All users have to do is plug in the device, which is roughly the size of a smartphone, and receive individual and behaviour-related health information on its display. The digital coach (ISA) works with data protection-compliant sensors and intelligent algorithms. "We receive feedback almost daily from users who report that they no longer have complaints such as headaches or back pain or that their vitality and motivation have increased since using the device. Such comments naturally encourage us in what we are doing". Companies also seem enthusiastic about the approach, according to Andreas Pesch, BGM Coordination Robert Bosch GmbH: "Uncomplicated and effective. A prime example of sensible digitalisation".
