Wellness, applied to medicine, is defined as: an approach to health care that emphasizes disease prevention and prolonging life, rather than emphasizing the treatment of disease. Or also as the quality or state of being healthy, especially as a result of deliberate effort.
From these definitions, it can be deduced that this is an area of medicine that focuses on preventing the onset of disease rather than on treatments that can be administered once the disease has already manifested itself. This is the result of a deliberate effort by the patient and the medical team treating them, carried out on a constant, scheduled, and individualized basis. This idea is fully in line with the intention and course of action that Biosalud Day Hospital has always had.
Our prevention program combines genetic analysis, which allows us to detect a patient's predisposition to disease, with attention to their current state of health. In this way, we can design a treatment plan that prevents the development of disease.
Increasing the focus on prevention helps improve people's health, quality of life, and prosperity.
Focusing on preventing diseases before they occur will create healthier individuals, families, workplaces, schools, and cities, enabling individuals to live long and productive lives and reducing healthcare costs.
With better health, children attend school longer and are better able to learn. Numerous studies have found that regular physical activity supports better learning. Student fitness levels have been correlated with academic achievement, including improved scores in math, reading, and writing.
Health prevention also manifests itself in labor productivity. With better health, adults are more productive and work more days. Disease prevention increases productivity: asthma, hypertension, smoking, and obesity reduce annual productivity per person.
With better health, older adults maintain their independence. Supporting older adults who choose to remain in their homes and maintain their independence helps promote and maintain positive mental and emotional health.
Investments in prevention throughout life complement and support treatment and care. Prevention programs can be cost-effective, reduce healthcare costs, and improve productivity.
Preventing disease starts at our workplaces and in our homes, not just at the doctor's office. For example, companies can adopt practices to encourage their employees to increase physical activity and reduce pollution (e.g., workplace flexibility, carpooling programs, parking and travel incentives, and teleworking options).
It is also necessary to expand quality preventive services in clinical settings. When people receive preventive care, such as immunizations and cancer screenings, they are healthier and incur lower healthcare costs. For example, diabetes prevention programs support preventive efforts among underserved groups and can improve access to preventive services.
Another point in the plan: empowering people to make healthy choices. A preventive health program can make healthy choices easy and affordable, and when people have access to information and resources that are easy to understand and implement, they have the power to make healthier choices. For example, health professionals can use multiple communication tools (e.g., mobile phone apps, personal health records, and credible health websites) and culturally competent methods to support more traditional written and oral communication.
Eliminating health disparities: By eliminating disparities in achieving and maintaining health, we can help improve the quality of life for all citizens. For example, private hospitals, such as Biosalud Day Hospital, can train and hire more qualified personnel from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities.
The seven priority areas of a preventive health strategy or plan are:
At Biosalud Day Hospital, we know that healthcare can prevent aging and the onset of disease. Our preventive approach combines genetic testing, which allows us to detect a patient's predisposition to disease, with the study and monitoring of the person's current state of health. This enables us to design a treatment plan that is entirely focused on preventing disease before it appears.
This concept is completely innovative, as our approach is geared toward performing various diagnostic tests and a set of therapeutic techniques that allow us to achieve maximum effectiveness.
