Missouri Health System Adds Digital Sleep Improvement Program, Sleepio, to Employee Benefits
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Big Health, a digital medicine company dedicated to getting millions back to good health, today announced a three-year agreement with BJC HealthCare to offer improved sleep quality for its medical plan participants. BJC HealthCare is adding Big Health’s Sleepio, a digital sleep improvement program, to the Total Rewards package available to its 31,000 employees across two states.
Sleepio is designed to help reduce insomnia, which often leads to health problems including increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart attack, stroke, anxiety and depression. As a digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program, Sleepio is associated not only with reducing insomnia but also with improving functional health, psychological well-being and sleep-related quality of life. Sleepio offers a sleep test and personalized sleep help based on best practices of cognitive behavioral therapy. The six-week program coaches users to address the mental (or cognitive) factors associated with insomnia, such as the ‘racing mind’, and to overcome the worry and other negative emotions that accompany the experience of being unable to sleep.
BJC HealthCare is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare organizations in the United States and the largest employer in the state of Missouri. It joins the growing list of organizations looking to add digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy programs to their health benefits offerings. Sleepio is used by more than 1 million people through employers, including Comcast, Boston Medical Center, LinkedIn and The Hartford.
American College of Physicians guidelines recommend that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) be used as an initial treatment for insomnia, ahead of sleeping pills. Digital programs based on CBT (dCBT), such as Sleepio, are becoming an increasingly popular option for following the guidelines. In clinical studies, dCBT has also repeatedly achieved statistically significant and clinically meaningful results for outcomes outside of sleep, including improved quality of life and daytime functioning.
For example, a recent year-long study conducted at the University of Oxford, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found Sleepio improved not only insomnia symptoms but also physical health and emotional well-being. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, sleepiness and stress were improved, while moderate to large reductions in fatigue were recorded.
“Sleep is vital to well-being and physical health, yet many people struggle with insomnia. At BJC HealthCare, we recognize the importance of quality rest and want to offer effective assistance for our team members to gain the health benefits of improved sleep quality,” said Sherry Ward, Vice President, HR Operations & Total Rewards at BJC HealthCare.
“Healthcare professionals can suffer higher rates of poor physical and emotional well-being due to workplace influences than most other professions,” said Peter Hames, co-founder and CEO of Big Health. “We are proud to work with a world-class health organization like BJC HealthCare to deliver digital medicine that will help employees. Sleepio will help staff improve their own physical, social and emotional health, as they deliver vital care to patients.”
About Big Health
Big Health’s purpose is to help millions back to good mental health, which it does by creating Digital Medicine: fully automated and highly personalized behavioral medicine programs for mental health.
Big Health’s first solution, Sleepio, is a digital sleep improvement program featuring Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques designed by Prof Colin Espie (University of Oxford). In addition to helping sufferers make the changes necessary to overcome insomnia, it also acts as a stigma-free way to help improve anxiety and depression at population scale.
Sleepio is backed by the world’s leading evidence base for any digital therapeutic, with 33 peer-reviewed papers including eight randomized controlled trials. Under controlled conditions, 76% of insomnia sufferers using Sleepio achieved healthy sleep, and in a clinical audit study 68% of NHS depression and anxiety patients using Sleepio moved to recovery.
With offices in London and San Francisco, Big Health’s products are now being used by large multinational employers and major health plans to help improve the sleep and mental health of over one million people across 60+ countries.
About BJC HealthCare
BJC HealthCare is one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the United States, and is focused on delivering services to residents primarily in the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid-Missouri regions. With 31,000 employees and net revenues of $5 billion, BJC serves the health care needs of urban, suburban and rural communities and includes 15 hospitals and multiple community health locations. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice. BJC’s nationally recognized academic medical centers, Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, are affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine. BJC is the largest provider of charity care, unreimbursed care and community benefits in the state of Missouri. To learn more, visit www.bjc.org.
Media Contacts
Firebrand Communications for Big Health
Chris Ulbrich
415.848.9175 / bighealth@firebrand.marketing
