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What if your company could supplement its wellness program by allowing employees to download short video clips tailored to their health concerns? Or your human resources manager could easily send a 30-second “health tip of the day” in a morning e-mail to employees?

On-Demand Health Media LLC has begun providing such products to employers and health organizations throughout the country. The West Des Moines-based start-up company boasts an online wellness library of more than 2,700 videos that it has contracted through five health video producers. Within the next 18 months, the company, which at this point still operates virtually, plans to ramp up production of its own videos in Greater Des Moines.

“We think the market is big,” said Connie Bever, the company’s president, “and we think we have done something unique for this market because most companies don’t know where to go for videos. And we’ve done a lot of research in putting together our library, which is really five libraries.”

Providing videos to enhance learning is one teaching method that medical clinics and physicians have used for years, Bever said. “We went to the producers of these videos and said, ‘We’d like to take your product line to corporate America and use them for prevention.’ So of course, they were really excited about that.”

Tailored package

Prior to launching On-Demand Health Media, Bever was vice president of American Media Inc., a former West Des Moines-based online management training video company that she helped grow to a multimillion-dollar business. Founded in 1977, American Media had clients in more than 50 countries before it was sold in 1998 to Provant Inc.

Bever co-founded On-Demand in April with Art Bauer, an expert in training, motivation and video production who founded American Media, and Dr. Gaylord Nordine, a physician who specializes in preventive medicine and health-care management.

“Art Bauer called me earlier this year and said, ‘Let’s get back together and produce videos again,’ but his new passion was health and wellness,” Bever said. Collaborating with Nordine, Bauer determined that Baby Boomers needed better access to health-care information through their employers, she said.

Though a number of online media companies have been launched that provide similar wellness products, Bever said On-Demand Health Media differs by providing access to products selected from several producers’ libraries, enabling clients to easily customize a package of products they prefer from different providers.

“So if a company likes the fitness videos from one producer but they like the disease-management videos from another producer, we can put together a custom package for them and put it on their server,” she said. “We really don’t have any competition yet, when you consider the business model that we have.”

The online video production companies that On-Demand Health Media has partnered with for its content include Wired.MD, Milner-Fenwick Inc. and MD Kiosk Inc. The topics range from managing diabetes to controlling high blood pressure, reducing eye strain and preventing heart attacks. Among the organizations that are using these producers’ products are Kaiser Permanente, Honeywell International Inc. and Chrysler Motor Corp.

Kevin Teale, a spokesman for Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, said the Des Moines-based health insurer has been contacted by On-Demand Health Media and is aware of its offerings.

“We are not sure at this point whether we are going to do business with them,” Teale said. “We’re certainly always interested in the best way to reach out to our audience, especially with our focus on wellness and health. So that’s something that we take into account when we reach out to those customers.”

Enhance participation

Several studies point to the effectiveness of videos in reinforcing learning. According to one study by the American Academy of Pediatrics, viewing a video can reduce learning time by nearly 50 percent, and provide 24 percent more retention than reading the same material.

Companies have also used On-Demand’s videos to boost participation in wellness screenings and events.

“A lot of companies have a screening day once a year, and even when they offer it free of charge, there’s only a 20 to 30 percent participation rate,” Bever said. “But if they send out videos in advance that explains that high blood pressure is a silent killer, they’ll come to the screening and participate. … We’ve had a couple of wellness companies tell us that when they do proactive marketing ahead of the screening, they can get up to 75 to 90 percent participation. And sometimes they’re offering incentives, too. So the combination of educating people and incentivizing them in some way is pretty effective.”

The cost ranges from $3.50 per employee per year for companies with 5,000 or more employees to $3.99 per employee per year for companies with up to 750 employees.

“Most companies are really shocked that that’s per year, and not per month,” Bever said. “Most actually think it’s going to be more expensive. Generally, I think it’s a pleasant surprise for them.”

More companies seem to recognize the value of allowing employees time during work to view short videos aimed at improving their wellness knowledge, Bever said.

“At first I kind of questioned that; would they want them to?” she said. “But the benefits are there for the company. If the company can prevent a case of diabetes, they can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars. And most of them are short, so it’s not like they’re tying up hours. Or they can watch them at home or while they’re traveling.”

On-Demand can provide three levels of tracking for clients, depending on the extent to which they want to incorporate the videos into their wellness programs. At the most basic level, companies receive a monthly report detailing the number of times each video topic was downloaded, including how many employees e-mailed a video to family members, which is encouraged.

At a second level, a company can invite employees to take part in a health coaching session. After being sent a video to view, the employee might get incentive points for having viewed it. At a third level, companies can provide a quiz following the video, with wellness points given depending on how well participants score on the quiz.

“So depending on how they want to use the videos, they can sign up for any of those three levels of tracking,” Bever said. “Confidentiality is important, so they have to have their employees sign (a release) if they’re going to have them coached and want (the coaches) to be able to use the videos.”

The product is all about helping people to change their behavior, “and we think video is the most effective way to do that,” she said. “That’s why we feel good about what we’re doing, because we’re helping individuals, and we’re helping companies at the same time. The way to do that is through behavior change. … You’re seeing positive role models, and how exactly to do something.”