This WSJ article, despite its focus on US health reform, offers evidence that health is mighty personal. The leaders of three top global health enterprises (Cosgrove of Cleveland Clinic; Vasella of Novartis; and Williams of Aetna) provide commentary that the WSJ summarizes in five recommendations. However, I found just as interesting the interstitials in their comments -- showing not only what they see as important but how very personally and "close to home" these CEOs view the questions of health. Here are few notable quotes:

- Dr. Cosgrove: Let me just step in for a second and say I think that this group has an enormous opportunity in terms of putting the incentives right for employees in terms of wellness… [that] corporate leaders can really change this is very clear. We've done a number of things at the Cleveland Clinic amongst our employees. So far, since we started our [wellness] program, we've lost 120,000 pounds.

- Dr. Vasella: We are looking forward to a generation who may live shorter than we do unless action is taken. The question is also, what do we do as companies to address this problem and make it easier for our employees to live a healthy lifestyle?

- Mr. Williams: In our own company, in the group setting, for example, we give our employees a discount if they are a nonsmoker on their premium that they pay as a percentage of their health insurance. We also will pay all the smoking-cessation costs, and if you quit during the year, then we will give you the nonsmoking rate. So I think the objective in these things has to be to not be punitive; it has to be to help people get to a state where they really are doing things that are supportive of good health.

Of comparable import, I wanted to draw attention to a significant point that’s missing from the conversation. Among the WSJ recommendations is “holding patients accountable”. Separately, there’s “promote integrated care”. These are currently disparate, and employers should recognize that chasm. The magic – better health outcomes, lower costs, greater satisfaction, and improved public health in aggregate – happens when patients/people and their providers partner, with mutual accountability. Anything less is not consistent with our health engagement message of participatory health – that it’s not just carrots and sticks for patients to care for themselves, but to partner with providers.

Take a full read, and let me know what you think.