Since 2019, Modern Healthcare has honored the industry's top 25 innovators who are driving change across healthcare to promote quality, affordability, accessibility, and sustainability. Each honoree is distinguished for instituting innovation and leading transformative programs that improve care by achieving measurable results and contributing to the clinical and financial goals of their organization. For more information, visit www.modernhealthcare.com/awards/top-25-innovators-2020.
“I am incredibly humbled and honored to have received this award, but it is important to me that this is recognized as a ‘we’ award and not ‘me’,” says Deb Logan. “Blue Zones Project—SWFL’s meaningful work and impact would not be possible without the generous and visionary leadership of NCH Healthcare System. As a healthcare system, NCH has taken bold and admirable steps to be part of the solution and lead the healthcare industry and so this award belongs to NCH, our local and central teams at Sharecare, as well as our many community partners and enthusiastic individuals who say ‘yes’ to well-being.”
For more than five years, Logan has led the BZP Southwest Florida team – which touches more than 225,000 lives and covers a geographic area larger than Delaware – to improve well-being among residents by transforming the places they live, work, and play. By engaging local schools, employers, restaurants, homeowners associations, and faith-based institutions in this effort, the team led by Logan successfully helped improve quality of life and lower healthcare costs – an analysis of findings from Sharecare's Community Well-Being Index measured more than $40 million in medical and productivity savings for the community over the past four years. To date, the Project has also achieved measurable results in Southwest Florida by reducing smoking rates from 8.8% to 5.6%, lowering cardiovascular mortality by 8.1%, and increasing life expectancy to the highest in the nation.
“As a partner with Blue Zones, we are proud of the great accomplishments Deb and her team have made over the last five years,” said Paul Hiltz, President and CEO of NCH Healthcare System. “This recognition is well-deserved and is a result of the focus that’s contributed to the success of the many wellness accomplishments in Southwest Florida.”
Brought to Southwest Florida by NCH Healthcare System, in collaboration with Sharecare, Inc. and Blue Zones, LLC, BZP is a vital part of Southwest Florida’s well-being improvement initiative that encourages changes in the community that lead to healthier options. Prior to the BZP-led transformation, the Southwest Florida metropolitan area – which includes Naples, Immokalee, and Marco Island – ranked 73rd in the nation for overall well-being in 2011. In recent years, the community has led the nation, achieving the best Well-Being Index scores in the U.S. for several consecutive years.