Lawrence University Biomedical Ethics Lecture Examines the Business of Wellness

APPLETON, WIS. -- Dee Edington, director of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center and a research scientist in the UM School of Public Health, will discuss recent prevention and disease management strategies for controlling health care costs in an address at Lawrence University.

Edington presents "Wellness -- A Serious Business" Monday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence's Wriston Art Center Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Based on HMRC research conducted over the past 15 years, Edington will address the importance of establishing "maintenance" programs for low-risk employees to complement "reduction" programs for high-risk employees. He also will discuss studies that examine how health and productivity are influenced by what happens to an employee off the job as well as on the job and how risks and diseases affect the health and productivity differentially.

Edington's teaching and research interests center on the relationship between healthy lifestyles, vitality and quality of life and how individual health promotion, worksite wellness activities and programs within organizations impact health care cost containment, productivity and human resource development.

The author of numerous books, including "Biology of Physical Activity" and "The One Minute Manager Gets Fit," Edington earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics at Michigan State Univesity and his Ph.D. in physical education at MSU.