Aetna and Yale University deliver ‘higher education’ to customers

Key members of the Aetna International Americas team recently spent three days in the hallowed halls of Yale University, hosting a thought leadership event for our customers.

According to Mike Delamere, general manager of the Americas, “The 2019 Thought Leadership Programme was a great opportunity to showcase our partnership with Yale and give our customers a chance to hear about global health care topics from some of the country’s top professors.”

Throughout the event, the Americas team was able to share some of the pioneering work we do to help drive workforce productivity up, while also stabilising or even lowering health care costs for our customers. And what better place to present leading-edge thinking than at Yale University?

Attendees were given an overview of global health care spending and the economics of health care. They also heard about how Aetna is using innovation, data and even genomics to encourage better health and wellness.

Aetna customers in attendance also had the opportunity to preview “The Science of Well-being,” the most popular course in Yale University’s more than 300-year history. So popular, in fact, that Professor Laurie Santos’ Happiness Class is now being offered as a free online course (audit) through Coursera, an educational platform that partners with top universities and organisations worldwide to offer courses online for anyone to take for free. Check out what Professor Santos had to say about her wildly popular course on CBS This Morning here.

So, was the event beneficial to our customers? They think so.

• "The event was highly value-added, energising, insightful, interesting and enjoyable.”
• "The event truly lived up to the title of Thought Leadership. I look forward to continuing the conversations and the friendships.”
• "The perspectives provided by the speakers and the conversations with other thought leaders in our shared profession were a great learning experience.”
• "This thought leadership programme was outstanding! We were presented with research, data and concepts from leading experts whose passion is contagious. I left the programme energised and eager to start the work of translating what I learned into action, which will benefit our people and our company.”

“Hosting the 2019 Thought Leadership Programme allowed us to dialogue with many of our valued customers and underscore our ongoing commitment to helping them drive health care costs down and workforce productivity up,” Delamere said. “It was a great opportunity to demonstrate our expertise, innovation and thought leadership. We’re confident we demonstrated why Aetna is a great health and wellness partner.”