Atos leads We@Work initiative to ensure health in the workplace

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, leads the European consortium We@Work intiative, which supports workers and employers lead a healthy working life. By combining Big Data analytics, wearables sensors, communication technology and ergonomics, the new platform will monitor workers to identify and issue preventative alerts on detection of risk and capacity loss in the workplace, as well as facilitate employee self-management of a healthy working life. The platform will be ready later on this year and is scheduled to pilot at both Karolinksa University Hospital in Sweden and at the headquarters of Atos in Spain in 2018.

Atos brings its expertise in creating successful working environments to improve employee and customer satisfaction to the project. Atos’ established Group employee transformation program, Wellbeing@work, helps develop, inspire and recognize employees and encourages healthy living and greater work life balance.

Reduce social costs and avoid human error

Work-related injuries and disorders constitute a major burden and cost for the worker, employers and society, costing between 2.6 and 3.8 per cent of GNP in Europe. A poorly designed workplace, in addition to the loss of quality and productivity, can generate a direct cost of more than €50,000 in a single company. Research shows that the implementation of health and wellness initiatives in companies can not only reduce absenteeism by 25 to 40%, but also increase productivity overall.

The We@Work project

New developments in sensor technology, mobile data acquisition and the latest risk assessment methodologies combined with Big Data analysis, enable businesses to predict risk in the workplace, including risk of work-related injuries and also to assess the ability to operate demanding and dangerous machinery at an affordable cost.

We@Work brings a new approach to occupational health by preventing risks with a service that enables employees to self-manage health and work. This service will ensure early detection of fatigue symptoms, the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders resulting from inappropriate physical exposures and will create individual personalised systems to prevent stress and promote wellbeing at work.

Other applications that have already been developed to support a healthy working environment include the Atos Pocket mHealth application, which allows patients to carry and manage their electronic health record (EHR) on their mobile phones, centralizing communication between the user and other devices and third parties. Together with Phillips HealthSuite's cloud platform, this application manages technology/data from portable monitoring devices, such as ZHT sensor garments and the inertial motion sensors and physiological signals in the Phillip Health Watch, to enable its wearers to keep a track their on metrics and live a healthier life.

The We@Work consortium, led by Atos España S.A., includes Z-Health Technologies, Philips Research, Quiron Prevencion, Karolinksa Institute KTH-Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan and Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden.