Premium Health Care Services

It’s an interesting phenomenon. Canadians spend a staggering $280 billion per year on life insurance, but less than three per cent of that on preventive health services that can improve their chances of living longer. More and more people are now realizing that they really don’t have life insurance at all — just “death” insurance. And so a whole new industry is being born.

Think about it. People spend a lot of money andeffort making sure their family is taken care of when they die. But how much money and effort is invested by the average person to make sure they live the longest, healthiest life possible? Isn’t that what a person’s family really wants?

“More and more people are questioning themselves about this every day,” says Don Copeman, founder of the Copeman Healthcare Centres. “That is why we are seeing a rapidly growing market for premium health services.” The result is a new style of medical clinic that offers advanced preventive health services, in addition to high-quality day-to-day medical care, 24-7 availability and a long-overdue focus on customer service. Perhaps more significantly, these new clinics are offering complete health-care services that take care of the body, the mind and now — the brain.

The Copeman Healthcare organization is the pioneer and recognized leader in this growing market, with large medical centres in Vancouver and Calgary and two more in development (Edmonton and West Vancouver). The Copeman organization is laying the foundation for a Canadian network of advanced diagnostic and treatment facilities that combine highly trained doctors and medical professionals into specialized teams to tackle the troubling issue of undiagnosed illness and disease for middle-aged Canadians.

“Every seven minutes, someone in Canada dies of heart disease or stroke and 32 per cent of all deaths in Canada are the result of cardiovascular disease,” says Copeman. “We can do a lot to reduce these numbers, but it requires new ways of thinking, both for the patient and the providers. That’s because 50 per cent of people with heart problems do not show symptoms visible to their family doctor.”

Copeman goes on to say that great treatment results can also be achieved with cancer, which is actually the leading cause of premature death in Canada. “People need more personalized attention to help them understand their risk factors for cancer, and to help them make the changes that will reduce overall risk.”

Preventing disease altogether is the ultimate goal of this new style of clinic, but many of their patients arrive with disease already taking hold, so early detection is key. “Whether it’s cancer, cardiovascular disease or any other condition, we need to detect disease at the stage where treatment is most successful,” says Copeman.

Early results are already in. Copeman says that over 30 per cent of people who come into their clinics have an undiagnosed condition. Of those patients, 70 per cent will have conditions that significantly increase their health risks and warrant immediate medical attention. The good news, he says, is that everyone gets the treatment services they need without delay, in addition to the guidance to stay healthy.

The approach being used at the Copeman clinics is to combine the preventive health-care expertise of doctors with other professionals such as registered dietitians, psychologists, neuropsychologists (brain health), exercise medicine specialists, coaches, nurses and an array of specialists. Patients are seen leaving the doors clutching their health plans. At home, they are accessing the secure, high-tech Copeman Centre website for their medical charts, laboratory results, health goals and personalized education.

An interesting challenge for these clinics is that people are often afraid to come in and have something discovered, even though they understand that it could very well save their life if something is diagnosed early. According to Copeman, “Even though we do discover undiagnosed disease in patients, each of them is now on a path to optimal health. This is what reluctant people need to understand. You can’t just close your eyes and hope nothing is wrong with you. It could end up being the biggest risk you’ve ever taken.”

Another challenge, according to Copeman, is that many people are afraid that disease prevention always means a big change in lifestyle. Therefore, because they are happy with their habits and aren’t really interested in changing them, they stay away from early prevention services. They fear that doctors and professionals are going to ride them into change they aren’t ready for.

Sanda Islik, a specialized nurse and health coach at the Copeman Centre in Vancouver, says that it is common to hear people say they will join the centre once they’ve lost a few pounds or given up smoking. “We aren’t here to force people into change they are not ready for. We know that is usually an unsuccessful approach. We are here to educate people on their personal risk factors, screen and test for early signs of disease, and then be there for them when they are ready and can use further guidance and support.”

The Mind-Body Connection

The truth is that real prevention through lifestyle change is hard to achieve for many people. By the time they are paying serious attention to their health, lifestyle choices are well ingrained. More significantly, those choices are often made to help cope with stress or emotional issues. The best examples are smoking, lack of exercise, over-eating and excess alcohol consumption — top modifiable risk factors for a large majority of cancers and chronic diseases. So before a person can really be ready for change, they need to deal with psychological health issues that may be standing in the way.

Dr. Jon Amundson, a clinical psychologist at the Copeman Healthcare Centre in Calgary, and the company’s Vice-President of Psychological Program Development, emphasizes the importance of this connection. “An important thing that sets our organization apart from other health-care centres, perhaps even on a global level, is its unwavering commitment to psychological health. We recognized early on that if we were going to be successful at disease prevention, we better get very good at helping people with stress and mental health issues.”

In addition to its role in helping people with lifestyle change, a psychological health service first and foremost is important in treating conditions that are affecting more and more people in our society. Approximately eight per cent of Canadians will experience major depression in their lives and about 12 per cent will develop an anxiety disorder. The numbers are even higher when considering less serious, but nevertheless often debilitating cases. In addition to the serious consequences of these conditions in overall health and wellbeing, they add further to the risks of physical disease.

The most recent major movement in scientific thinking is the linkage between brain health, psychological health and physical health. Scientists now know that even normal age-related changes in brain health and cognition can trigger psychological health issues and, in turn, physical health concerns. The good news is that these same scientists have discovered that the onset of symptoms of serious dementing conditions like Alzheimer’s can be delayed or prevented through lifestyle changes and early intervention.

Dr. Cirelle Rosenblatt, the Head of Neuropsychology at the Copeman Healthcare Centres, says that the research and work at the centre may have a major impact on how we look at overall primary health care and disease prevention in the years ahead. “Our team is developing cost-effective tools for detecting early changes in brain function, before clinical symptoms appear, so that patients and their physicians are able to address reversible causes of these changes and work to build the brain’s ‘resistance’ to disease.”

This new way of looking at wellness as the combination of physical, psychological and brain health may very well become the hallmark of the premium health-care clinics of the future.

How likely is it we will see more clinics like the Copeman Healthcare Centre? According to a large poll conducted by Decima Research in 2005, about 23 per cent of Canadians said that they would likely pay the fees that Copeman charges (approximately $3,000 per year per adult) for a premium health service. Given the $20-billion market that those numbers suggest, you can be assured that the Copeman Healthcare Centre won’t be the only such clinic in the years ahead — and it would seem that there really is a different type of “life insurance” industry developing in Canada.•