Whole Health

See Change wasn’t your typical conference. Over a few days in Burlington, conversations built on one another as art and music flowed between sessions and small track cohorts dug deep into big questions. Experts guided, ideas collided, and connections formed in unexpected places. The event may be over, but the energy and insights continue to ripple outward. Read on to see what we found. Learn more about See Change and the other topic tracks here.

A New Hope For Health Care: Prioritizing Prevention, Living Healthier, & Spending Wisely

The Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Vermont (OCIH) is convening employers, HR leaders, healthcare practitioners, investors, insurers, and policy experts to explore innovative ways to scale an effective, evidence-based whole-person approach to healthcare. The focus: advancing prevention, cost efficiency, and access to health and wellness.

Objectives

Our goals were to:

• Foster Collaborative Relationships: Build cross-sector partnerships, opening doors to knowledge and skill sharing, funding opportunities, and innovative frameworks.
• Advance Innovation: Identify barriers to scale and actionable strategies for implementing whole health economic models inside companies and beyond.
• Explore Economic Implications: Assess cost savings, value-based reimbursement models, and policy shifts that can drive adoption of Whole Health.

Topic Guides & Experience Guides

Each track was supported by a curated group of topic guides—individuals with deep, hands-on experience and a unique connection to the subject at hand. Alongside them, experience guides shifted perspectives, leading everyone through meaningful moments rooted in nature, movement, creativity, or conversation. Working closely with the track facilitator, both topic guides and experience guides helped shape the direction of the conversations and ensure the labs stay grounded in real-world insight and a deep collaborative spirit.

WTF Session

Some topics really make you stop and say "what the f&%$ is that?" So, we made a whole series around it! A topic guide demystified an intriguing topic in a fast-moving, Cliffs Notes–esque format.

Topic Focus

The U.S. healthcare system is at a pivotal moment. While it has long been characterized by high costs and fragmented care—especially as rates of chronic conditions rise—there is growing momentum to reimagine how we define and deliver health.

Too often, investments focus on treating disease rather than preventing it, driven by reimbursement models that reward volume over value. But a new vision is emerging—one that prioritizes long-term outcomes, supports whole-person care, and recognizes the power of self-care, positive lifestyle change, and non-pharmacologic treatment.

To drive real change in healthcare, we must redefine success by shifting incentives, adjusting reimbursement models, and recognizing the economic value of proactive, whole-person care. Employers, unlike the traditional healthcare system, have a direct incentive to maintain the health and wellness of their employees. Preventative, whole-person care is an incredibly valuable tool in achieving that goal. Scaling and adopting these approaches require interdisciplinary collaboration and meaningful partnerships between employers, health systems, policymakers, and insurers.

This track convened a curated multi-stakeholder cohort for a truly unique experience that will explore working case studies from field leaders in HR, policy, economics, and medicine to unpack barriers to scale and adoption, uncover new solutions, and establish lasting partnerships.

Who Was This Track For?

A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

Implementing new, meaningful whole-person healthcare care programs, in and outside of companies, requires collaboration across multiple sectors. In addition to field leading experts that will share case studies and stories of success and challenge, this track did a deep dive with a cohort of 50 or less from:

• Employers Interested in Investing in Whole Health (HR, Chief People Officer and Organizational Development leaders, CEO’s, Founders, Executive Directors)
• Medical Experts & Practitioners (Integrative, Whole Health, and Conventional Medicine)
• Policy Leaders (Health system administrators, public health leaders, government, patient advocates)
• Consumer Health & Wellness / Medtech startups (Technology leaders with accessible tools for scaling whole health - apps & platforms, supplements, bio-tech)
• Financial Experts (Health economists, impact investors, private equity, philanthropists, insurance executives)

Still have questions? Check out the FAQs to learn about hotels, parking, meals, and other logistics.