The Minnesota Business Magazine has announced its finalists for their 2017 Innovators in Health & Wellness Awards and Joel Theisen, RN, Lifespark CEO & Founder is one of three Minnesota executives named finalists for the Health Care Executive Award. “I’m honored to be counted alongside Siyad Abdullahi, President and CEO of Informed Health Systems, and Andrea Walsh, President and CEO of HealthPartners – two healthcare innovators well respected in our industry. Congratulations to both of them.”
This award was recently rebranded to give greater emphasis to the roles of wellness and health technology. “We look forward to honoring a wide range of med-tech, wellness and health care companies based in Minnesota,” says Minnesota Business Editor-in-Chief Steve LeBeau. “Our health and wellness industry is the global centerpiece of Minnesota’s economy and helps each of us to live happier and healthier lives.”
Joel emphasized, ”this is what our mission is all about – helping seniors to live healthier, happier, and more independent lives. It’s my main objective as a health care executive to bring more fun and goodness into this world by sparking lives, especially for seniors in the second half of life.”
For Joel, this award is meaningful because it tugs at his heartstrings – ”It means people value the kind of leader I am and they are aligned with the vision of creating a whole person population health model, something I believe in deeply.” added Joel.
Joel’s vison took shape as a front-line nurse and self-proclaimed student of culture, with two important lessons learned that shaped the authentic, transparent CEO he is today: there’s more to care than just medical and it’s all about the people.
At Lifespark, the spark starts with Joel,and the ‘purple passion’ flows directly from him because he lives and breathes what it means to spark lives for people in the second half of life. It’s his vision that has impassioned our team, partners, and clients for the past 13 years advocating for a better model of care for seniors that puts the focus on them, not just their medical diagnosis. When the emphasis is put on proactive guidance and wellness, and not episodic or reactive care, that’s where you see the best results: increased client engagement, better health outcomes, lower long-term cost for both the person and the health care system. “It’s what we’ve witnessed with our Lifespark clients under Joel’s leadership, and it’s not only promising but inspiring,” said Matt Kinne, VP, Population Health for Lifespark.
An influencer, change-maker, and innovator, Joel believed early on in his career that seniors deserved a better way to age in this country. After witnessing first-hand seniors on and off what he’s coined ‘the roller coaster of health crisis’ robbing them of their independence, control, and wisdom, he knew it had to stop. His vision was to create a whole person population health model for senior care that eliminated the roller coaster while putting the spark back into seniors’ eyes. Joel has never wavered from his mission and the proven outcomes Lifespark clients receive from his approach demonstrate this model is successfully achieving Triple Aim.
That message of ‘it’s all about the people’ has helped grow Lifespark into an executable platform that improves the wellbeing of communities by providing the ultimate in care and guidance for the individual.
“It’s time for companies to be recognized for the good they are doing for the betterment of our populations,” said Joel. “Minnesota is a great place to age and I’m excited about the future and watching the outstanding contributions my colleagues are making in the health care industry come to fruition.”
Winners will be announced at a November 30 celebration at the Graduate Hotel in Minneapolis. See the full list of finalists, in the 2017 Innovation in Health and Wellness Awards.