社交網絡打造歡樂健康生活

????網絡社交游戲能幫助人們對抗肥胖嗎？它能幫助企業遏制員工醫療保健費用節節攀升的勢頭嗎？

????這正是創業家亞當?博斯沃斯的創業理念。他是互聯網行業的老手，曾效力于微軟（Microsoft）和谷歌（Google）。他創立的Keas網絡公司旨在提升健身、健康飲食的趣味性——或者至少不那么折磨人。

????Keas原是新西蘭一種鳥類的名字，發音為kee-ahs。公司設在舊金山，其基于網絡的應用以企業為目標客戶，由企業向其員工推廣。公司員工們可以五六個人一組組隊參加競賽，組員們獲取積分的方式包括：在線回答關于健康食品的問題、工間抽空休息片刻緩解壓力、或者完成每周攝入水果蔬菜、睡眠當然還有鍛煉等方面的目標。通過一個類似于Facebook動態消息推送（news feed）的界面，參與者的所有相關活動都會彼此分享，團隊成員或競爭對手可以發表評論、給予口頭表揚或者互相督促。

????Keas的收費標準是每個用戶每年12美元，企業可對網站進行個性化設置，并選擇是否向贏得競賽的團隊發放獎勵以及發什么形式的獎勵?！奥晕⒏淖內藗兊男袨槭强尚械?，但必須讓他們覺得過程足夠有趣，”博斯沃斯說。他曾負責運營現已停止的谷歌健康項目，即這家搜索巨頭試圖創建網絡醫療記錄的服務：“人們往往難以堅持到底，這時候就得靠社交機制幫他們重燃激情?！?/p>

????初步應用的結果頗為喜人。建筑巨頭柏克德（Bechtel）推行的大規模保健計劃中就包含了Keas。遍布44個國家的8,000名員工同意使用該服務，在最初的12周中，就有約一半的員工報告稱體重有所下降。進步軟件（Progress Software）的成果更加突出，該公司約有600名員工參與，三分之二的人報告體重出現下降，三分之一稱壓力有所緩解，還有數十人稱減少了不健康食品的攝入量。進步軟件人力資源總監喬?安德魯斯稱：“如果和別人一起參與，就會形成彼此支持的機制。它的影響非常巨大?！?/p>

????不過，有專家警告稱，盡管Keas等健康應用潛力喜人，我們仍必須客觀看待?！叭魏涡袨榈亩唐诟淖兌际强赡軐崿F的，”加州大學洛杉磯分校（UCLA）公共健康學教授托尼?彥西稱：“真正的困難的是讓人們長時間的改變其行為模式?！?/p>

????盡管企業保健應用的總體功效還有待驗證，它們仍在迅速普及，部分原因在于，許多投資者都認為可以利用社交游戲開發商Zynga帶動的社交網絡熱潮來對抗肥胖。Keas已經從投資者那里募集了1,750萬美元，其競爭對手包括理查德?布蘭森的維珍集團旗（Virgin Group）下的維珍健康里程（Virgin HealthMiles）及紅磚健康（Red-Brick Health）等。這話聽來可能有些違反直覺，但如果依托于游戲模式的保健公司最終能夠取得成功，它們或許還得感謝農場鄉村（FarmVille）或黑幫戰爭（Mafia Wars）等懶人最愛的游戲，因為正是它們帶來了這個商機。

????譯者：小宇

????Can an online social game help fight obesity? Can it help businesses put a lid on ever-growing employee health care bills?

????That's the bet entrepreneur Adam Bosworth, a veteran of Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), is making with Keas, an online service that aims to make exercising and eating your vegetables more fun -- or at least a little less painful.

????San Francisco-based Keas (pronounced kee-ahs, it is named for a bird found in New Zealand) sells its web-based app to companies, which in turn push it out to their employees. Co-workers form teams of five or six and enter a competition in which members earn points by answering online quizzes about healthy foods, taking breaks at work to reduce stress, and meeting weekly goals for eating fruits and vegetables, sleeping, and, of course, exercising. All the activities are shared among participants on a Facebook-like news feed, where teammates and rivals can comment, give verbal pats on the back, or urge each other on.

????Keas charges $12 per user for a year and lets companies personalize the site and choose what rewards, if any, they give to winning teams. "You can change people's behavior a little, but you have to make it fun for them," says Bosworth, who previously ran Google Health, the search giant's now defunct effort to create online medical records. "People will fall off the wagon, and that's when you need a social mechanism to help them climb back on."

????Early results are encouraging. Bechtel, the construction giant, deployed Keas as part of a larger wellness initiative. About 8,000 employees in 44 countries signed up, and roughly half reported losing weight over an initial 12-week period. At Progress Software (PRGS), of some 600 employees who signed up, two-thirds reported losing some weight, one-third said they were less stressed, and scores said they pared down unhealthy foods. "If you are engaged with others and you have a support mechanism, it is going to have a tremendous impact," says Joe Andrews, who heads human resources at Progress.

????But experts warn that while promising, health apps like Keas should be put in perspective. "You can change behavior for a short time with just about anything," says Toni Yancey, professor of public health at UCLA. "Where the pedal hits the metal is in getting people to change behavior for the long term."

????Despite questions about their overall efficacy, corporate wellness apps are proliferating in part because many investors are betting that the social-gaming wave popularized by Zynga (ZNGA) can be harnessed to fight obesity. Keas, which has raised $17.5 million from investors, competes with Virgin HealthMiles, part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, and Red-Brick Health, among others. It seems counterintuitive, but if game-based health companies succeed, they may have couch-potato favorites such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars to thank.