An Effective Portfolio Model for Duke’s Comprehensive Personal Health and Wellness Programs

Duke Medicine is exploring strategic options for uniting four overlapping health and wellness programs. These programs are:

• Duke Diet and Fitness Center: Internationally renown residential weight loss program
• Duke Health and Fitness Center: Membership based community wellness facility that specializes in rehabilitation programs
• Executive Health Programs: One-day comprehensive health assessment and health maintenance advice for busy executives
• Duke Integrative Medicine: Combines evidence-based medicine with alternative therapies for individual health immersion, group workshops and individualized programs

Duke Medicine seeks to facilitate the coordination among these four programs and thereby increase their efficiency and effectiveness. They have evolved independently from one another and have separate physician leadership constituencies. While the programs each have successful offerings within defined markets, their overlapping clinical offerings and support functions may have precluded valuable opportunities for operational savings and marketing effectiveness.

The Practicum has three goals:

1. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the existing business models of the four programs
2. Provide benchmarks, metrics and alternative organizational models and branding for a merged or federated organization
3. Recommend how best to proceed with respect to the structure, focus and branding of a more coordinated organization

To achieve these goals the Fuqua Practicum team will:

1. Interview staff and customers of the four programs and appropriate representatives of Duke University
2. Examine the positioning and organization of similar competitive units in other medical centers
3. Develop economic projections of cost/benefits of a merged or federated organization