History

The Health Improvement Program, more popularly referred to as HIP, began over 30 years ago with the creation the Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC). John W. Farquhar, M.D. received a large grant and focused his work on the health improvement of entire communities. This research established SPRC as a premier research organization.

A few years later, research was beginning to show that worksite health and wellness programs could effectively impact the health of employees. Stanford President, Don Kennedy and John W. Farquhar believed the university should take advantage of its own intellectual property and created the Health Improvement Program in 1983.

Since its creation, HIP has advanced the science of health promotion on-campus, in the local community, across the United States and around the world. HIP's educational programs and materials have benefited millions of people while serving Stanford University, the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and the School of Medicine.

25 Years of Contributing to Stanford

Over the last 25 years, HIP has reached faculty and staff in many important ways:

  1. HIP initiated and directed efforts to ban smoking at Stanford Hospital, the football stadium and basketball stadium.
  2. HIP worked with the Faculty Club to offer heart healthy food choices, to identify those choices on the menu, and to list the calories for each item on the menu.
  3. After the 1989 earthquake, HIP brought together the HELP Center and Environmental Health and Safety to deliver programs for the community.
  4. When stress claims became the leading cause of Workers Compensations claims in the 1990's, HIP developed a variety of stress management classes.
  5. HIP brought bilingual screening and education programs directly to departments with less scheduling flexibility such as Operations and Maintenance (O&M), Stores, and Housing and Food Service.
  6. In response to the escalating retiree health care cost in the early 1990's, HIP created an educational program for retirees.
  7. HIP has responded departmental requests for help with specific issues impacting health, productivity, absenteeism, and morale.
  8. HIP has been the first lecture on the agenda for the Graduate School of Business' Summer Executive Program for over 15 years.
  9. HIP established a "model work center" and implemented a wide variety of office ergonomic programs for faculty and staff.
  10. In 2008, HIP developed and implemented a Stretch & Flex program for the managers, administrative staff, technicians and custodians of the Stanford Student Housing Department.