Local tech company radically shifts health care culture for employees

Scott Fujieda, VP of Healthcare Solutions at DataHouse, has recently felt the personal impact of true healthcare in his life, after going through the 9-week transformative `Ekahi Ornish Reversal Program, which is being offered at the newly-constructed `Ekahi Health Center at Waterfront Plaza.

Creighton Arita, ‘ike CEO and graduate of the ‘Ekahi Ornish Reversal Program.

“I am so thankful that many of the leaders here at `ike decided to go through the Ornish program ourselves,” explains Creighton Arita, `ike’s CEO and a graduate of the `Ekahi Ornish Reversal Program himself. “Because unless you go through it, you can’t grasp the power that it has to change an individual life.”

When `Ekahi Health (one of the newest `ike companies) launched the `Ekahi Ornish Reversal Program at the end of 2015, the first of its kind in the state of Hawaii, Creighton offered the opportunity to the leaders of all the `ike companies. Fujieda, a part of DataHouse (the founding company of the `ike family), jumped at the chance, and his life has been dramatically transformed ever since.

“We have sponsored the `Ekahi Ornish Reversal Program within our `ike companies,” Creighton says. “So we encourage our staff to go through the program – we pay their co-pay, we allow them to take time off of work for it – and now it is beginning to impact the corporate culture of our entire organization. There is now an empowering dynamic within individuals for taking control of their own health. They support one another in healthy living, and it’s bringing a whole new level of health and wellness to our organization.”