In 1990, the Profiles of Attitudes Toward Healthcare (PATH) research showed how unconscious patterns are driving health priorities, behaviors and attitudes throughout the U.S.. Research conducted since 1996 has shown how these unconscious patterns ("path types") shape perceptions, behavior, habits and heath care outcomes. These unconscious patterns represent a powerful force shaping health and health behavior that is not being addressed by any health or wellness interventions today. PATH types and their influence on health have remained hidden, unseen and undetected until now.

Unconscious Patterns

The PATH Type® methodology reveals nine distinct unconscious patterns within adults referred to in psychological research as "subtypes". PATH types are a special class of subtype defined by health issues that include perceptions of self, family, and the health care delivery environment. PATH types define consistent and predictable patterns of health perceptions, priorities and behavior. PATH Institute research with over 250,000 adults over the past decade has proven that PATH types, defined by unconscious patterns, shape healthcare outcomes, health care costs, and influence individual patient experience.

The Individual and the Group

At the individual level, PATH Type® reveals each individual's perceptual biases and priorities around health and healthcare. It reveals their learning styles, areas of interest and disinterest, the kinds of health behaviors they will engage in, and the kinds of behaviors they will resist. These insights provide for improved customer and clinical intervention strategies and tactics to shape behavior, to get improved outcomes, and provide a more satisfying experience for those receiving healthcare services and those delivering them.

When applied to groups PATH Type® is a proven predictor of disease prevalence, health care utilization, medical claims, financial risk and loyalty. This predictive aspect of PATH Type proves the mind/body connection to health in a way that hasn't been fully understood until now.

What PATH Type® Does Not Measure

PATH Type® does not employ the use of any geographic, demographic, socioeconomic, ethnic, or life-stage measures independently of cognitions and perceptions concerning them. Because PATH Type® reaches into the unconscious, it is beyond database driven mathematical ascription or predictive modelling. These traits unique to PATH type set it apart fom every other health risk assessment, or predictive modeling tool in the health care market today.