In the News

Aurora Sentinel:
Perfect fit
(Feb. 9, 2012)

(excerpt) The exercise machine of the future will offer users much more than a heart rate read-out or a digital display of miles jogged. … ”The equipment has unique technological capabilities,” [Director of Operations Jim] Ellis said, detailing a system called VisioWEB that will be available on new machines from Italian-based TechnoGym. “You can surf the web, you can play games, you can watch movies, you can plug in your iPhone. It has a hardcore exercise/physiology technology associated with it, but it also has this entertainment component.”

Last month, officials from the Colorado Center for Health and Wellness announced partnerships with Technogym and MediFit, companies that will respectively provide equipment and manage the new fitness center in the building. The announcement is the latest puzzle piece to fall into place for the new facility, which is set to combine the resources of a sleek neighborhood gym with the cutting-edge research of a top-tier medical school.

 

Denver Post:
Anschutz Wellness Building in Aurora touts healthy living
(Jan. 25, 2012)

(excerpt) Once completed, researchers and clinicians will use the Anschutz Wellness Building to promote healthy lifestyles and study certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, said James Ellis, director of operations at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. The design of the facility helps reinforce some of those objectives, he said. An open staircase, for instance, is prominently featured at the entrance of the building. An elevated running track — encased in colorful dichroic glass — is also on full display.

Photo by Seth A. McConnell/YourHub, Denver Post 

 

Aurora Sentinel:
Wellness Center to offer fusion of new, alternative approaches to healing
(Oct. 12, 2011)

(excerpt) “This facility will become a one-stop shop and national model for how health and wellness can be integrated, allowing us to generate and translate science into actual products and programs to change people’s lives,” Executive Director James Hill told the Aurora Sentinel. “We will emphasize the need for ‘lifestyle medicine’ in an effort to support prevention and manage chronic disease.”

The center’s emphasis will be “lifestyle medicine,” treatment that touches on the everyday habits that have a long-term impact on health. It’s a stress that touches on obvious cardiovascular and nutritional elements — the center will feature a running track, an aquatic center and fitness trainers with advanced degrees. The approach will also draw on less traditional approaches to maintaining health, aspects like acupuncture and massage therapy that have only recently become a more standardized part of preventive care.

The focus at the center, staff maintain, will be combining the traditional routes toward health with alternative medicine, creating a happy marriage between old and new.

“What I want at the Health and Wellness Center is for the more traditional medicine and strategies to be strong and the alternative programs to be strong,” said Holly Wyatt, MD, the center’s associate director. “We want things to be evidence-based, but we are open to looking at things that people are starting to look at more like acupuncture.”

Photo by Heather L. Smith/Aurora Sentinel

 

Health Policy Solutions:
Health and wellness center breaking new ground in obesity treatment
(Oct. 11, 2011)

(excerpt) “We’re unveiling a new product here,” Dr. James Hill said. “We want a continuous pipeline of solutions. The real solutions to obesity haven’t yet been thought of. We need the thinking that helps us come up with better, more creative solutions and they have to be economically viable. We want to transform people’s lives at homes, schools and workplaces.”

Photo by Katie Kerwin McCrimmon/Health Policy Solutions

 

Aurora Sentinel:
Yoga group uses lunch to nourish bodies, minds
(Oct. 5, 2011)

(excerpt) “It’s not just a gym,” Director of Operations Jim Ellis said. “They are going to be benefiting from the scientific knowledge and understating and application of that knowledge from some of the leading experts in the world in the area of health and fitness.”

Photo by Heather L. Smith/Aurora Sentinel