About

Our Purpose

According to the President’s Cancer Panel in 2007, about two-thirds of all cancer deaths are preventable. It is also widely estimated that about half of all premature deaths are preventable. Many people count on their primary care providers to give them the information and resources needed to stay healthy, but research indicates that this may not be enough. It would take the average primary care provider more than seven hours daily to provide just the health and wellness tools and education that are proven to work.

Proven Health Ways, Inc was founded in 2007 with the goal of providing universal access to basic proven health and wellness guidelines. These guidelines are not meant to replace the advice of primary care providers, but to help these providers take excellent care of their patients. At the same time the guidelines are designed to empower people to keep themselves healthier with the best information science has to offer. These tools are also provided for employers and insurers as a way for them to keep their people healthier and reduce healthcare costs.

Our Methods

Proven Health Ways draws on current science-based information from medical studies in making its tools and recommendations. The President and Founder, Paul Hartlaub, MD, MSPH, has an extensive background (see “Our Team” below) in statistics and research methods, as well as Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine and medical education. Dr. Hartlaub is uniquely qualified to review medical studies and guidelines and determine what they do and do not actually tell us, and present their findings in a way that is practical and easy to understand.

Recommendations must be shown to be truly helpful before they are presented by Proven Health Ways. They are not simply passed along from other specialty groups or health organizations without being reviewed carefully. There is a tendency for people to see all “professional” recommendations and guidelines as science-based and truly helpful. Unfortunately, many are unproven, and they can sometimes be harmful by leading to unnecessary tests, expenses or complications. Proven Health Ways provides the information you need to stay as healthy as you can be, nothing more, nothing less.

Proven Health Ways draws heavily on the excellent work of two research-based organizations; the United States Preventive Services Taskforce and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. These organizations have strong foundations in research evidence and are utilized and trusted widely by medical and governmental healthcare institutions.

Our Team

President and Founder: Paul P. Hartlaub, MD, MSPH. Dr. Hartlaub received a bachelor of science (BS) in psychology as well as a medical doctorate (MD) from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He then became board-certified in Family Medicine in a Milwaukee training program of what is now known as the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Following this, he further specialized in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine and received a Master of Science in Public Health at the same school.

Dr. Hartlaub spent the 15 years prior to starting Proven Health Ways practicing Family and Preventive Medicine, as well as teaching these subjects to medical and nurse practitioner students and doctors in training. His focus has been on teaching patients and students what the research really tells us, in particular about staying healthy. He has also done his own research on improving health through an internet-based healthy lifestyle program and a program to improve healthy lifestyles in children, as well as other topics. He continues to practice Family Medicine, teach and develop programs to keep people healthier.

Other team members: Proven Health Ways works with a team of attorneys, web designers and others to make the website possible.