70% Hadn’t Had a Blood Pressure Check: How Wellcome Sanger Institute Reduced Hidden Risk by 42.9%

When Wellcome Sanger Institute set out to strengthen its ‘Prevent, Detect, Intervene’ wellbeing strategy, it wanted more than employee surveys. By introducing on-site preventative health checks, the organisation uncovered hidden cardiovascular risk, triggered timely GP follow-up, and achieved measurable reductions in high blood pressure and BMI among repeat participants.

The challenge – From wellbeing culture to preventative insight

Following a comprehensive wellbeing audit, Wellcome Sanger Institute identified an opportunity to strengthen its approach to preventative health. While the organisation already had a strong wellbeing culture – supported by talks, nutrition initiatives and regular employee surveys – it wanted to go further.

Specifically, the team wanted to:

• Move beyond perception-based measures and gain objective insight into employee health risk
• Detect early indicators of long-term conditions such as cardiovascular disease
• Support employees to better understand and take ownership of their own health
• Use credible, anonymised data to inform wellbeing strategy and leadership conversations

A key challenge was ensuring that any solution was both engaging for employees and robust enough to support evidence-led decision-making in a research-intensive environment.

The solution – Bringing preventative health checks on-site

A SISU Health Station was introduced through the DHSC Workplace CVD Health Checks Pilot in January 2025, giving Wellcome Sanger Institute the opportunity to test engagement and impact before committing long term.

The Health Station enabled employees to complete quick, confidential health checks covering key preventative health indicators, including blood pressure, BMI and body composition. Employees received immediate, easy-to-understand insights and guidance, empowering them to take informed action – whether that meant lifestyle changes, follow-up checks, or speaking to a healthcare professional.

Staff queuing to use the health station was a good early indicator of success, and the ease of use and clarity of the data were also key factors.

 

Lauretta Lamont, Employee Engagement Partner & Mental Health First Aider

From an organisational perspective, SISU Health provided anonymised, population-level reporting through its data platform. This allowed the wellbeing team to:

• Understand overall health trends across the workforce
• Identify priority risk areas
• Track changes over time through repeat deployments
• Confidently share insights with senior leadership while protecting individual privacy

Following strong engagement during the pilot, the Health Station was brought back in July 2025, September 2025 and January 2026. Repeat installations ensured broad participation and enabled both individuals and the organisation to compare results over time.

The results – Uncovering risk and measuring improvement

By combining early health screening with repeat measurement, Wellcome Sanger Institute was able to identify priority risks and assess the impact of preventative action.

Identifying hidden health risk

SISU Health data revealed important insights that would not have been visible through surveys alone:

• 70.1% of participants had not had their blood pressure checked in the previous 12 months, highlighting a significant gap in routine preventative screening
• 10.5% of participants recorded high blood pressure, triggering 90 GP call-to-actions and encouraging timely follow-up
• 54.6% of participants were overweight or obese, providing a clear evidence base for prioritising nutrition and lifestyle support

These findings helped the organisation focus its wellbeing efforts on areas with the greatest potential long-term impact, particularly cardiovascular risk, nutrition and stress.

Demonstrating measurable change

By bringing the Health Station back on-site in September 2025, Wellcome Sanger Institute was able to track outcomes among employees who completed repeat health checks.

Once our people have the insights and information, they make informed decisions and put appropriate actions in place.

 

Lauretta Lamont, Employee Engagement Partner & Mental Health First Aider

SISU Health’s outcome analysis showed:

• A 42.9% reduction in the prevalence of high blood pressure among repeat participants
• A 10.3% reduction in high BMI prevalence, indicating sustained behaviour change over time
• High body fat prevalence reduced by 19.2% among repeat participants, indicating positive change over time following repeat measurement

These improvements provided tangible evidence that when employees are given clear health insights and the opportunity to recheck over time, they are willing – and able – to take preventative action.

Strategic value – Using insight to shape strategy and leadership decisions

The anonymised data provided by SISU Health is now regularly shared at Employee Partnership meetings attended by senior leaders, helping embed preventative health into wider organisational conversations.

Insights from the Health Station have directly informed:

• New wellbeing workshops focused on stress and burnout prevention
• Increased emphasis on nutrition, healthy swaps and practical lifestyle guidance
• More targeted wellbeing communications aligned to identified risk areas

Crucially, the data has strengthened internal confidence in preventative wellbeing investment by clearly linking employee engagement to measurable outcomes. Rather than relying on assumptions or generic initiatives, Wellcome Sanger Institute is able to prioritise action based on where risk and opportunity is most evident across its workforce.

We are pleased that we have found something that both engages our employees in their own health management and supports them in our mission to help them prevent future illnesses, while the broader anonymised data helps us continue to do that.

Lauretta Lamont, Employee Engagement Partner & Mental Health First Aider

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