Oklahoma engineer promotes patient-doctor wellness product to cure health, costs problems

Educating people about managing their own health is the single most important predictor of their well-being and life expectancy. More than genetics. More than environment.

Jeff Greene reels off the little-known fact several times a day, dozens of times a week. It's integral to MedEncentive — his 8-year-old Internet-based patient-doctor wellness product — that he says is the answer to improve health, the health care system and out-of-control costs.

His product encourages patients and doctors to “up their games,” Greene said. Patients are tested about their diseases and asked to rate their doctors, while doctors are asked to encourage patients and practice medicine aligned with evidence for best health outcomes.

“Doctors would rather their customers judge their performance than an entity not present,” Greene said. “While patients are inspired to demonstrate to their doctor — someone they respect — that they're not illiterate or noncompliant.”

Independent research studies by the University of Kansas and The Loomis Co. in Pennsylvania found return on investment on MedEncentive's product — which has been sold in Oklahoma, Washington and Pennsylvania for $3 per member per month — ranges from 3-to-1 to 17-to-1, considering financial incentives and fees, Greene said.

Patients stand to prosper and have their co-pays waived, he said, while providers bolster their reputations and receive some $15 rewards on office visits. “But most importantly, patients get well, and stay out of the hospital, while doctors practice better medicine,” Greene said.

Greene, who employs five, has patented MedEncentive in the U.S., and has patent applications pending in Canada, Australia and Europe.

From his third-floor suite at 800 Research Parkway, Greene, 64, sat down with The Oklahoman on Tuesday to talk about his professional and personal life. This is an edited transcript:

Q: Tell us about your roots.

A: My family moved to Oklahoma City from Missouri when I was in the ninth grade. Before then, I lived on a dairy farm in Urbana, Mo., near Springfield. I was in charge of the chickens, which taught me responsibility, hard work and other good values. I have four sisters and a brother. There's a 10-year spread between the oldest and youngest; I'm No. 3. Our mother, who's 94 and lives in Tulsa, was a homemaker, and father, now deceased, was an entrepreneur — selling, among other things, caskets, thermometers and siding. We moved here after he bought McGee Manufacturing, the parking meter company, and lived in the third house ever built in the Quail Creek addition.

Q: Any highlights from your school days?

A: I attended John Marshall High School, where I played football and basketball, but mainly excelled in track. I ran the 110-meter high hurdles, won the all-class state Tournament of Champions, and was awarded a full scholarship to OU, where I was the first Sooner athlete to run under 14 seconds in the event. I qualified in '72 for the Olympic trials but married soon afterward. The last race I ran was in '73, against two gold medalists and a bronze medalist.