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News

July 29, 2025

BrightSpring Presented its Novel Home Health Anti-Frailty Program Results at an International Conference and Published about the Study in a Peer-Reviewed Journal


Louisville, Ky. — BrightSpring Health Services (“BrightSpring”), a leading provider of complementary home and community-based pharmacy and healthcare services for complex populations in need of specialized care and/or chronic care, presented its outcomes from a scientific study of its new home health anti-frailty program at the International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research (“ICFSR”) in March. Led by William Mills, M.D., BrightSpring’s Chief Medical Officer, the study describes the clinical impact of the program, called Vitality Therapy (“VT”), on frail older adults. The results of the study were also recently published in Home Health Care Management & Practice.

“I am very pleased that we were invited to present the clinical outcomes from our study at the leading international forum on frailty in France.  It was terrific to be able to discuss the positive impact our new home health program, VT, is having on frail older adults”, said Dr. Mills.  Mills continued,  “Our data show that, during an episode of home healthcare,  the program is significantly increasing strength, gait speed, and independence while also improving balance and decreasing frailty scores in frail older adults.”

The VT program, provided by BrightSpring’s home health division, Adoration Home Health, identifies frailty using evidence-based frailty definitions, and then engages patients into a structured exercise program over an episode of home healthcare.  The four core components of the program are strength training, aerobic exercise, balance training, and maneuvers to improve flexibility.  The program was co-developed by two expert physical therapists who serve as leaders at BrightSpring – Renee Lach-Sharon,  PT, MS, Vice President of BrightSpring affiliate Rehab Without Walls, and Sue Briggs, MSPT, Director of Rehabilitation at BrightSpring.  “Through VT, we are improving health care outcomes for the patients we serve and helping them live their best lives”, said Lach-Sharon.

Launched by BrightSpring in 2023, VT is a program that is targeted at decreasing and reversing frailty, which is a state in which the ability of older adults to cope with every day or acute stressors is compromised by an increased vulnerability brought by age-associated declines in physiological reserve and function across multiple organ systems.  Being frail is associated with an elevated risk of mortality, hospitalization, falls, intensive care unit admission, and long-term institutionalization, and it is estimated that the U.S. spends $21 Billion annually on healthcare related to frailty.1-3

References

  1. Wen YC, Chen LK, Hsiao FY. Predicting mortality and hospitalization of older adults by the multimorbidity frailty index. PLoS One. 2017 Nov 16;12(11):e0187825.
  2. Speechley M, Tinetti M. Falls and injuries in frail and vigorous community elderly persons. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1991 Jan;39(1):46-52.
  3. Joynt KE, Figueroa JF, Beaulieu N, et al. Segmenting high-cost Medicare patients into potentially actionable cohorts. Healthc (Amst). 2017 Mar;5(1-2):62-67.