Online Program

289051
A whole system approach to caring for chronic disease patients in primary care: A six month mindfulness-based therapeutic lifestyle change program


Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 8:30 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.

Cathy Snapp, Ph.D., Family Medicine Residency Program, Tallahassee Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program, Tallahassee, FL
Ruth DeBusk, Ph.D., RD, Faculty, Institute for Functional Medicine, Tallahassee Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program, Tallahassee,, FL
Rita Benn, PhD, Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
The prevalence of chronic disease is steadily escalating and projected to dominate the provision of healthcare in the next decade. With the rise in chronic disorders is the concomitant burden on providers who have insufficient time and training to deliver appropriate care to this population. The Tallahassee Family Medicine Residency Program (FMRP) has taken an innovative inter-professional, whole systems approach to meet both patient and provider needs by developing a 24 week group-based mindfulness program for patients with chronic disease. This program can be exported to other residency, community based hospital and public health programs. The program addresses five evidence-based domains of health and lifestyle that are modifiable by patient choice and control. These include nutrition, movement, restful sleep, stress management and resiliency, and relationships. Weekly 2.0 hour instruction occurs in these areas, co-facilitated by a collaborative care team (a psychologist, dietitian, and yoga instructor). Daily homework as well as participation in bi-weekly individual visits with an acupuncturist are additional program components. Preliminary data on patient outcomes were collected with 29 enrolled patients. Multiple parameters were assessed at baseline, three and six month intervals, including clinical measures of anthropometrics, inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers and medication use as well as standard quality-of-life (SF-12) and mindfulness (FFMQ) instruments. Over 75% of patients completed the program. Significant differences were evident from baseline to program completion on the majority of measured outcomes. Information on program results, curriculum outlines, lessons learned from implementation, and resources needed for adaption to other settings will be discussed.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention

Learning Objectives:
Identify effective functional medicine interventions (labs, genetic tests, personalized tx plans) to be used in chronic disease management in primary care. Describe innovative components of a highly successful chronic care team approach to chronic disease management. Design an efficient, cost-effective 3 or 6 month mindfulness-based chronic disease lifestyle medicine program targeting the four core modifiable lifestyle factors of the functional medicine matrix.

Keyword(s): Food and Nutrition, Primary Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Snapp is director of Behavioral Medicine at the Family Medicine Residency Program at the Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare and assistant professor of Family Medicine at the FSU College of Medicine. Over the past 7 years, she has been the PI on over $4,000,000 in state and federal grant monies developing and codifying mindfulness-based, functional medicine protocols for training family medicine physicians and delivering patient programming focused on the reversal of chronic disease.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.