We have had the opportunity to start working with more and more health practitioners private medical practices in recent months, and through it all we've learned an incredible amount about the challenges facing these unique groups. 

From providers actively in the process transitioning from traditional to private models, to those with an established membership, we have seen the realization of a growing need and desire for incorporating lifestyle medicine into this model, which has made it both an exciting and educational time for our team.

No matter where on the spectrum a physician's practice falls, the biggest lesson we've learned is that the core value a great lifestyle medicine program delivers to patients is primarily derived from the addition of regular, timely and actionable 'touchpoints' coming specifically from the practice to help member patients stay mindful of their lifestyle health and desired outcomes.

We have embraced this term, "touchpoint" internally based on lessons learned while working very closely with our early customers and coaching partners on their relationships with their patients and clients. To add a little clarity to what we mean by that, here is how we define it for our purposes ...

' touch - point '  (n.)

Any direct interaction with an individual patient (or client) in reference to a specific action, goal or outcome.

For concierge and direct pay practices, regular touchpoints in-between visits to the doctor provide effective and efficient little reminders to patients of the added value they are receiving for their regular membership payments, which serve as the perfect compliment to the additional access to care they seek when joining.

Without these regular touchpoints, practices have to face an unwelcome risk - the fact that their members will be experiencing costs of membership more often than they are experiencing the benefits of membership. And that's the kind of math that causes even the best physicians to retain less of their patients from year-to-year.

By working with practices to remove the heavy lifting of launching and running a lifestyle medicine program from the physician, we aim to turn potential risks and time-drains into opportunities to retain more paying members and provide dedicated, high-end care to more patients than ever before.

At the suggestion of some of our early partner practices, we took our message to a conference targeting private medical physicians to learn more about what practicing physicians think of incorporating lifestyle medicine into their practices and the value it can provide.

Survey of Physicians:  Lifestyle Medicine In The Practice

At the Spring Conference for the American Academy of Private Physicians (AAPP), we conducted a survey asking physicians in private medical practices to respond to a series of questions regarding ...

• The value they place on lifestyle medicine.
• The time they spend on lifestyle medicine during visits.
• Whether or not they remote monitor patient lifestyles.
• Whether or not they counsel patients on lifestyle in-between visits.

This survey was developed into a full report by Dr. Steve Feyrer-Melk, the Director of Lifestyle Medicine at the Optimal Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Center. Fill out the form below to download the report and see the full results and accompanying discussion.