As the shift of practitioners from private practice to institutional settings increases, concerns about physician burnout, clinician shortages, rising healthcare costs and failure to achieve health equity grow. With the healthcare ecosystem on the brink, administrators, physicians and patients are looking for solutions — catalysts for change. The introduction of a functional medicine approach to patient care in institutions is one such solution. Convened by the Institute for Functional Medicine, this panel features clinicians from health institutions, academic centers and the Veterans Administration, each of whom is leading transformation change by championing the introduction of functional medicine education to their respective clinician base.
This panel of clinician leaders features examples of integrating a functional medicine approach through shared medical appointments for veterans with Type II diabetes in a Veterans Hospital system, by providing tools to optimize resilience, resistance, and recovery for employees suffering from COVID in a rural hospital system and by training clinicians working in Express Care in one of the largest hospitals in the country in functional medicine focused on lifestyle. In addition, panelists will describe how functional medicine trained Naturopathic Doctors can practice in insurance-based conventional healthcare institutions, expand their opportunities beyond concierge or private practice and provide support where physician numbers are dropping. Each panelist will describe how their system is embracing functional medicine as a catalyst for change, where transformation is well under way, what challenges remain and how their project is contributing to improvements in overall population health and the delivery of healthcare.
Learning Objectives:
- Discover how the introduction of functional medicine in a conventional system can help to address physician burnout and clinician shortages, while improving patient outcomes and improving the quality of health care delivery
- Learn how a functional medicine approach actively leans into the importance of the social determinants of health while addressing health equity in an insurance model and elevating the role of naturopathic doctors
- Identify the challenges that remain despite successful implementation of a functional medicine approach in institutions across the country
