With Dietitians and Doctors, Collaboration is Key
When a patient comes to Whole Health Partners, one of the first things we ask them is whether we can coordinate our care with their primary care physician.
There’s a reason for that.
While lifestyle medicine is a relatively new and exciting field, we are firm believers that it should be viewed as an integrated part of the broader medical field. We also know, from decades of experience, that the best care plans involve close collaboration between practitioners.
A Division of Responsibility
If a patient is struggling with diabetes, for example—their primary care physician will likely work with them to prescribe the relevant medicines, like insulin. They will almost certainly also provide some advice and counseling on diet and behavior adjustments that might help them manage their condition. The addition of a registered dietitian, however, can provide additional expertise, both in terms of the science of nutrition, as well as the practicalities of putting dietary and other lifestyle changes into action.
According to Bhakti Paul, MD, MPH—Metabolic Disease director, Capital Family Medicine—this division of responsibilities allows each member of the care team to focus their efforts:
”Doctors can make the medication adjustments that are crucial, and they can also cover the principles of diet— based on the patient's medical condition and underlying metabolic disease. What the RD can then does is create an actual diet plan customized to those principles. The RD can also work with the patient on a continual basis to make it sustainable and can be the patient's coach and accountability partner.”
Putting Evidence into Action
The fact is that while doctors can and do encourage patients to eat more vegetables, move more, or reevaluate their drinking, this advice is often—by necessity—sandwiched between examining a patient’s symptoms, or talking about their medication. Dietitians and lifestyle medicine practitioners, on the other hand, offer counseling that is solely dedicated to these topics. They also provide support in adapting the science to create a personalized, practical plan of action that is unique to each specific patient.
Here’s how Whole Health Partners co-founder and dietitian Kait Atkinson describes that role:
“It’s one thing to say you should eat more fiber. Or you probably shouldn’t be smoking. But what we do is work with a patient on how they can put that advice into practice. Often that means getting really granular: Identifying not just the desired behavior or goal, but the barriers that stand in their way, and the strategies that might help to overcome them.”
The Importance of Communication
Naturally, collaboration brings with it its own set of challenges—most notably is the potential for conflicting of misaligned advice from different practitioners. That’s why it’s critically important that providers coordinate closely with each other—sharing records and consulting to ensure that their proposed care plans are in sync.
At Whole Health Partners, for example, it is our policy to share care plans with a patient’s primary care physician on a quarterly basis at minimum—provided the patient has provided permission for us to do so.
We also have the benefit of our own physician on staff—Kate Queen, MD—who serves as our medical director. While her services are in no way intended to replace a patient’s primary care physician, she does provide guidance and insight that ensures our counseling is fully compatible with conventional, allopathic medicine:
“As someone who is trained as both a medical doctor and a lifestyle medicine practitioner, I see myself as somewhat of a bridge between worlds. While most of they physicians we work with are fully onboard with the value of preventive care, it’s helpful to have someone who can ‘speak their language’, and help keep an eye out for places where there may be misalignment.”
Ultimately, the goal is to build an integrated, diverse and dedicated team that is able to trouble shoot any problems that emerge.
What would you like help with?
Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance
Blood Glucose Management, Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, Hypertension, High Cholesterol, Thyroid Disease, Hormonal Health
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), Perimenopause/Menopause
