Proactive health screening and the opportunity for Lifestyle Medicine

Over the next 15 minutes the doctor measures pulse, blood pressure, BMI, listens to the patient’s heart and lungs, orders lipids and diabetes screening and sends the patient away with a measure of reassurance.

Increasingly, our patients are wanting to be more proactive about their health. Many are aware of the rise of chronic diseases¹and as many parents have delayed starting their families², they still have young dependent children in their middle age and don’t want anything to happen to their health! Primary care in New Zealand is more fragmented than a decade ago with many patients enrolled in a medical practice but not having personal contact with a regular GP³. Also, given our fast-paced society, busy people often utilise an urgent care service for medical care. Patients, (and GPs), are feeling the lack of continuity of care and lack of personal knowledge. Rather than pushing back at this societal change how can we become more strategic with health care delivery?

One year ago, I was invited to join a small private health screening service. Who isn’t tired of being the proverbial ambulance at the bottom of the health loss cliff and would prefer to be the fencer at the top? We developed a comprehensive health screening programme based on US Preventative Services Task Force Grade A and B recommendations⁴, and so Shape My Health⁵ was launched!

Very quickly we realised a lacking element. We were doing well at detecting risk factors for chronic disease but what to do about it? Conventional medical practice advocates lifestyle changes as the first intervention for most disease risk factors⁶. And here we came to a standstill, searching for a wellness model to utilise, when (drum roll…..!) we discovered Lifestyle Medicine⁷! Lifestyle Medicine being evidence-based, addressing the commonly known lifestyle determined health risk factors, translating population health research to the individual, and also the health coaching emphasis is the perfect answer for ameliorating chronic disease risk.

People are finding us through word of mouth, social media, GP referrals and from our advertising locally. They are offered a range of assessments from a basic nurse led half hour check with point of care testing through to executive and senior screening – a total of three-hour contact time. They receive a printed report with their health assessment details and now lifestyle recommendations. Their GPs are sent a short summary. More recently, once we had a qualified Board-Certified Lifestyle Medicine Physician⁸, we have added stand-alone one-hour lifestyle consultations.