FMEC’s Whole Person Care Performance Improvement Learning Collaborative 2024-2025
This project has now concluded and is no longer accepting participants. FMEC is currently reviewing the findings from this initiative and will share an executive summary in the coming months. We’re proud to keep all project information available on this page so that faculty and residents can explore the scope and impact of the work.
Project Background FMEC partnered with The Healing Works Foundation on a Performance Improvement/Continuing Medical Education (PICME) project focused on implementing whole person care, made possible by a grant from the Samueli Foundation.
Benefits to Participants
Implement a whole person care pilot in your clinic.
Evaluate the implementation and use the learning for process improvement.
Option to earn 15 additional CME credits by completing the HOPE CME modules.
Meet ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) learning collaborative recommendations.
Improve care and connect with other providers for shared learning.
Project Overview The National Academies of Science and Medicine reports on Implementing High-Quality Primary Care and Achieving Whole Health call for a transformation of primary care to a “whole person,” person-centered, relationship-based model that addresses the social, spiritual, emotional, and behavioral drivers of health. The HOPE Note (HEALING ORIENTED PRACTICES AND ENVIRONMENTS) tools, which have been previously tested and used in practices across the country, can be used to implement whole person care.
This project aims to educate physicians about the benefits, rationale, and implementation of whole person care while assessing physician and patient interest in adopting this approach to health and wellness. Additionally, it aims to identify and evaluate best practices for successfully integrating the Personal Health Inventory (PHI) and HOPE note tools into routine clinic visits.
Target Audience This course is designed for family medicine physicians/practitioners who have an interest in practicing whole person care.
Physician Engagement Physicians are eligible to participate in the project individually but are encouraged to invite colleagues within their clinic to join them. Additionally, Family Medicine Residency Program Faculty are encouraged to utilize this initiative to actively involve Family Medicine Residents in meaningful scholarly work and quality improvement (QI) projects.
Learning Objectives After participating in the project, participants will be able to:
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the benefits, rationale, and implementation of whole person care.
Develop and apply evidence-based strategies to introduce whole person care models within clinic teams and to health system leadership.
Implement a whole person care pilot within the clinic setting and refine processes for sustained use.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the whole person care pilot and utilize findings to enhance practice improvement.
The AAFP has reviewed Family Medicine Education Consortium (FMEC) Whole Person Care Performance Improvement Pilot Project and deemed it acceptable for up to 20.00 Performance Improvement AAFP Prescribed credit(s). Term of Approval is from 09/01/2024 to 09/01/2025. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
AAFP Prescribed credit is accepted by the American Medical Association as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™ toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. When applying for the AMA PRA, Prescribed credit earned must be reported as Prescribed, not as Category 1.
For questions or further details, please contact Rebecca Bouck, FMEC educational projects consultant, at [email protected]
FMEC’s Integrative Health Learning and Teaching Network, 2023-2024
The Integrative Health Learning and Teaching Network worked closely with faculty members to identify the family medicine community's needs for promoting learning that incorporates Whole Person Health.
Keep scrolling to: - See what we have learned - Watch presentations on successful implementations of group visits - Register for our next networking event - Share your experiences or resources
What we have learned:
70% of respondents say residents/patients are asking for more integrative health resources/training than they can provide
95% of Faculty believe it is important, or very important, for residents to have integrative health training
Top responses when faculty were asked what they do not have but would like to offer: 1. Faculty development in integrative health 2. Access to tools to implement integrative health used in primary care clinic 3. Opportunities to incorporate integrative health in continuity care and clinic
Presentations from our Integrative Health Learning and Teaching Network Community available on the FMEC YouTube Channel
Focus on Integrative Health Focus on Lifestyle Medicine Presenter: Suhani Bora, MD Presenter: Michelle Thompson, DO
2023-2025 Advisory Committee
Elena Rosenbaum, MD, Associate Professor Department of Family and Community Medicine, Albany Medical College, Medical Director, Healthy Alliance
Suhani Bora, MD, Integrative Medicine Fellowship Director at Greater Lawrence Family Health Center
Jennifer Padden Elliott, PharmD, Director, Center for Integrative Health, Ed and Karen Fritzky Family Chair in Integrative Medicine and Wellbeing, Associate Professor of Pharmacy, Duquesne University
Andrea E. Gordon, MD, Director of Integrative Medicine, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Tufts University
Harminder Grewal, MD, MBBS, DGO, ABIHM, ABOIM, FAAFP, Chair, Department of Family Medicine, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Fairborn, OH, Medical Director, Wright State Physicians, Whole Health Clinical Lead, Dayton VA Medical Center
Allen F. Shaughnessy, Pharm.D., M.Med.Ed., Director, Master Teacher Fellowship, Professor and Vice Chair of Family Medicine for Research, Tufts University School of Medicine
FMEC’s Integrative Health Learning Community, 2020-2022
Case Studies Show Success of Integrative Health Learning Community The Samueli Foundation and the Family Medicine Education Consortium (FMEC) have released case studies from the Integrative Health Learning Collaborative (IHLC) which capture challenges and successes from four participating clinics: the Cleveland Clinic, UCI Health, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, and UC Health. In addition to highlights from participating sites, the case study reports include an overview of whole-person care and IH, evidence supporting whole-person care, and information on quality improvement methodology. See the FMEC’s news release for more information, and access the full case study reports as well as an overview on the website of Dr. Wayne Jonas.
New White Paper Shows Integrative Care Improves Outcomes, Reduces Costs U.S. health care systems and clinics report reducing costs, improving patient experience and outcomes, and enhancing clinician wellbeing by delivering integrative care, according to a new white paper published by Samueli Foundation and the Family Medicine Education Consortium. The Case for Delivering Whole-Person Health Care details how shifting treatment practices to an integrative approach that mixes evidence-based conventional medicine, non-drug treatments, and self-care can help achieve far-reaching systemic improvements. The FMEC thanks the Samueli Foundation for helping advance whole-person care and reduce costs through support of the FMEC Integrative Health Learning Community.
About the Integrative Health Learning Community The FMEC Integrative Health Learning Community (IHLC), sponsored by the Samueli Foundation, is designed to improve the delivery of person-centered integrative health practices into routine primary care.
Most chronic diseases seen in primary care can be prevented or even improved by addressing their underlying social and behavioral determinants. Yet these determinants are poorly managed in medicine. The COVID pandemic has highlighted even further the need to enhance our ability to address chronic disease risks and those disproportionately affected such as the elderly, minorities, the poor, and people of color.
Clinics participating in this 9-12 month community will learn about the HOPE Toolkit, non-pharmacological approaches for pain and opioid management, and evidence-based complementary treatments and support of self-care for chronic diseases. They will improve their integrative health services by learning from other clinics, accessing tools, and educational resources, and engaging in practice improvement and evaluation.
Leadership
Wayne Jonas, MD, Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Georgetown University and Executive Director, Samueli Integrative Health Programs; author of How Healing Works
Connie Earl, DO, family physician in Sonoma County, CA
Andrea Gordon, MD, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Tufts University Family Medicine Residency, Cambridge Health Alliance
Elena Rosenbaum, MD, Medical Director, Alliance for Better Health, Director of Integrative Medicine, Albany Family Medicine, and Associate Professor, AMC Department of Family and Community Medicine
Allen Shaughnessy, PharmD, MMedEd, Professor of Family Medicine and Director of Medical Education, Tufts University Family Medicine Residency, Cambridge Health Alliance
Goals and Objectives The objectives for IHLC are to:
Understand the crucial role of non-pharmacological and self-care approaches in primary care for reducing risk factors for chronic disease and COVID and improving health in those with chronic disease;
Learn how to use the HOPE Tools and evidence-based integrative medicine practices and adapt them for routine use in their clinics;
Implement integrative health visits in a subgroup of patients in the clinic as a routine process;
Collect both process and outcomes data on those integrative health visits, evaluate and adjust the clinic processes to improve practice and quality care using integrative health; and
Share results at meetings such as the FMEC Annual Meeting, the Direct Primary Care Summit, and others
History and Accomplishments The IHLC was initiated with a call for interested practices in the summer of 2020. The FMEC invited family medicine residencies, federally qualified health centers, other clinics, and independent and hospital-owned primary care practices to join a one-year learning collaborative (LC) for implementing and testing tools for whole-person integrative health practices in routine primary care. The IHLC accepted 17 sites. The sites participated in small group and monthly meetings from November 2020 to September 2021. They completed a year of educational sessions and quality improvement cycles in September 2021.
During a preconference at the FMEC 2021 Annual Meeting in October 2021, faculty members and sites shared their successes and challenges. Every site reporting found that the experience helped them improve care and healing. Many noted plans to introduce the strategies into residency training, and they also reported that patients appreciated the information they received about non-drug and other services.
Beginning in November 2021, a cohort of sites agreed to continue to work with Dr. Wayne Jonas of the Samueli Foundation and the other faculty during an extension period, where they will continue to explore issues such as defining team roles and responsibilities in integrative care; securing leadership support and making the “business case’” and the role of technology including electronic medical records and apps.
Resources
IHLC Project Update, October 7, 2021 – Dr. Wayne Jonas presents an update on ILHC progress at the 2021 FMEC Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.
Learning Community Tools and Educational Resources – Video recordings of presentations from the collaborative are posted in this folder.
Interprofessional Collaboration
Clinic Flow
Reflecting on Experiences
IHLC Kick-off Presentation, August 25, 2020 – Dr. Wayne Jonas presents core information on defining integrative health, person-centered care, the HOPE (Healing Oriented Practices & Environments) tool kit
Opportunities for Involvement The ILHC is no longer accepting applications. Future cohorts of the ILHC will be announced through FMEC communications. To join FMEC and receive member communications, visit the FMEC Member Center.
