Weight Loss that Works in Primary Care with Dr. Celia Egan

Ask any primary care physician and they will tell you the toughest thing about helping their patients change lifestyle is that they don't have enough time or contact with the patient. Especially when it comes to weight loss control, primary care docs are stretched so thin on time that they struggle to have the impact they'd like on their patient's healthy habits or lack thereof.

Weight Loss Begins with Awareness

It's no surprise that a successful weight loss program begins with awareness that you have a problem with weight and your lifestyle. Dr. Egan, says that to be successful one must stay focused on a number of things. All of these are a priority with her management style at her new practice:

• Relationship with food. One must pay attention to why they are eating and to recognize healthy and unhealthy options. This is all with an awareness of how we are often left with no perfect options because we don't have the right ingredients, time, or abilities.
• Movement. This goes beyond just saying someone needs to exercise. The movement program must be created with the specific patient in mind and their input.
• Medications. Sometimes once the other parts are optimized, it is best to look at medications to supplement the rest of the weight loss program. A well designed drug regimen including hormonal treatments can be the difference between success and failure.

How to Pull Off Weight in Primary Care

Dr. Egan is teaming with Dr. Bitner (from episode 115)  and using an entirely new model of care to help women lose weight. Instead of trying to develop a multidisciplinary clinic through an insurance based model, they have decided to go with a membership model where they limit the number patients to allow for more time and contact with the physicians. It's similar to direct primary care but probably more accurately described as direct contracting. I suspect it will be a much more successful model for getting patients the results they want than through the traditional insurance model.