Episode 59: Unplugged: Functional Medicine in Primary Care

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“If I could go back six years in primary care, I would have approached my administrators differently. I would have said, ‘Hey, I’m very excited about functional medicine, but it’s not for everybody. So here’s my ideas’,” explains host Dr. Lara Salyer. Today, Dr. Lara shares her ideas for how to incorporate functional medicine into primary care.

Functional medicine is not for everyone. It’s not the same as traditional medicine where a patient just needs to take a pill. Instead, the patient has to be on board to really commit to a lifestyle change.

In order to get the medical industry on board with adding functional medicine to their services, it is important to approach practice administrators with a clear strategy and metrics that show how these services will be financially beneficial. Dr. Lara shares three critical steps for how she would go about combining functional medicine and primary care, starting with carefully selecting the patient type that you will be servicing and selecting the metric you will use to measure success.

The future of functional medicine lies in primary care. The world of functional medicine is vast and can be quite overwhelming, so it is helpful to really consider what patient type you want to focus on. Choose one patient type and one or two related functional tests that will be your specialty, and only target those pre qualified individuals.

About The Catalyst Host, Dr. Lara Salyer:

I worked as a family physician for 15 years until burnout changed the trajectory of my career. I realized I wanted to start a holistic functional medicine practice in my rural hometown and made it happen. In addition to practicing functional medicine, I now mentor practitioners who are looking to change their paths in healthcare by using what I refer to as the “Catalyst Roadmap”. I share each step of this framework with listeners so that they may apply it to their careers, relationships, personal goals, and projects.

In This Episode I'm Talking About:

Ideas for how to incorporate functional medicine into primary care
How to attract patients that are a “right fit” for your functional medicine practice
Letting go of the overwhelm that can occur when you’re a student of functional medicine

Quotes:

“Functional Medicine is a partnership. You need to select the patient type that is ready to do the hard work.” (6:20-6:29 | Dr. Lara)

“When you’re learning functional medicine and trying to unroll this to the masses, you can’t be an expert in everything.” (7:47-7:53 | Dr. Lara)

“You’re practicing functional medicine any time that you are daring to look deeper than what insurance allows and what the dogma says.” (8:06-8:15 | Dr. Lara)

“When you’re selecting patients you need to already be strategizing. Ask yourself, are they the right fit?” (17:34-17:39 | Dr. Lara)

“If I could go back six years in primary care, I would have approached my administrators differently. I would have said, ‘Hey, I’m very excited about functional medicine, but it’s not for everybody. So here’s my ideas’.” (20:04-20:16 | Dr. Lara)