Practitioner Question of the Month – March 2019

Greg Alfonso asks:

Hey doc, love the newsletter. Is there an app your patients like for getting started with meditation?

I often recommend:

• Headspace
• Sam Harris’s Waking Up app
• I have heard good things about Calm, although it isn’t free
• The Meaning of Life Experiment app was created to Ashok Gupta, who I really respect in this space but I’ve found the app a bit clunky in the user interface.

Open to your recommendations here! Please comment below.

Consider Specializing

Specialization is sometimes frowned upon in functional medicine, as a criticism of the conventional medical model. After some time in practice, this is one of a handful of dictums I’ve come not to agree with. Sure, the theory of a holistic model that is an integration of all the body systems sounds great. Who wouldn’t agree with that? However, in practice one is confronted with a dichotomous choice between being a generalist (doing a little in all areas) or a specialist (going deep into one area).

There is nothing wrong with either. But in today’s market place the realm of a health generalist has become increasingly competitive. There are many different practitioners offering council on general health principles.  As such health coaches, nutritionist, personal trainers or a good book or online program might be able to offer the same information at a better cost than what you can get in the office of an NP, DC, MD, DO, etc.

A good solution here could be an integration of a health generalist (health coach) into a clinic that specializes in scope and credential (NP specializing in rheumatic conditions). What if you are a health coach or nutritionist? You can likely go either way, but I would also be cautious with specialization. This can be done, yes. But, I have also seen some health coaches who were touting themselves more like some type of doctor (blood testing, stool testing, ‘diagnosing’, etc.) and that, in my opinion, is not a good idea for reasons I will not expand upon here.

Another reason to specialize is that it makes many things in your office more efficient, cost-effect, profitable and simplified; marketing, office systems, staff training, patient presentation, treatment plan.  Also, it takes time to develop clinical skills, which is much more difficult to do if you are treating only a few cases of many different conditions. Rather than treating many cases of a narrower variety of conditions.

There is no right or wrong here, these are just a few thoughts to consider.

If you have found this information helpful please share with a friend using this link: https://drruscio.com/review/

I’d like to hear your thoughts or questions regarding any of the above information. Please leave comments or questions below – it might become our next practitioner question of the month.