Group Lifestyle Weight-Loss Class
Offered to all patients at Riverside Brentwood clinic free of charge. Classes are held on Tuesdays 5-6 pm biweekly in the Brentwood classroom and now offered via Zoom.
How patients are identified – Patients who are interested in losing weight, identifying ways to improve their activity level, and learning about general health topics are referred to the class at medical appointments via Epic. Patients who require extra time and have been identified to be in the determination or action stage in the stages of change for weight loss can be referred to the lifestyle clinic. Patients who qualify for this are those who have a BMI ≥40 or BMI ≥30 with at least one associated comorbidity, such as hypertension, diabetes, CAD.
Group weight loss clinic set-up – Once patients are referred to the weight-loss group clinic, they are added to an email distribution list that receives helpful information by the clinic’s lifestyle coach every Monday before the classes are held. Email includes the zoom link, topic to be discussed, and type of exercises that will be done in the next day’s class. When patients present to the clinic, their weight is recorded by the lifestyle coach (during COVID times, patients have been sending weight via email).
The class is divided into 2 resident lead portions. First 30 minutes are spent on an exercise routine prepared by a resident. This has been anything from cardio to kickboxing to chair yoga; residents are asked to also provide modifications for patients that have limitations.
The second 25 minutes are used for residents to present a previously chosen topic of interest to the patients. Topics also range in variety regarding nutrition, exercise, or action modification. These topics are chosen at the beginning of the year by the residents and staff and then presented to patients who vote on the topics of most interest to them. Previous topics have included breakdown of nutritional components including things like fiber or carbs, types of diet (e.g. keto or DASH), types of exercise (e.g. cardio or resistance training), ideas for food prep, how to make healthy choices when eating out, etc. Patients are usually sent topic-based “homework” to complete prior to the next meeting. The first Tuesday of the month is used for presentation of the topic while the following Tuesday is used for discussion between patients and physicians of the topic previously presented and how the “homework” went. This allows idea sharing between all. The last 5 min are used for announcements and the lifestyle coach gives a shout out to the patients who have had the weight loss in the last month.
A note is written on each patient (using a pre-set template) where the patient’s new weight, topic discussed, and type of exercise done is recorded. All residents participating are annotated in these notes to document participation.
For more information contact Dr. De La Torre.
Residents from Fairfax Family Practice’s Global Health and Community Health track have finished their initial year in their partnership with Neighborhood Health: a federally qualified health center that serves more than 29,000 patients across Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax County. Established in 1994, Neighborhood Health started as a clinic run out of an apartment building. It has since grown into a non-profit organization aimed to expand health access in Northern Virginia, and bridges care to a different population than that seen at FFP’s primary clinic. The experience consisted of weekly rotations at the clinic to help residents gain exposure to caring for a greater variety of patients in Northern VA and learn about community support services available at FQHCs. For more information about Neighborhood Health visit https://neighborhoodhealthva.org/
MDs Making Tees is a clothing brand started by two family medicine physicians, Dr. Zain Sultan and Dr. John Andrea, who believe there’s much more to wellness than doctors’ visits and writing prescriptions.
Embracing creativity and humor, MDs Making Tees encourages healthy lifestyle choices. The apparel’s messages help people find the fun in disease prevention — starting with a campaign to encourage vaccination against Covid-19.
A portion of proceeds from each purchase goes to charities that assist vulnerable populations affected most by the pandemic.