Nutritional Healthcare: Linking Patients with Crucial Nourishment Through Medical Professionals
In an innovative approach to chronic disease management, Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are playing a critical role in integrating Food-as-Medicine (FAM) programs into healthcare provision. This integration streamlines communication and coordination between healthcare providers and nutrition programs, enabling personalised interventions based on patients' medical data and social determinants of health.
One such initiative is Geisinger's Fresh Food Farmacy, where EHR integration is used to track patients' clinical data alongside their participation in FAM programs. This allows clinicians to monitor outcomes such as blood sugar levels and adjust care plans accordingly, reinforcing the importance of dietary interventions in managing chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
St. Barnabas Hospital is another institution leveraging EHR systems to document patients' food prescriptions and dietary education within the clinical workflow. This ensures that nutrition becomes an integral part of the patient's ongoing care and follow-up.
By embedding FAM data into the clinical record, these programs achieve improved care coordination between medical and nutrition teams, an enhanced ability to tailor food interventions based on individual health status, data-driven evaluation of program effectiveness on health outcomes, and support for sustainability and scaling by demonstrating clinical benefit within healthcare systems.
Augusta Health, in partnership with Allegheny Mountain Institute, is another example of this integration. Their Food Farmacy program includes pre- and post-biometric screenings to monitor patient progress. Participants have reported increased energy and significant decreases in A1C levels, a key indicator of diabetes control.
Geisinger has integrated the social care platform Neighborly into Epic, putting patients' social needs screening information directly into their health records and offering suggestions for local resources. This integration has led to lower A1C levels, fewer emergency department visits and admissions, and increased patient engagement in preventive care.
Dr. Manisha Kulshreshtha, senior vice president and chief clinical and strategy officer at St. Barnabas Hospital, has documented a significant reduction in body mass index for participating adolescents. St. Barnabas Hospital's farm stand and onsite food pantry are part of a whole-person approach that emphasises social determinants of health.
Allison Hess, vice president for health and wellness at Geisinger, states that the Fresh Food Farmacy aims to positively impact health outcomes for vulnerable patients. Dietitians and registered nurses from Geisinger's Fresh Food Farmacy can use the EHR to share patients' diabetes progress with primary care physicians and medication therapy management pharmacists.
Education is a crucial component of Augusta Health's Food Farmacy program. Each week, patients meet with physicians and dietitians to learn about nutrition and health connections. Augusta Health and AMI also serve patients through an onsite food pantry and Crops to Community, which delivers food boxes.
In conclusion, the integration of FAM programs with EHRs is transforming Food as Medicine from an ancillary service into an integral, trackable component of chronic disease management. Initiatives like Geisinger's and St. Barnabas' successful integration approaches align with broader efforts to embed social determinants like food insecurity into primary care to improve health holistically. Catherine Hill, health educator for community outreach and partnerships at Augusta Health, emphasises the community-focused approach of the hospital.
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