Viewpoint: Help your patients make a difference in their own lives

After 15 years in practice, the family physician from Arkansas found himself frustrated not with medicine, but with waiting rooms full of patients with impaired glucose levels and hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity, and by his inability to bring about lasting change.

"I felt at times like I was just giving out one pill after another and not doing anything to cure the disease," he says. "I was just losing a little of my joy because I didn't have anything to offer these people."

Hagaman found a new way to share that message when his practice began offering nutritional counseling group sessions in March, led by three health educators and two nurses. The results? Almost 500 patients have already dropped more than 4,000 pounds and transformed the way they manage their disorders.

"The weight loss has been good, but the fact that people are coming off their medications-for diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol-that's just phenomenal," says Hagaman, who closely follows his patients' progress. "It's changed my outlook to where I think I could now go another 15 or 20 years and enjoy what I'm doing."

We would like to help you share in his optimism. Beginning this issue and continuing through November, Medical Economics, along with Advanstar Communications' other Life Sciences publications and their web portal, ModernMedicine.com, will deliver "Cardiometabolic Disorders & Weight: Action for Outcomes," a series of in-depth coverage designed to help you manage your patients' disorders more effectively.

In addition to ongoing coverage in Medical Economics, you can explore a wide range of related content at http://ModernMedicine.com/cardiometabolic, created with the expertise of Advanstar's Life Sciences publications. (Learn more about each publication on the next page.)

"It seems like all of our attention toward healthcare is on putting more money and more attention on these end-stage diseases, rather than taking those end-stage diseases and trying to prevent them," says Hagaman. "We get more bang for our buck if we try to make people healthier and eliminate some of those cardiometabolic risks."

We hope you'll join us in taking action to improve your patients' outcomes.

Erich Burnett Editor-in-Chief