Latest news with #collaborativecare
CBC
16-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Carleton North health-care clinic gets $2.1M to take 800 patients off waitlist
Social Sharing Another collaborative care clinic has officially launched in New Brunswick, advancing one of the key commitments made by the Holt government to increase access to primary health care. The Carleton North clinic in Florenceville-Bristol will receive $2.1 million in 2025-2026 to hire more health-care professionals to work in a team with Dr. Stuart Lockhart. Lockhart has been vocal about wanting to reimagine family medicine away from the traditional — and often overwhelmed — solo family doctor practice. New hires will include nursing staff and administrative support for the two full-time family physicians and three part-time physicians already on site. Health-care roles such as a diabetes educator, social workers, physiotherapists and respiratory therapists will also be added over the coming months. It's expected this will enable the clinic to take 800 patients off the waitlist, in addition to the 1,360 patients already matched with a physician since the clinic opened two years ago. "This is a good day," said Lockhart, who returned to New Brunswick from Saskatchewan to carry on the legacy of his father, uncle and grandfather, who also practise medicine in the area. Carleton North is the fourth collaborative care clinic announcement by the provincial government since the Liberals under Susan Holt were elected in November. It follows previous clinic announcements in Fredericton North, the Acadian Peninsula and Sackville. WATCH | Holt government announces $1.2M to hire collaborative medical team: Carleton North health clinic to take 800 patients off waitlist for primary care 2 hours ago Duration 1:50 "These are New Brunswicker's priorities," Holt said. "To get great access to health care close to home, in the communities they love, not being sent down the road an hour for another way to get their health-care needs met." Holt said today's announcement brings the total financial commitment to established health-care teams to $30 million, including the $2.1 million for Carleton North. Purpose-built in 2023 for a health-care team, the Carleton North Clinic received support from the community, including the Rotary Club of Florenceville, the McCain Foundation, and the Carleton North Foundation. "If there was ever a case study for successful private-public partnerships, this would be it," said Lockhart. Health minister Dr. John Dornan said interest is quickly growing in the team approach to family medicine. He said more than 60 groups of physicians in the province have expressed interest. "I'd like to say this was our idea," Dornan said. "It wasn't. This was Stuart Lockhart's idea. And before we formed government he was already doing what we knew needed to be done." Dornan said collaborative care will help the province attract desperately needed healthcare providers by offering better work-life balance. Because the clinic is staffed by a team, it removes the burden from one physician to attend to every health-care need and be on site for every visit. The Horizon Health Network aims to have all 10,000 patients in the area assigned to the clinic's team by 2029.
Medscape
06-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Digital Collaborative Care Model Improves IBS Symptoms
SAN DIEGO — An artificial intelligence (AI)–enhanced digital collaborative care model led to rapid, clinically significant, and sustained symptom relief for patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) seen at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, an observational study found. Symptom tracking at 4-week intervals showed that 'a lmost everybody got better' regardless of IBS subtype, with relief starting in the first 4 weeks, Stephen Lupe, PsyD, gastrointestinal psychologist and director of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, said in an interview with Medscape Medical News. The findings were presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2025. Digital Boost to Collaborative Care Model The combination of dietary interventions and brain-gut behavioral therapy has demonstrated excellent outcomes for patients with IBS, but patients struggle to access these needed services, Lupe noted. A medical home collaborative care model in which patients get care from a multidisciplinary team has been shown to be a good way to successfully deliver this combination of care. 'When you do collaborative in-person care, people get better quicker,' Lupe said. However, scaling access to this model remains a challenge. For their study, Cleveland Clinic researchers added an AI-enhanced digital platform, Ayble Health, to the in-person collaborative care model to expand access to disease-management services and evaluated whether it improved clinical outcomes for study's 171 participants, who were recruited via social media advertisements. Here's how the platform works. Once a patient enrolls in Ayble Health, a personalized care plan is recommended based on a virtual visit, screening questionnaire, and baseline survey. The platform includes brain-gut programs, including guided audio content on mindfulness, hypnosis, meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and breathing techniques; personalized nutrition support to find and remove trigger foods, a food barcode scanner, and a comprehensive groceries database; and AI-powered wellness tools to help manage and track symptoms. Lupe worked with Ayble Health to develop the platform's behavioral health content and care pathways. Patients may choose to follow any combination of three care pathways: A care team overseen by gastro-psychologists, dietitians, and gastroenterologists; a holistic nutrition program including a personalized elimination diet; and a brain-gut behavioral therapy program with gut-directed hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy. They go at their own pace, can connect with Ayble Health's virtual care team to help with education and goal setting, and continue to consult their Cleveland Clinic providers as needed for evaluation and treatment. 'The care t eam is still there. We've just augmented it to make sure that as many people as possible get behavioral skills training and dietary support, with monitoring between visits — instead of the traditional, 'I'll see you in 6 months approach,' Lupe explained. IBS Symptom Scores Improve Of the study's 171 patients, 20 had IBS-diarrhea, 23 had IBS-constipation, 32 had IBS-mixed, and 8 had IBS-unspecified. The remaining 88 patients reported IBS without indication of subtype. At intake, all patients had active IBS symptoms, with scores ≥ 75 on the IBS symptom severity scale (IBS-SSS). Most patients enrolled in more than one care pathway, and 95% of participants completed at least 4 weeks on their chosen pathways. Overall, patients saw an average 140-point decrease in IBS-SSS from intake through follow-up lasting up to 42 weeks. A drop in IBS-SSS score ≥ 50 points was considered a clinically meaningful change. Symptom improvements occurred as early as week 4, were sustained and were uniform across IBS subtypes, suggesting that the AI-enhanced digital collaborative care model has wide utility in patients with IBS, Lupe said. Patients with the most severe IBS symptoms showed the greatest improvement, but even 50% of those with mild symptoms had clinically meaningful changes in IBS-SSS. Improvement in IBS symptoms was seen across all care pathways, but the combination of multiple pathways improved outcomes better than a single care pathway alone. The combination of nutrition and brain-gut behavioral therapy demonstrated the greatest reduction in IBS-SSS scores and proportion of patients achieving clinically meaningful results (95%). The digital comprehensive car model for IBS is now 'up and running' at Cleveland Clinic, and the team plans to proactively reach out to patients with gastrointestinal disorders recently seen at their center to alert them to the availability of this tool, Lupe said. A randomized controlled trial is planned to further validate these observational findings, he added. 'Wave of the Future' The digital collaborative care model is 'innovative, and I think is the wave of the future,' Kyle Staller, MD, MPH, gastroenterologist and director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, who wasn't involved in the study, told Medscape Medical News. 'These digital platforms bundle nondrug options, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, dietary therapy, hypnotherapy, so patients can choose what suits them, rather than the gastroenterologist hunting down each individual resource, which requires a lot of work,' Staller said. The study 'provides real-world evidence that a deliberative, digital, collaborative care model that houses various types of nondrug IBS treatment under one roof can provide meaningful benefit to patients,' Staller told Medscape Medical News. Importantly, he said, 'patients chose which option they wanted. At the end of the day, the way that we should be thinking about IBS care is really making sure that we engage the patient with treatment choices,' Staller said.
