Approximately 31% of patients seen by the Center for Functional Medicine improved their overall PROMIS physical health scores by 5 points or more, representing a clinically significant change and a notable effect on daily life. Twenty-two percent of primary care patients improved their scores by 5 points or more. With functional medicine, the care provided is based on the affected system, not the condition diagnosed. However, the authors note that this information is now considered to have value in establishing the picture related to the effectiveness of specific clinical interventions.
Dr. Bland is a co-founder of the Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM) and Chairman Emeritus of the IFM Board of Directors. Functional medicine redefines the treatment of disease by focusing on the mechanism and cause and not simply on the label of the disease. This type of protocol helps researchers gather evidence of a drug's effectiveness in terms of unique patient sensitivity and response to an intervention.
Herbst helped the Cleveland Clinic develop and expand the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine (CCCFM). A good example of this evidence-generating dynamic related to the impact on general health can be found in a published study describing a micronutrient intervention in Brazilian children and adolescents that examined both physiological and psychological functional responses. IFM's strategic priorities include the continued support of research efforts to build the evidence base for functional medicine. A functional medicine doctor will research and treat each cause, leading to a personalized treatment approach.
Now, in a new study published in the journal BMJ Open, Cleveland Clinic researchers examined the value and effectiveness of shared medical appointments (SMA) based on functional medicine. The functional medicine approach is different for each person, as each treatment is tailored to that person's specific disease. Consequently, functional medicine has increasingly become a scientific and evidence-based substitute for the approach to disease and symptoms. Functional assessment in combination with new biometric and bioinformatics tools represents a powerful step forward in developing innovative approaches to collecting and documenting evidence in support of patient-specific interventions.
Often, the biological or biometric functions evaluated in a clinical study are the result of many contributing effects and, therefore, represent isolated components that are part of a much larger biological network. Two functional measures that can be used to stratify and study possible interventions are grip strength and male reproductive function. I have been using functional medicine approaches since my days as a chiropractor, while using the Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory.
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