Functional Medicine: The Future of Healthcare
Functional Medicine: The Future of Healthcare
St. Louis-based Innovative Health Partners Revamps Service Offerings to Transform Healthcare Delivery and Meet Patients Where They Are
St. Louis, MO – Innovative Health Partners, a functional medicine clinic founded by Drs. Alethea Eller and Jason Wibbenmeyer that focuses on comprehensive whole-body health, has overhauled their service offerings to provide more choice and value to patients. Effective November 1, 2018, patients can engage with the healthcare professionals in three ways: as an Advance Wellness patient, a Lifestyle Wellness patient, or a student in their Wellness Academy.
Innovative Health Partners’ Advance Wellness care option offers a goal-focused, targeted and customized plan of care, access to unique labs (and the data those provide), and 1:1 appointments with the doctors. The Lifestyle Wellness care option is for health-oriented individuals who want to take proactive, preventative action and relies heavily on testing, data, feedback, and consultations. Innovative Health Partners’ Wellness Academy provides a cost-effective and convenient way for the community to access functional health information on today’s most prevalent healthcare topics, including gut health, brain health, inflammation and immune responses, and hormones.
“The health care delivery system in the United States is in crisis,” said Dr. Wibbenmeyer, co-founder and one of the functional medicine physicians at Innovative Health Partners. “New care delivery models need to provide a greater focus on primary prevention. We need to change not only how patients are educated about their health, but how people think about health and healthcare in general.”
These new services work towards this aim. While Advance Wellness is the model most people are familiar with—“Something isn’t right and I need to be treated,” Lifestyle Wellness is an option for those who want to be proactive in maintaining optimal health, while being monitored to catch early-stage illnesses. Wellness Academy fills in educational gaps for patients and the community.
“Functional medicine treats the physical, nutritional, and emotional components of a person’s well-being to arrive at comprehensive whole-body health,” said Dr. Alethea Eller, co-founder and one of the functional medicine physicians at Innovative Health Partners. “Current healthcare models encourage waiting until symptoms of disease arise before taking action. Our revamped service offerings, and the entire philosophy of our practice, is to spend more time and investigation on disease prevention so a ‘sick state’ doesn’t occur.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70% of all deaths are due to chronic disease, and the cost of chronic care exceeds $1.5 trillion a year, or 75% of all medical expenses. Only a fraction of that is spent on prevention and health promotion, despite evidence that prevention can do much to reduce the burden of chronic disease. Integrative healthcare and functional medicine practitioners aim for optimal wellness for their patients every day.
About Innovative Health Partners
Innovative Health Partners is a functional medicine practice that utilizes the connections between physical, nutritional, and emotional well-being to achieve whole-body health. The physicians’ unique patient-centered approach to healthcare allows patients to engage at a care level that best meets their needs and empowers them to achieve a higher level of health. From hormone imbalances to autoimmune disorders, from anxiety to sleep and skin problems, hundreds of patients have benefited from Innovative Health Partners’ comprehensive, functional approach to wellness. For more information, visit www.innovativehp.com or call 314-219-1888.