Another question from Jessica on practice management, “Since it seems like the initial consult may generate suggestions for habit change for the patient before the face-to-face meeting, do you involve a coach or a virtual follow-up beforehand or just wait until after the case review?”
Chris: We’ve done a little of both. We do offer consultation with the coach between the initial consult and the case review, and it’s just some patients really do take us up on that and others don’t. I’m kind of been thinking a lot lately about different models for what that could look like, and it really depends on who’s coming in and what they’re coming in for. For example, if somebody comes in and they’re just kind of on a standard American diet. They’ve got diabetes maybe and a few other complaints like that, and they really haven’t done much yet to improve. I think it makes a lot of sense actually in that case to have some intensive coaching before that person ever sees the clinician. I mean, who knows, they might not even need to see the clinician if the health coach can get them on a good diet, exercising, would lose weight, and improve their blood sugar. That may be really all that they need, but frankly, we don’t get a lot of patients like that in our clinic. We tend to have people that have been around the block many times and already are very advanced in what they’re doing with diet. They’re already on a low FODMAP, AIP, keto, flash, whatever, so in those cases, they’re often coming because they’ve tried a lot of the diet, lifestyle and behavior change, and it hasn’t been enough. What they’re really looking for is the testing and treatment that is more sophisticated and really has to wait for the CR. [6:03]. I think what model you use will depend on who you’re seeing and what kind of population you’re working with.