Improving Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care

Jodi Summers Holtrop, PhD, MCHES, Associate Program Director and Senior Implementation Scientist of the ACCORDS Dissemination and Implementation Research Program, has a program of research in the area of improving healthy behaviors in primary care. One goal of her research is to help patients get help with achieving a healthy weight from their own primary care doctor’s office. 

She recently finished an AHRQ-funded R01 study titled Why is the Use of the Medicare Intensive Behavioral Therapy for Obesity Benefit so low? Finding what Works to Promote Wider Dissemination. So far, this has resulted in the following publications just published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Additional publications are in process on factors important to successful implementation of weight management in primary care and models and structures that can support primary care practices helping their patients with weight, including:

• Luo Z, Dolor R, Gritz M, Connelly L, Li H, Holtrop J Summers. A Survey of Primary Care Practices on Their Use of The Intensive Behavioral Therapy for Obese Medicare Patients.
• Nederveld A, Luo Z, Dolor R, Gritz M, Connelly L, Holtrop J Summers. The Joys and Challenges of Delivering Obesity Care in Primary Care in the US.

Dr. Holtrop and colleagues have also developed learning modules to help practice teams and clinicians with weight management implementation. A new website to help primary practice organize and deliver weight management is available at: https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/weightmanagementinprimarycare. 

An e-learning module that provides CME credit for health care providers on how to deliver evidence-based weight management is also available through cuelearning.org. If you would like access to the e-learning module, please contact jodi.holtrop@cuanschutz.edu. 

Finally, Dr. Holtrop and Leigh Perreault, MD, Associate Professor, CU Endocrinology, recently received a $3 million dollar R18 grant from the National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK; NIH) for their implementation research study titled PATHWEIGH: Pragmatic Weight Management in Primary Care. The goal of the research is to test a novel approach built into EPIC for assisting providers to deliver evidence-based weight loss treatments to their patients. The grant will test the implementation strategies of the PATHWEIGH tools in combination with the e-learning module, an e-consult service and practice facilitation. More information on the pilot results can be found in this recent publication:

• Perreault L, Hockett CW, Holmstrom H, Tolle L, Kramer ES, Holtrop JS. PATHWEIGH Tool for Chronic Weight Management Built into EPIC Electronic Medical Record: Methods, Pilot Results and Future Directions. J Obes Chronic Dis. 2020;4(1):42-48.

 Dr. Holtrop acknowledges the ACCORDS investigators who have been partners in this research including Mark Gritz, PhD, Miriam Dickinson, PhD, and Krithika Suresh, PhD.