This week, the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Pediatric is launching a new telemedicine program that will provide patients access to their evidence-based pediatric weight management program without the need for families to make frequent trips to Ann Arbor. Utilizing Fruit Street Health’s HIPAA compliant video platform, clinicians will deliver individual and group sessions via video conferencing to collect activity and nutrition information from patients easily between visits.
The solution will also be fully integrated with leading wearable technologies such as FitBit, Withings, Jawbone UP, iHealth Labs, and the upcoming Apple Watch. This will enable clinicians to monitor lifestyle data from their patients such as sleep, exercise, diet, weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose data. The center has a team of experienced providers who will use the platform including physicians, dietitians, psychologist, social worker, exercise physiologist and physician assistants all dedicated to the evaluation and treatment of adolescents with obesity through their MPOWER (Michigan Pediatric Outpatient Weight Evaluation & Reduction) CONNECT program.
Susan Woolford, M.D., M.P.H., who is a pediatrician and the medical director of the weight management program, commented on the initiative with Fruit Street stating, “Childhood obesity is a significant public health concern. Many children with excess weight will grow up to be severely obese adults and will suffer from obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Our goal is to help teens and their families improve their health through lifestyle changes and we believe that well designed communications technology can help us connect with our patients and increase the likelihood of our patients achieving success. Fruit Street is the software solution we chose to use to accomplish this.”
Woolford’s team will use FruitStreet.com, which combines telemedicine, mobile applications, and wearable monitors and can be used in conjunction with a weight management protocol to promote healthy lifestyle choices among patients.
