Functional Medicine Profile

What makes Functional Medicine different?

Functional medicine involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. Hallmarks of a functional medicine approach include:

• Patient-centered care. The focus of functional medicine is on patient-centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease. By listening to the patient and learning his or her story, the practitioner brings the patient into the discovery process and tailors treatments that address the individual’s unique needs.

• An integrative, science-based healthcare approach. Functional medicine practitioners look “upstream” to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can lead to illness. The unique genetic makeup of each patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body, and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning.

• Integrating best medical practices. Functional medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what is sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.

Our practice uses a system called LivingMatrix to assess your health and identify the root cause of your symptoms. One of the many benefits of using this application is that it saves our practice time on the intake process – meaning more time for us to paint a comprehensive picture of our patients’ health histories with them.

There are benefits for our patients, too. Since your paperwork is done electronically, you don’t have to print out and handwrite any information, and there’s no risk of your information being lost or thrown away by mistake. We are able to personalize your information in real time and provide you with a hard copy of your health assessment. You’ll not only gain useful insight into your health during your visit, but you’ll walk away from your appointment with an understandable, easy-to-read view of your current health, a list of health goals, and, if necessary, a functional medicine prescription.

All new patients will receive an email from our LivingMatrix application. This email will contain a personalized link to your initial paperwork; please click the link and choose a personal password (at least 8 characters in length). Click “Update Password” and begin entering all patient demographic information and click “Submit.” You’ll then be taken to the dashboard, which lists all of the forms you will need to complete before your appointment.

To begin entering information, please click the button below. You should save your progress as you work through each section. (Please keep in mind that the forms may take as long as an hour to to complete. If you do not remember the specific month and date of an occurrence you may enter “01/01/YEAR” as an estimate - the month and exact day are less important that the year.) Once you have completed all of the sections, please click “Submit.” (NOTE: Once you click submit, you will not be able to go back and edit information, as submitting forms locks in your information for your practitioner to review.)