Experience of establishing a lifestyle medicine clinic at primary care level- challenges and lessons learnt

Abstract

On an international level, for more than 30 years, Lifestyle Medicine (LSM) Practice has had a great impact on both health Promotion and disease prevention. A practice which on a national KSA level, we are in eager need to adopt, due to the high prevalence of chronic diseases and unhealthy lifestyles. The establishment of the LSM clinic inside the WazaratHealthCenter (WHC)more than one and half year ago, was a great advancement towards offering very important preventive and promotive services for people in real high need to these underutilized main elements in Primary Health Care (PHC) features. We identified quality oriented Key Performance Indicators and the clinically important outcomes for our patients. Our initial data showed great achievement on both fronts.We are currently studying the satisfaction of our customers and working on improving their level of health awareness and help seeking behavior. Furthermore, we are looking to benchmark our results. Fromour pilot project inWHC,we are preparing for an expansion plan to branch out other Primary Care centers in theRiyadh area to servemore people, and we aimto share the experience with other similar services and within the PHC centers allover KSA.