New Physician Toolkit to Improve Patient Lifestyles, Improve Patient Health
The Texas Medical Association brings you the American Medical Association (AMA) Healthier Life StepsTM program to help you improve the lifestyles and overall health of your patients. The comprehensive toolkit offers physicians and their patients practical resources for making positive, coordinated lifestyle changes. It focuses on healthy eating, increasing physical activity, quitting smoking, and reducing risky drinking.
AMA Healthier Life StepsTM now also includes a toolkit for physicians to improve their own lifestyles.
The AMA Healthier Life StepsTM concise, easy-to-read physician guide and toolkit offer physicians and their patients these resources:
- Continuing medical education opportunities
- Patient questionnaires
- Action plans
- Progress calendars and more
AMA Healthier Life StepsTM program materials are free for physicians and patients, courtesy of TMA and AMA. And for simply reading the physician guide, physicians can earn up to 1 hour of AMA PRA Category 1 CME CreditTM.
Toolkit
- Physicians' guide
- Patient self-assessment questionnaire (English and Spanish
Assess your patients’ readiness to change one or more key health behaviors with this short questionnaire.
- Action plans/tip Sheets
Help your patients identify and change specific behaviors with these four action plans.
- Progress tracking calendar
Support your patients’ efforts to initiate and maintain healthier behaviors with these tracking calendars.
- Poster for physician offices
Remind yourself, your office staff, and your patients of your partnership to improve your patients’ health.
Please feel free to download the material for use in your practice. For more information email tmaoutreachcoordinator@texmed.org or call (800) 888-1300, ext. 1470, or (512) 370-1470.
Healthy Living Physician Toolkit Available
The AMA Healthier Life Steps™ - A Physician's Guide to Personal Health toolkit is designed to help physicians support their personal efforts to live a healthier lifestyle and serve as role models to their patients. Continuing medical education credit is available by reading the toolkit. Check out the patient toolkit, too.
CME Information
CME Objectives
After completing this activity, participants should be able to:
- Utilize references about healthy lifestyles and behavior changes that impact patients’ lives
- Implement strategies to assess patients’ readiness to change poor lifestyle behaviors
- Counsel patients on lifestyle changes and provide action plans when appropriate
Accreditation statement
The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Designation statement
The American Medical Association designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Healthier Life Steps in Action: Take Good Health to Schools
Doris Robitaille, MD, a family physician in Austin, entertained and educated 120 Eanes Elementary third graders this spring with a “Bodyology” presentation. With donations from TMA and other local medical groups, she provided an interactive experience that could have lasting impact on their health.
To begin, each student became instant scientist, wearing donated medical gowns and gloves. Next, the students went on a tour of the body through x-rays viewed on the classroom windows, including the skull, tar lungs, and foreign bodies kids had swallowed.
Accident prevention, including helmet use (TMA’s Hard Hats for Little Heads) and seat belt safety, was next on the agenda. Each child also got to wear the “drunk glasses” and try to walk the line under the influence as Dr. Robitaille explained the risks of drugs, alcohol, and smoking.
To finish, the kids learned about heart health, starting with the fat content of 50 popular foods exhibited and ranked in test tubes. The kids’ examined a 10-pound blob of fat compared with a 10-pound model of muscle. The children also got to listen to their own and each other’s hearts with stethoscopes.
Dr. Robitaille, who also volunteers on the School Safety and Health Advisory Committee for Eanes Independent School District, says she does this to try to affect change in children’s lives and encourages other physicians to do the same.
“Kids are so smart and impressionable — what a great opportunity to feed them food for thought about their own body’s health, safety and life.”
Additional Resources
cpt Assistant: Learn behavioral counseling codes you can use when assisting your patients in making healthy lifestyle changes.
The AMA Healthier Life Steps™ materials can be reproduced or duplicated and distributed without charge for noncommercial purposes. All copies must include the American Medical Association's copyright notice and contain no change in the content or format of the publication. Any other uses require AMA's prior written consent.
TMA Resources