A Wellness Component to your practice, which takes advantage of this inevitable change that is upon us, will assist you in:

1.	Making better use of your professional skills in an academic area that is exciting and exploding with new information.
2.	Adding a revenue stream and profit center to your practice that is impacted by decreasing reimbursement and increasing regulations and "hassles".

The goal of "Optimal Health and Wellness" is a concept that requires:

1.	Comprehensive approach providing diet, nutritional supplementation and lifestyle.
2.	Quality products you can recommend with confidence.
3.	Patient education on the health care "choices" available that impact overall health

Physicians must fully disclose the nature of their financial arrangement with a supplier or manufacturer to sell health-related products. This reasonably supports the AMA’s role in promoting professionalism and ethical standards.

Physicians should, upon request, provide patients with understandable literature that relies on scientific standards in addressing the validity of health-related products.

Patients may lack the expertise to make a proper determination about their need for a product and have no alternative reliable source of information so it behooves the physician to help provide that expertise and advice.

Physicians generally should not sell health-related products when patients can obtain a product that offers the same health benefit at a local pharmacy or health products store. However, since the market for nutritional supplementation in the United States is unregulated and uncontrolled, it is a difficult task to sort out the “good” from the “bad”. Not all supplements are created equal and if they are not bio-available at the cell level then their benefit to the patient is suspect.

In this complex and confusing market arena of highly advertised, uncontrolled, poorly manufactured and rarely assayed nutritional supplements, physicians have an obligation to advise their patients appropriately.

To someone with vision, challenge and opportunity are two sides of the same coin. Turmoil within the health care industry is providing an opportunity to create residual income greater than before the days of managed care.

Capitation and other pressures of the recent health delivery system have reduced the rewards of being a health professional and limited the patients access to prudent care. The spiral of this trend has caused many practitioners to make a painful assessment of where they will be financially when the full force of the corporate bottom line is brought to bear on their practice. At the same time, patients are seeking their own solutions to the eventuality of rationed care. The best solution they are hearing about is prevention.

The new reality for both the patient and providers translates into an opportunity for you. There is an income source that is residual. It is enhanced by the perception that health care providers must find a means of supplementing their professional income. It is supported by the patient's belief that hey must bolster their resistance to illness. It permits you to do something that dovetails with what you are trained to do, something that permits you to provide a greater service and achieve greater security. You can profit from what others need and want.

As national magazines such as Time and The U.S. News & World Report have chronicled the reality of prevention through nutritional science, doctors are profiting by helping patients avoid many health problems that are preventable.

Imagine yourself becoming financially secure by introducing a new health management concept to your peers and earning an override on all the new income that accrues to their practices. The health management concept that will impact the medical field in the next decade is the in-office Wellness Center. The core value of the Wellness Center will be to provide information on lifestyle choices and nutritional science that can demonstratively improve a patient's health profile.

A New Tool in the Doctor's Bag: Nutritional education was not a part of the curriculum of most medical schools in former years. Advances in nutritional science over the past ten years have been as dramatic as those in medical science. To successfully integrate nutrition into wellness management within your practice, a company on the forefront of this nutritional science explosion provides the minimal essential knowledge you will need in concise format. The CEO and Founder of this company is also a Trustee of the University of California, Irvine and Bastyr University, Seattle among other distinguished credentials.

What's Not Fun in the Business of Health? The least favorite part of medicine is problem solving in the area of practice management and marketing. The ever-changing state of health care and its new challenges requires a continual focus on creative solutions that are progressive enough to stand out in a crowd, secure enough to endure, and flexible enough to bend with the inevitable changes every practice encounters. None of us has the time or energy to spend creating, implementing, and investing in systems and ideas that will only produce frustration without results. For this reason, many of your peers are enthusiastic about an exciting new strategy.

Education: Patient education is intended to inform your patients of the role nutritional supplementation plays in the maintenance of overall health. With educational materials and carefully selected products available through your Wellness Center you can significantly increase the overall success of your health support program by having more control over your patients' participation in the process.

Expected Results: The use of nutritional dietary supplementation is necessary in view of Department of Agriculture findings of suboptimal nutrition intake by most Americans. As you recommend the use of specific supplements you will be able to observe the improvements in the patient health profile. Assuring optimal nutrition before, during, and after treatments has caused doctors to observe maintenance in overall health. While dietary drinks have been recommended for patients on a liquid diet, few doctors have supplied their patients with a superior product they have selected specifically for its high product quality with demonstrated efficacy and nutritional value. The obstacles to optimal dietary intake can be removed if the necessary formulas and supportive counseling is available right in your office.

Your Patients as Marketers of your Practice: We know that patients can be a strong referral source if there is something special about their doctor they can talk about. The Wellness Center provides a valued addition to health care that patients are enthusiastically telling their friends about. Patients have added respect for doctors who display a thorough consideration of their total health care needs.

Your Branch Wellness Centers: We will show you the possibilities of expanding your profit center beyond your office as you introduce the concept to other health professionals. This can generate referral incomes as their offices incorporate these same concepts into their practices. Through the efforts of the Facilitator the operation is typically expanded into the business community outside the health industry. Since there are no "territories" you potentially benefit no matter where the business goes. A full-time or part-time Wellness Center Facilitator can be put on staff at little or no additional overhead cost to you. Your Wellness Center operates profitably from the beginning.

What will Change? Eventually, your stress level will change. First, the Wellness Center Facilitator can be trained for you. Then the Facilitator will publicize your new service by patient mailings and in-office survey. The Facilitator will handle the Wellness appointments, independently: with minimal input from you during regular patient visits. The doctor and other staff member casually and naturally endorse the products by speaking of the benefits they experienced. Based on sincere testimonials, the patients usually try the products, which resell themselves, providing continuing income to you. This is characteristic of a product that delivers results that are measurable, consistent and guaranteed.

Web Site Education and Visibility: You can also have a Web site to help market your efforts. Your Web site will help your patients get access to new information about health care rooted in prevention and longevity. This resource offers education about lifestyle choices and specific products based on effectiveness and economic advantages to both the patient and the practice.

How to Implement? Let us help you set up the Wellness Center and train the facilitator, in house. This service is provided without cost. Space and equipment requirements will fit conveniently into your current operation. We will discuss securing a stream of additional revenue, you will meet a team of consultants who can advise and assist you in integrating nutrition within your practice. Their help can conserve your valuable time in training and support. You may talk with members of this team before you make any decision.

How Profitable? That is determined by your goals. Income sources will result from:

Comparing such potential to that obtained after years of medical training followed by operating a practice requiring space, equipment, and the management of personnel, accounting, and marketing, many practitioners have reached the incontrovertible conclusion that offering prevention can be more lucrative and less consuming than providing treatment.

Accordingly, many have embraced the Wellness Center with a view toward making their practice more rewarding or to generate the dollars that can ultimately replace their professional incomes entirely.