AOA Joins Effort to Increase Consumption of Fruits and Veggies

The AOA is pleased to collaborate with the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) to educate osteopathic physicians and patients about the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables. Encouraging individuals to add more fruits and vegetables to a healthful diet aligns with the AOA's efforts to help address the critical issue of obesity in the U.S. PBH is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on an updated "Fruits & Veggies—More Matters" initiative. Learn more about the initiative and take advantage of physician resources to educate patients. 

Retail Clinics are Coming – Are you Ready?

Your patients are soon going to be able to choose between seeing you or going to a retail clinic in their local Target, CVS, or Walmart when they are feeling sick. Whether this fast growing trend will bring increased competition or collaboration is unknown but physicians, especially primary care physicians must be prepared.

Retail clinics, (also known as store based clinics), are small health centers opening up in high traffic retail stores across the country. Patients can see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant with no appointment. Patients are diagnosed within minutes and are able to fill their prescriptions if needed by the in-store pharmacy. Filling prescriptions at that location is optional but an added convenience that many patients like. If the illness or problem requires being seen by a physician, patients are referred to their primary care physician. If the patient does not have a primary care physician, he or she will be referred to one off of the clinic’s physician referral list. More.