It’s long been taught to students involved in all health professions that an accurate history and clinical consult will yield 80-90% of a diagnosis in a patient. In my own experience I believe that number may be even higher if enough time and accurate thought is given when assessing a person’s health. The rest of any diagnosis is a good clinical evaluation and possible diagnostic tests if indicated. But again… it is mostly an accurate history and an in-depth consultation that will help the practitioner know which tests, if any, are needed.
At F.I.T. we have recognized how important these steps are in accurately understanding a patient’s past and present state of health. We have incorporated the most up to date computer software technology to assist us in analyzing the patient’s overall state of health.
The Comprehensive Functional Health Analysis that we use is FM Logics. This is an extensive online questionnaire that a scheduled patient fills out prior to their first visit with us. This gives us a detailed look into the patient’s history and all of the previous diagnostic testing that may have been done, including any recent conventional blood work, i.e. Lab Corps and Quest. Conventional blood work will be reviewed and analyzed with an emphasis on optimal levels. This shows tendencies and patterns that are not typically analyzed through traditional lab values. With this information we can zero in on cause and effect. It helps in assessing an accurate timeline and gives us a great advantage in discovering when and why a patient became ill. Typically, without the assistance of this type of technology, initial consultations could become scattered and unfocused. A patient often has so much important information that they need to share and in doing this prior to the first visit they have been given the ability to do just that.
Now the doctor has time to read, assess, organize and decide on the most important topics to discuss and evaluate during the patient’s initial visit.
A comprehensive health analysis looks to find the root cause of a person’s health issues by looking deeper and going “upstream”. To quote Mark Hyman M.D at the Institute of Functional Medicine and the Cleveland Clinic Functional Medicine Center, “What we find upstream often has downstream effects”.
At the time of the patient’s first visit, a determination will be made to see if further functional medicine testing is required. Examples of this could include testing for micronutrient deficiencies, hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances and GI stool cultures for dysbiosis. Some of these tests may require a blood draw which will be done at our office and other tests such as salivary, urine and stool analysis can be done by the patient at home.
Some of the above testing may be partially covered through your health insurance.