Obesity services planning framework for interprofessional primary care organizations.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Healthcare Management
• Obesity Research

Background:

• Developing new health services, particularly for complex conditions like obesity, often requires extensive planning.
• Creating logic models for single primary care organizations can be resource-intensive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an organization-level planning framework for obesity prevention and management services.
• To create a standardized approach applicable across different age groups and care needs.

Main Methods:

• A formative project involving initial draft development by a research team based on focus groups.
• Review and prioritization of activities by 20 Family Health Teams (FHTs) through an electronic consensus process.
• Final review by a national panel.

Main Results:

• Identification of five key target groups for obesity care, from pregnancy through adulthood with complex needs.
• Prioritization of activities across five categories: awareness, identification/initial management, follow-up, expanded services, and practice initiatives.
• Strong consensus on raising awareness, pediatric growth assessment, adult wellness care, and provider education.

Conclusions:

• Collaborative development facilitated consensus on outcomes and ensured cross-practice relevance.
• The developed framework's care process descriptions were endorsed by reviewers.
• Next steps include trialing the framework and conducting implementation studies for effective obesity management across the lifespan.