title: Integrative Health Coach Training: A Model for Shifting the Paradigm Toward Patient-centricity and Meeting New National Prevention Goals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the evolution, training, and results of an emerging allied health profession skilled in eliciting sustainable health-related behavior change and charged with improving patient engagement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Through techniques sourced from humanistic and positive psychology, solution-focused and mindfulness-based therapies, and leadership coaching, Integrative Health Coaching (IHC) provides a mechanism to empower patients through various stages of learning and change. IHC also provides a method for the creation and implementation of forward-focused personalized health plans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical studies employing Duke University Integrative Medicine's model of IHC have demonstrated improvements in measures of diabetes and diabetes risk, weight management, and risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke. By supporting and enabling individuals in making major lifestyle changes for the improvement of their health, IHC carries the potential to reduce rates and morbidity of chronic disease and impact myriad aspects of healthcare.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As a model of educational and clinical innovation aimed at patient empowerment and lifestyle modification, IHC is aligned well with the tenets and goals of recently sanctioned federal healthcare reform, specifically the creation of the first National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IHC may allow greater patient-centricity while targeting the lifestyle-related chronic disease that lies at the heart of the current healthcare crisis.
authors.affiliation: Duke Integrative Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, United States.
authors.forename: Linda L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Noelle Lake Coaching (private practice), Brooklyn, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Noelle H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Lake
authors.affiliation: Duke Integrative Medicine, Duke University Health System and School of Nursing and Center for Research on Prospective Health Care, United States.
authors.forename: Leigh Ann
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.affiliation: Duke Integrative Medicine and Department of Medicine, Duke School of Medicine, United States.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perlman
authors.affiliation: Duke Integrative Medicine and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke School of Medicine, United States.
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wroth
authors.affiliation: Duke Integrative Medicine and Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke School of Medicine, United States.
authors.forename: Ruth Q
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: Wolever
keywords: Health coaching; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; behavior change; chronic disease prevention