Food as Medicine: How Providers Are Connecting Patients to Essential Nutrition

Of all the tools available to modern medicine, the most potent intervention is sometimes the simplest: food.
Food as medicine programs, often in concert with electronic health records (EHRs) and other data sources, are helping healthcare providers improve outcomes for patients with chronic diseases, especially diabetes.
At Pennsylvania-based Geisinger, patients using the Fresh Food Farmacy show lower A1C levels, have fewer emergency department visits and admissions, and engage more in their preventive care, says Allison Hess, vice president for health and wellness at Geisinger.
“The goal of…