What's The Big Idea: James Maskell: The Power of Functional Medicine and Community to Transform Healthcare
“The most exciting models for health I see are happening in communities, not in healthcare ”
Today’s guest: James Maskell
His big idea: Community has the power to transform the way we think about healthcare.
With the soul of an advocate and the mind of an entrepreneur, James Maskell has spent the past decade sparking debate innovating at the cross section of functional medicine and community. To that end, he created the Functional Forum, the world’s largest integrative medicine conference with record-setting participation online and growing physician communities around the world. His organization and best selling book of the same name, Evolution of Medicine, prepares health professionals for this new era of predictive, preventive medicine.
He is also the Founder of KNEW Health, and affordable alternative to health insurance. He is an in demand speaker and impresario, being featured on TEDMED, HuffPostLive and TEDx, as well as lecturing internationally. He lives in Sacramento, CA with his wife and daughter.
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Key insights Shared:
Functional medicine is a methodology that takes a holistic approach at medicine, attempting to create health instead of treating symptoms.
With functional medicine, healthcare providers help patients understand how their diet, mental state, community and environment play a major role in their health and use this as the key towards improving.
Biggest difference between functional medicine and western medicine
Western medicine - doctor is the most important person in the room - functional medicine the patient is the most important person because they’re responsible for the transformation.
Functional medicine is the precipice of medical / biological breakthroughs that are possibly 20 years out.
Functional medicine doctors spend around 1.5 hours discussing the patient's medical history in order to create a road-map for their improved health.
The gap between health and disease is where functional medicine focuses.
With functional medicine, the patient is the most important person in the room, not the doctor. The person with decades of education and experience.
You are responsible for your own health
Functional medicine can be amazing care and it was Jame’s mission to bring it to a majority of people.
Scaling functional medicine by inviting a group of patients to speak to a doctor at the same time.
Doctors talking to a group of patients with type 2 diabetes covering how diet, stress and your environment affect your health and disease.
Group settings allowed more vulnerability among patients.
Functional / integrative medicine was not effective in a one on one setting.
Failure to make enough money with this model.
Privacy has been both an opportunity and an obstacle for Functional medicine.
Are group visits and personalized medicine at odds with each other? Possibly group medicine is the path to compound this philosophy so patients begin to consider personalized medicine.
Non-for-profit hospitals don’t equal philanthropic
Group settings can allow people to more strongly empathize, including when the setting is involving medicine.
Medicine has a challenge of sustaining its treatments in terms of running out of money or not having enough money.
US companies have challenges competing with foreign companies as they shoulder the burden of health care costs.
The third pillar for healthcare isn't the government or the free market: its community.
Healthcare doesn’t know how to create health.
The cost of chronic disease is one of the worlds most vexing problems
to learn more about James and his work:
Visit Jame’s websites to see his work:
Jame’s instagram: @mrjamesmaskell