Beyond simply taking these medications, patients need robust education about proper administration, potential side effects, and necessary lifestyle modifications to both achieve optimal results and to maintain the best long-term benefit, even if they do not continue the medication indefinitely. Integrating virtual care programs (e.g., remote monitoring, asynchronous coaching, and telemedicine) can improve access to supportive care, personalize treatment, and enhance ongoing management of obesity and comorbidities. This maximizes GLP-1 therapy benefits and improves patient outcomes.
Patient Education Needs to Meet Patients Where They Are
Despite their proven benefits, GLP-1s are also known for their unpleasant side effects. Evidence-based patient education and medical follow up can help overcome barriers to continuation on therapy due to side effects. Health coaches can address behavioral, psychological, and emotional factors that contribute to a patient’s success.
A study by the Blue Cross Blue Shield association found that 30% of patients quit taking their medication within the first month and 58% stop before achieving optimal weight loss. This is often due to unrealistic expectations about the pace of weight loss and therefore disappointment with their initial response. Patients facing socioeconomic barriers to healthcare were also more likely to quit the medication prematurely. Innovative and engaging patient education that meets patients where they are can help patients to manage side effects, ensure patients have realistic expectations, and provide engagement to keep them on the path to successful weight loss. For instance, studies have shown that text-message based health coaching and education reduces weight, waist circumference, and BMI.
RPM for Patients on GLP-1 Drives Personalized Care
Beyond patient education and coaching, providers should consider implementing a remote patient monitoring (RPM) program for their patients on GLP-1 therapies to monitor weight, blood pressure, or glucose in between in-clinic visits. Dose escalation is a standard aspect of GLP-1 therapy, with patients initially starting on a low dose and moving up as necessary. As mentioned above, many patients are frustrated by slow weight loss on the initial low dose and quit the medication before they have a chance to succeed. By enabling ongoing monitoring of weight loss (or lack thereof), providers can intervene and adjust medications for patients more quickly based on data.
Cellular-enabled scales, blood pressure cuffs, and glucometers provide a frictionless mechanism for patients to share data with their medical weight management team. Data from these devices or from a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is invaluable to the clinical team and allows them to monitor the impact of weight loss on comorbid conditions like diabetes or hypertension. As patients lose a significant percentage of their body weight, diabetes or hypertension medications may also need to be adjusted.
Lastly, a fully integrated approach to weight management will share data back to the prescribing physician via integration to the patient’s electronic medical record. Integrating data from home scales, BP cuffs, glucometers or CGMs into EHR workflows enables clinicians to track trends in glucose, weight, or blood pressure, supports timely interventions, and enhances the patient’s likelihood of success in the program. In the BCBS study, patients “who saw their doctor more often, regardless of provider specialty, were also more likely to continue with the treatment—emphasizing the need for greater care management.”
Adding evidenced-based patient education and virtual care tools is critical to optimizing success for patients on GLP-1s and delivering personalized, proactive, and preventative healthcare. The question isn’t whether this approach will become standard but how quickly it can be made available to those who need it most.
About the Author
Lucienne Marie Ide, M.D., PH.D., is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rimidi, a digital health company that supports healthcare providers in the delivery of remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management with EHR-integrated software, services, and connected devices. She brings her diverse experiences in medicine, science, venture capital and technology to bear in leading Rimidi’s strategy and vision. Motivated by the belief that we can do so much better as individuals, in industry and society, Lucie left clinical medicine to join the ranks of healthcare entrepreneurs who are trying to revolutionize an industry.
