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Weight Loss Program Wins Acclaim for St. Luke’s
December 23, 2016
Weight Loss Program Wins Acclaim for St. Luke’s
Bethlehem, PA (12/22/2016) – The New Direction Program at St. Luke’s Weight Management Center recently earned an Outstanding Achievement Award at the Robard Corp.’s 2016 New Direction Conference in Memphis.
Sagar V. Mehta, MD
Robard Corp., based in Mt. Laurel, NJ, created the New Direction program and provides healthcare professionals with comprehensive medical and non-medical obesity treatment programs, scientifically designed nutrition products.
The Outstanding Achievement Award recognized the St. Luke’s program’s exceptional performance and innovative contributions in the care and treatment of patients with obesity based on:
• Modeling itself as a true multi-disciplinary program in the mode of a defined New Direction system with all roles strongly staffed and supported.
• Patients who met evidenced-based guidelines of losing 5-10 percent Total Body Weight during a 12 week program.
• Program growth and established expansion plans after one full year as a program
• Willingness to help and assist other centers with best practices and information exchange.
Additionally, Kate Boardman, clinical dietitian and program coordinator, made a presentation at the conference on “How to Successfully Integrate a Medically Supervised Program into an Existing Surgical Program.”
“There is a current trend for surgical programs to enhance their services by adding a medical program. Centers want to offer an option for patients who do not qualify for surgery or just do not want to go that route,” Boardman said.
The New Direction Program at St Lukes Weight Management Center was also named an East Coast Regional Training Center for other New Direction programs. This distinction means St. Luke’s will provide operation assistance for current centers and will participate in new program ideas and developments. St. Luke’s also will serve as a best practice resource for other programs.