Chronic Care And Preventive Services Specialist
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Southwest Family Medicine Associates
Family Medicine Physicians & Physician Assistants located in Dallas, TX
Chronic diseases can be prevented or delayed when you get routine checkups that identify signs of disease early enough to stop the problem from worsening. After chronic disease develops, you spend the rest of your life managing the disorder. The team at Southwest Family Medicine Associates provides chronic care and preventive services for diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure. Contact the office in Dallas, or schedule an appointment online for a preventive exam or a chronic care management plan.
Chronic Care and Preventive Services Q & A
What are chronic diseases?
Once chronic diseases develop, they recur and can last a lifetime. They can’t be cured with current medical options, and they cause serious health problems if they’re not properly managed. The most common chronic diseases include:
- Heart disease and heart failure
- Asthma
- Diabetes
- Arthritis
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Osteoporosis
- Thyroid disorders
- Chronic kidney disease
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Why are routine wellness exams the key to preventive services?
The team at Southwest Family Medicine Associates is devoted to helping you prevent disease — but they need your help to do that. The only way to prevent chronic disease is by coming in for a wellness examination.
Performing a wellness exam on a regular basis gives your doctor the ability to detect small changes; issues can be treated before they progress to become serious health problems. As one example, you can take steps to prevent Type 2 diabetes if a preventive exam catches the problem when your blood sugar is only slightly elevated.
What are the health benefits of SmartBeat services?
The practitioners at Southwest Family Medicine Associates offer the SmartBeat program, which is a noninvasive, full-body exam that determines your risk for heart disease, stroke, and cancer by comparing your results to decades of information collected from comparable patients. The advanced technology used by SmartBeat provides detailed information that’s used to develop a plan to prevent future health problems.
Please schedule a Premier Physical — typically, these physicals were reserved by companies for high-end executives. This physical includes blood work ahead of your visit and then a wellness exam and SmartBeat services on one day, so you do not have to take off work more than once. You can even go over your results via a telemedicine visit.
What are chronic care services?
Treatment for a chronic disease focuses on keeping a condition controlled or managed. For hypertension, that means following a long-term plan to maintain normal blood pressure. If you have diabetes, chronic care means keeping levels of blood sugar within an acceptable range.
Chronic care services at Southwest Family Medicine Associates include working with you to develop a management plan, providing the support you need to stick with the plan, and routine checkups to be sure you meet your goals.
Chronic care plans include lifestyle changes and medications, when necessary. Changes in diet often make a significant difference. In the early stages of hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease, dietary changes may be all you need to stop the condition from worsening. Weight loss and increased physical activity are also important parts of chronic care plans.
Can you manage heart failure?
You can manage heart failure. In fact, it’s essential to manage heart failure to prevent it from progressing into a life-threatening condition. Your management plan may include lifestyle changes and one of the many medications available to alleviate symptoms and make it easier for your heart to work.
Contact Southwest Family Medicine Associates today for all of your chronic care and preventive care needs.